wPractical Truth
Let's take a practical look at some ancient truths and some contemporary discoveries and examine the relationships. This is my CyberSpace Ministry. You are welcome to pause, consider, grow, and give thanks.


wArchives:


-- HOME --



This page is powered by Blogger. Why isn't yours?
wSunday, February 01, 2004


“LETTER FROM THE EDGE”

Dear friends,

I have a confession to make. I have not been devoting the amount of time and effort that I feel is necessary to my presence in CyberSpace. There’s not a real excuse. It’s just that time and circumstances somehow take their toll in turning our heads away from that which we would prefer to have as the focus of our lives and our actions. As I stated at the outset of my Internet presence a half dozen years ago, I see the web as a marvelous way of connecting with untold numbers of fellow beings worldwide and to share in perspectives which could alter individual consciousness, and, in turn, the consciousness of the entire planet. So once again I am redoubling my commitment to continuing with that action.

I formally became a minister seven and a half years ago because I had been ministering to people in various ways all of my life and it was time that I laid claim to the title. I started out entertaining people as a small child because my father was a freelance entertainer. So I sang on radio and television and in stage shows. My goal as a child was to “be a star of stage, screen, radio and television.” I loved what music could do to brighten the lives of others, and because my father entertained in a lot of nightclubs I was aware of the pain that many people feel in their lives and the lengths that they will go to in an effort to ease that pain, if only for a little while. My father ministered to those needs through his music.

By my preteens, my mother was already moving into the process to make formal ministry her profession. My involvement in the church, in a connection that began when I was a wee bit of a lad, continued to play an increasing role in my life. By 14 I was involved in the church teen group known as Youth of Unity (Y.O.U.) and continued growing in my commitment to that involvement, resulting in my election as President of the International Y.O.U. and my moving to Unity School of Christianity at Unity Village, Missouri to work at age 19.

When the draft crept up on me the following year, I enlisted in the Navy for four years, although at the end of the third year I requested a discharge as a Conscientious Objector. The Navy officially declared me to be a CO and I completed my four-year enlistment in non-combatant duty. My release was followed by several months of depression over not knowing what to do with my life before I found an avenue out of my depressive morass through writing for what was, in those days, known as an underground newspaper called the “Razzberry Radicle.” I eventually became the publisher of the paper while still keeping occasionally, though frequently, active in the church by speaking, teaching, counseling, performing funerals, and doing various administrative and maintenance jobs.

Looking for more growth, I eventually moved out into the “real world” by getting a “job” at a division of General Motors, where I became involved in working with computers, a field that has been a pleasure for over a quarter of a century. Now, however, almost 30 years and countless “jobs” later (I quit counting after 50), I have tired of that endeavor. Actually, I tired of it a long time ago, but have had difficulty finding a way out of the financial aspects of what’s sometimes called the “rat race.”

Over the years I have developed a growing, evolving view of the social, financial, spiritual, and cultural reality that we human beings have created and, at times, I have been outspoken in my beliefs. This, I learned, did not bode well with some people. A few folks resented what I had to say, misinterpreting it to mean that I was looking for a “free ride.” But I assure you that there has been nothing free about this ride. Although I may pay in different terms than many others, the payments are, nevertheless, often severe. In fact, I’m in a sort of double jeopardy since I also still have to “pay,” like everyone else, the price of the so-called “normal” world out there.

All of this wealth of experience has created the foundation for the book that I am presently writing entitled, “Millennium Paradigm” (http://millenniumparadigm.blogspot.com/). And although the intentioned content of that book is quite vast in its ramifications, it should not be considered as representing “all that I am about.” Actually, “MP” is but another expression of my ministry, although more secular. I cannot escape the obvious reality that spiritual realization and scientific awareness are involved in an increasingly harmonious dance together that is rapidly sweeping us into a future of largely heretofore-unimagined possibilities.

I feel that what I have to share is often uniquely original and profound, and have had that belief reinforced by the response of others countless times over the past several decades. However, as time goes on, I find that I appear to have less and less time to do what I feel is more and more important. The work that I have done while working nights at UPS during the past year is often very grueling, though, as a result, I’m in better physical shape now than I have been in for a long time. However, it is taking a toll on my ability to find the time to complete what I feel to be more important tasks. I believe that if you take the time to listen to, or to read, what I have to share, you’ll agree that it, and its continued growth and unfoldment, are more than worthy of support.

