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I believe that an individual should think independently and without undue influence. It’s necessary to question the doctrines of your religious and political affliations to define what is true for you. The primary difference I see between the ideologies of Spiritualism and Christianity is the one that deals with the vicarious atonement. The Christian religion has as their central theme the idea that Jesus died on the cross, to redeem God’s disobedient and unrepentant people from their sinful ways. Christians are taught that by accepting Jesus Christ as their personal savior, God forgives their sin and welcomes them into heaven. Jesus is the symbolic sacrificial lamb. At least this is how many religious leaders choose to interpret the Bible. Perhaps he could more accurately be described as a scape goat. As I stated, vicarious atonement is at the heart of the Christian religion, which puts it, somewhat at odds with Spiritualism. I admit I have a problem with vicarious atonement that I would keep even if I were not a Spiritualist. The idea of having another person take responsibility for your actions is inherently wrong. We should not ask someone to stand in our place and suffer the consequences of our actions. That is irresponsible for many reasons. Punishing one person for what another did is a gross miscarriage of justice. God would not allow such a thing, especially since God does not judge our behavior. God has left us to face the consequences of our poor behavior toward one another. This has to do with natural law such as cause and effect. There is no way for us to blame others for our wrongdoings. Nor would we want to. We are here to learn. I believe that statement is in agreement with the teachings of Spiritualism. If we allow another individual to assume responsibility for our misconduct, the only thing we will take away from the experience is that we got away with it. For that reason, we will have learned nothing. This is significant in that those who choose to allow Jesus to remove their “sins,” are deceiving themselves. We think we are getting absolved of our wrongdoings by getting a free ticket to heaven. In truth, our experiences never leave us. At some point, we will have to deal with the guilt and regret we have accumulated in our subconscious as a result of our offenses. No one gets away with anything in life. We are all required to take responsibility for our actions. There is no “get out of jail free” card. I want to point out that it is wrong to take responsibility for another person’s bad behavior. By doing this, we are taking away that person’s opportunity to grow in spirit. The outcome of learning is personal growth. If nothing is learned, no growth will occur. Covering for another person is doing them an injustice. It’s deprives them of growth. That is a terrible thing to do to a fellow human. People need to make their choices and account for them. One philosophy stemming from the law of attraction craze states that we are responsible for everything we create. If that is the case, then we must acknowledge responsibility for our creations. By doing so, we position ourselves to accept a higher level of understanding that would not be available to us otherwise. Next time someone says, “Did you know Jesus died for our sin?”, tell him or her, “Well he shouldn’t have. It’s time for people to start taking responsibility for themselves.”
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