Belly Button Religion

"There is only one church, and your membership is your belly button."

-- Stephen Gaskin

Religions, denominations, sects and splinter groups are all unnecessary divisions and demarcations. They delineate between the in group and the out group, between us and them, between the saved and the damned, and in so doing forget the first and foremost truth of existence -- we are all One in our humanity, One in the Spirit.

If I were ever to start a church everyone alive would automatically be a member. You wouldn't have to join, and even if you chose to opt out of membership, we would still treat you as one of us because we would recognize no "them."

Religion as it is normally practiced is very egotistical and adolescent. It is little more than a gaggle of cliques each touting their own superiority and not-so-subtly dissing the others. And because religion pits people against people and neighbors against neighbors, it promotes divisiveness, intolerance and war. I'm no atheist, at least in the scientific reductionist sense, but I can't see clear to join any religion, that thinks man made beliefs are more important than the unity of Spirit.

Even Stevie Wonder can see that we're all in this together. That's the bottom, and the top, line. One humanity, one family, one Spirit. So, just for today, blur the lines of demarcation between you and everyone else. Release whatever beliefs you may harbor that separate you from those around you, and from those around the world. In all encounters that you have today, treat others as your brethren, as coequal inhabitants of planet Earth, each a unique manifestation of the Spirit made flesh, and each sporting the sacred belly button to prove it!