A few years ago I began following the online exploits of Christopher Locke, AKA RageBoy (be careful if you decide to check out his blog for it sometimes contains nudity and content that some people find offensive; personally I just ignore what might be offensive. Chris refers regularly to sexuality in many different forms and expressions, and if you don’t think you can or want to deal with that, then do yourself a favor and Keep Out! You have been forewarned!). I was amazed when, periodically, Chris would become abusive toward his readers in his eletters and website articles and people would respond to him by sending him money. Apparently, at times, they would even send large sums of money. The guy is a self-proclaimed narcissist and substance juggler with an occasionally bent perspective (especially since he got dumped by his girlfriend a year or so ago), and he can generate more money on the web than I do spouting my sensible perspectives upon both outrageous and mundane topics. It just seems to me that something is wrong with that picture. I’m going to write more about the reasons for his reader response at a later date. But this is not the approach that I wish to take, though the reported results are tempting.

A year ago I wrote an eletter to the original 600 people on my email list (now over 1,000) expressing the need for more financial support for what I am doing in my ministry and other endeavors in CyberSpace. The total response left a lot to be desired. Some people might not like people "asking for money" and other forms of support on the Internet, but in the rest of our reality we are so inundated by people's attempts to get us to "buy" whatever it is that they are selling, tangible or otherwise, that we have become conditioned to respond only when asked, or otherwise cajoled, to do so. Therefore, let me help you look at this idea of giving support to Practical Truth Ministry in a number of different ways.

First, the religious way. Most of us grew up in an associated way with some sort of religious beliefs. Living here in the southern United States, I am constantly astounded at the huge edifices that have been erected in the name of religion. I hear that there’s even a church here in Atlanta that has a food court and another one that has an in-house mini-mall of stores and boutiques. Millions and millions of dollars are given every year in this city alone for the brick and mortar for temples to a God and to the man who represented that God in a ministry 2,000 years ago, and yet these temples are in direct contradiction to the teachings of the man from Galilee. Next to these huge religious buildings and the distorted message that many of them teach in the name of Jesus, what I ask financially seems such a pittance. And I’m teaching the true temple that is within, rather than a temple made of stone. Please understand: I’m not opposed to people coming together and pooling their resources to create a place for that coming together; I merely object to the fact that often the place becomes more important than the reason for the place.

Churches often organize their financial support through use of techniques and programs inducing fear, shame, and a manufactured sense of obligation. Marketing is key to their financial soundness as sure as it is to the other business ventures in our society. One need only view the marketing behind Mel Gibson’s latest film “The Passion of Christ” to see what I am talking about. I recently brought the importance of increased marketing to the attention of a group of fellow ministers and several of them acted offended that I should even suggest such a thing. For whatever reasons, marketing is not that desirable a means of soliciting support, even though it’s almost necessary in light of the conditioning that our society and culture has placed upon us. We all do our own bit of marketing every day. It’s just that the concept has left a bitter taste in the mouth due to the way than many in our society have distorted the process through product advertising.

Marketing is something that I have had to work at developing over the years. I would much prefer to just do what I do and rely upon those who are the recipients of my services to render financial support in response to these efforts, but that doesn’t work very well. If you doubt that, just look in your checkbook and see when the last time is that you wrote a check to help support this work.

Several years ago my wife and I attended a seminar here in town where we participated in something called “The Money Game.” Each attendee was given a sum of play money and then we were to “sell” products and services that we could actually provide in real life to the other players. The game went on for hours, with all kinds of changes in the rules and I’ll write more about that at some other time. My point, my aha, here is that early on in the game I stepped outside the box by giving all of my money to my “business partner” in the game. During the last 15 minutes of play, however, I began going around to the other players and hitting them up for a “tithe.” I was amazed how easy it was to get money that way; how conditioned people were to give to the calling of the “church”. Given another 15 minutes I might well have “won” the game (the winner of “The Money Game” was, obviously, the one with the most money). People were so conditioned to believing that they had to give to “the church” that I, as an ordained representative of “church,” was easily able to generate large amounts of money very quickly by tapping into that conditioning.

So now I’m appealing to you. In Unity I learned that we should give to the source(s) of our good, spiritual and otherwise. If you are enlightened, encouraged, challenged, or inspired by what I have to share, please help to complete the circle of the flow of universal energy by lending your support to Practical Truth Ministries. A check to “Rev. Charles DeTurk” or an offering through Paypal to revdeturk@earthlink.net will be appreciated.

Second, the addictive way. Addiction is doing the same thing over and over again without a sense of control over the action. This is not to imply that our “sense” is totally responsible for our addictive behavior. Having previously been a smoker for a quarter of a century, I personally understand the physical origins and aspects of addiction. However, by definition, addiction goes beyond just the habitual use of various substances to include habitual actions themselves. If memory serves me well, I once wrote an article for the “Razzberry Radicle” entitled “An Addict In The Promised Land.” Well, anyway, because we’re all “creatures of habit” we can stretch that out to imply that we are all, therefore, in one respect or another, addicts. So we could be shoppers or gamblers or compulsive eaters or any variety of habitual consumers, but the bottom line is that we all have our “addictions” and quite often those addictions encompass the use of money.

So, if our appeal to your “religious” conditioning didn’t inspire you, then try this approach. The chief requirement for breaking the addictive cycle is to change the pattern. We can do that the hard way by trying to change the “actions” of addiction, but that’s like fighting our way upstream on a fast moving river. We have pointed out before that the universe flows from being to doing to having. So if we go along with the “flow of the universe,” then we begin with changing who we are. We begin by changing our attitudes, our perspectives, our beliefs, our expectations, and our sense of who we are. And that’s what I am here for, to help facilitate that change in people all over the world through sharing new ideas and perspectives. See, habit and addiction are thinking and feeling and doing the same thing over and over. But that cycle can be broken if we think, feel, or do something different. That’s the beginning. And it’s really that simple. Each day we start over by thinking, feeling, and doing something outside of the habitual cycle.

One of the things that we can “do” to begin cracking the addictive cycles is to redirect some of the money that's involved in supporting the addictive cycle. Instead of buying that next pack of cigarettes, or that next drink, or that next dish of ice cream, or that pair of shoes, or that extra lottery ticket (you only need one to win, not 10), or whatever gobbles up your bucks, take that money and send it to us to encourage us to continue encouraging you and others to bring about the changes we all desire in our lives. You can do it right now. Send that check (made out to Rev. Charles DeTurk) right now or go to Paypal and send money to revdeturk@earthlink.net right now. The sooner you do, the less money you’ll have to feed the addictive cycle.

Third, the guilt way. Although guilt is often a powerful part of the addictive process and is often instilled through religious conditioning, it also deserves a niche of its own. We all feel some guilt about something; some sense that we have not done as much as we could have, a feeling that we haven’t measured up, often to someone else’s expectations. With that sense of guilt we find ourselves looking for ways to “pay back” what we feel we owe that is the source of our feelings of guilt. So, if you’re into buying your way out of some of your feelings of guilt, send some money our way, let us know that it’s to assuage some of your guilt and we’ll respond with a personal email in which we’ll help to relieve some of those feelings of guilt. So, get a sense of relief from your burden of not feeling “good enough” by doing a good deed that will help to bless countless people all over the world. Send that check (made out to Rev. Charles DeTurk) today or go to Paypal and send money to revdeturk@earthlink.net .

Fourth, the commitment way. We are fully cognizant that the society in which we live in this new millennium is one in which millions and millions of people are so strapped financially that they are just doing whatever they can to make ends meet, to merely keep their heads above water. Although when we are conducting a yard sale we relish taking a person’s last penny, this is no yard sale that we are doing here. If you just can see no way that you can help to financially support us in your current situation, there are still a couple of things that you can do. One is to make a commitment to do something when you can at some future time. It’s amazing how merely openly committing to something can help to plant the seed to bringing it to fruition. Send us an email to practicaltruth@yahoo.com and commit to lending support in the future. Be specific about what you intend to do. While you are at it, let us know what you like about what we are doing. You can even offer criticism if that is your thing, though if it is not constructive criticism, realize that we have a “delete” key and we will use it without a second thought. We really don’t have time to waste with people who merely wish to criticize (sometime we’ll do a more detailed posting on that topic). If that’s your thing, so be it; but it does nothing for us, so we refuse to waste our time by even responding. There are people whom I have seen out there on the net who declare their “right” to say whatever they choose, whenever they choose, and wherever they choose. We, in turn, declare our right to ignore them.

A fifth way is networking. One of the tremendously incredible powers of the Internet is how it allows us to rapidly create networks with people all over this spaceship called Earth. We contribute to that through our weblog Welcome To Web World and through our website Surf City containing thousands of links to places all over the Net. We also do it by keeping an eye open for email addresses of people who might be interested in what we are doing here in CyberSpace. You can assist us in that endeavor. Turn your friends and acquaintances on to what we are doing. Share our website and weblog addresses and email addresses with them freely. To get an up-to-date listing of our URL addresses, go to our 2/1/4 entry at our “Still after all these years …..” weblog. Either direct them to it or cut and paste it into your email. Hey, come on folks; let’s get excited out there. We’ve got plenty of stuff out there to keep people real busy until we do our next postings.

A sixth way is the six degrees concept. I’m sure you’ve all heard of the “six degrees of separation.” If this is new to you, the basic idea is that everyone knows someone who knows someone, etc. so that we’re all just six “know someones” away from everyone else in the world. There are just six levels, or relationships, or connections, or degrees of separation between each of us and anyone else anywhere on the entire planet. Think about it. Who all do you know? And who all do they know? How often do things happen in our lives because of who we know or who who we know knows (that was a mouthful; say it fast six times).

We have many people that we would love to have on our email list. Here are a few of them:

Peter Allen
Bono
Kevin Costner
Delai Lama
Bob Dylan
Jane Fonda
Steve Forbes
Bill Gates
Melinda Gates
Bob Geldof
William Gibson
Elton John
Gladys Knight
Nelson Mandella
Willie Nelson
Paul Newman
Jack Nicholson
Robert Redford
Carlos Santana
George Soros
Bruce Sterling
Sting
Barbra Streisand
Elizabeth Taylor
John Templeton
Ted Turner
Dionne Warwick
Oprah Winfrey
Stevie Wonder
Neil Young
to name a few.

Come on folks; help put out the word. Share what you know with others. Tell them about us. Don’t prejudge whether or not they’ll be interested. You don’t really know how a single one of those friends and acquaintances of yours will respond to what we’re doing. Some of them will surprise you. But they can only surprise you if given the chance.

A seventh way to lend support is through donating items other than cash. Specifically for those in the northern Georgia (USA) area, we are looking for a set of reliable wheels and the reasonable financing to accompany it. We are looking for a truck or van for $1,000 or less to allow us to pick up items from friends periodically and sell them in a yard sale. We’re also interested in an automobile with payments @ $200/mo or less. Because we supplement what we are doing with occasional yard sales, we also accept furniture and other donated items that we can turn around and sell of often needy folks at a steal of a deal.

An eighth way for those in the greater Atlanta area to lend support would be through part-time work, preferably in the morning. I have been promoted to part-time supervisor at UPS and have shifted my hours to 4-9 pm. I’ve done painting, yard work, computer consulting (I’m very good at introducing people to the internet and how to more easily access this incredible tool), administrative support, and much more. Call and present your offer. I’m open and I’m honest. If I don’t believe that I could or should do it, I’ll tell you. Just keep in mind that I’m interested in working to make money, not to donate my time for token cash. I already do enough of that through these web endeavors.

A ninth way of supporting this ministry is by referring us to your family or friends for services. We do beautiful weddings, funerals, unions, and other ceremonies. Just have them call us at 700-432-8791 or drop us an email at revdeturk@yahoo.com and we’ll be glad to work with them.

And, finally, a tenth way to render support for this ministry is to help book us to speak to your church or group. I do Sunday Worship Services, Workshops, and Classes. Financially our terms are expenses and your usual compensation. Again, drop us an email. CyberSpace is nice but we love the one-on-one, also. If you wonder about what I teach, just check out the Practical Truth blog or our new Sunday Morning Talk blog.

Bucky Fuller once told me that every event has a minimum of six viewpoints. Here, I’ve presented 10 viewpoints on how to lend support for this ministry. In reality there are a minimum of 12 viewpoints, or perspectives, for the six Bucky mentioned are just the physical. However those six are mirrored by an additional 6 metaphysical viewpoints. So we’ve left things open here with a few perspectives that you can discover for yourself, if you choose. I can think of a couple immediately to round out the minimum 12, but I’ll keep those to myself and leave the challenge with you.

A final note here: we are also looking long-term for some big, heavy hitter, contributors. We have a project that we would like to initiate that will require about $55 million. I know that figure will cause some of you to gasp out there. But hang in there with us. We learned how to change our own expectations and perspectives and we can help you and others to do the same. In fact, that’s one of the things that this “Millennium Paradigm Project” is about. So, spread the word. Do it now. Do it today. Do it while it’s fresh. Do it while you can. Do it again and again.

Whatever you think, say, or do, you have our sincerest blessings, for we behold that God-created and ordained perfection that is your potential, your direction, and your ultimate destination. Now go out and share hugs and smiles with your fellow beings. This life that we are living is truly marvelous and wonderful if we will just open our eyes, minds, and hearts and let the universe flow through our consciousness.

I love you all and am grateful for whatever you can do to help support this ministry.

--Rev. Charles

posted by Charles DeTurk at 12:01 AM