The Church In The Second Century Part 2

The Church In The Second Century Part 2

By: Bob Gersztyn

CHAPTER III

CHURCH PERSONALITIES

The dominant personalities of the second century Church can be broken down into two categories, that of the apologists and that of the theologians. Each of the two groups have an important function. However, it should also be noted that in certain cases individuals function in both categories simultaneously: e.g. Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Origen. The apologist formed the same relationship to the paganism, the mystery cults, and the philosophical schools as the theologians did to the heresies which were cropping up within the Church.

According to Paul Tillich, “The apologetic movement can rightly be called the birthplace of a developed Christian theology.” 1 The term apology in relation to theology comes from the Greek word ‘apologia’ which means to make a defense for or answer to.2 The purpose of the apologist was to make a defense for Christianity as a lawyer would defend his client in court. We have historical records of fifteen apologists in both extant and fragmentary form. The apologists all lived within the second and third centuries.
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1. Paul Tillich, A History of Christian Thought. Edited by Carl E. Braaton (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1967), Pg. 24.
2. W. E. Vine, An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1966), Pgs. 61 & 285.

By the second century few apologists bothered to devote “much attention to the Jews and Judaism. By the time that they wrote, the separation of the Christian community form Judaism was almost complete and Christians were being drawn primarily form paganism.”1

 

Since their audience was primarily pagan, they devoted themselves to pagan issues such as “the follies and inconsistencies in polytheistic worship . . .” and “They pointed out the normal weaknesses of some of the leading philosophers.”2 They did not give that much time to the mystery religions, but when they did speak of them it was negative.

There are two points in the apologists’ teachings which because of their far reaching importance must be heavily underlined, viz. (a) that for all of them of the description ‘God the Father’ connoted, not the first person of the Holy Trinity, but the one Godhead considered as author of whatever exists; and (b) that they all, Athanagorus included, dated the generation of the Logos, and so his eligibility for the title of ‘son’, not from origination within the being of the Godhead, but from his emission of putting forth for the purpose of creation, revelation and redemption.3

Some of the leading second century personalities who functioned either as apologists or theologians or both were Aristedes, Athanagorus, Justin Martyr, Tatian, Theophilus of Antioch, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Origen.

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1. Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of Christianity, Vol. I: Beginnings to 1500 (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1953). Pg. 83.
2. Ibid.
3. J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines (San Fransisco: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1960), Pg. 100.

Aristedes was an Athenian philosopher who was converted in the beginning of the second century. He wrote an apologetic letter to the emperor Antonius Pius (A.D. 138-161). This work was lost until 1889 when it was discovered in a monastery in Mount Sinai by a professor named Harris. Aristedes’ letter is a classic example of how secular thought infiltrated Christianity in the fact that his letter begins

“… with an outline demonstration of God’s existence based on Aristotle’s argument form motion. The consideration of the order and beauty of the universe induced in him to believe in a Supreme being who was the prime mover and who remaining himself invisible dwelt in his creation. The fact that there was a cosmos demanded a divine craftsman to organize it. Sovereign and lord, He has created everything for man; reality came to be out of nothing at the Behest of him who is incorruptible, unchanging and invisible. He himself is uncreated, without beginning or end; he has no form, no limits, no sex. The heavens do not contain him (here we detect a criticism of stoic pantheism, with its identification of God with the world); on the contrary, he contains them, as He contains everything visible and invisible. Hence, Christians acknowledge God as creator and demiurge of all things . . . and apart from Him worship no other God.”1 His apology compares Christianity to pagan religion, and is one of the best sources of differences and similarities in doctrine and ritual between the two.

 

Athenagorus was another Athenian. He wrote an apologetic work entitled “A Plea for the Christians,” and addressed in A.D. 177 to Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. It was reminiscent of Justin Martyr’s works in its liberal character. In his apology, he defends Christianity against the widespread charges of immorality which the ancient world accused it of. In fact, he stated that ones who made these charges,

“were themselves sodomites and adulterers, but that Christians believed in treating their neighbors as themselves and, since they were convinced that in a future life they must give an account to God of their deeds here, adopted a temperate and benevolent manner of life, when struck did not strike in return, and robbed did not go to law.”1

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1. J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines (San Fransico: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1960), Pg. 84.

His writing in general reveals that “The Deity is unoriginate and eternal,”2 that the word of God is his son, but not in a human sense, since “ God from the beginning being eternal intelligence, had his word (logou) in Himself, being eternally rational (aidios logikos).”3 He was a trinitarian and believed that the Spirit inspired the prophets. He believed that man had a free will and was responsible for his actions, and that there will be a final resurrection and a future life where both the body and soul participate.

Justin Martyr was born either at the end of the first century, or the beginning of the second century A.D. He was born in Neapolis, in Samaria of northern Palestine, at that time a province of Rome. His family was Greek in origin and had colonized in Palestine sometime earlier. As far as record indicate, Justin was the first trained philosopher to defect to Christianity. His conversion took place around A.D. 132. 4
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1. Kenneth Scott Latourette, A history of the Expansion of Christianity, Vol. I: The First Five Centuries (Grand rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1937), Pg. 125.
2. J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines (San FransicoL Harper & Row, Publishers, 1960), Pg. 85.
3. Ibid., Pg. 100.
4. Justin Martyr, Marcus Aurelius and His Times: Apology (Roslyn, New York: Walter J, Black, Inc., 1945), Pg. 244.

Prior to his conversion, Justin investigated the Stoics, the Aristotelians, and the Pythagoreans. However, in the end he became a Platonist. “The influence of Plato, however, and of Justin’s Greek philosophic training shows in all his writings as a Christian, and he is eager to point out the concepts they have in common, such as the creation of the world by God, and the immortality of the soul.”1

Justin felt that all of the noble principles found in Greek philosophers, dramatists, and even Homer, could also be found in the pre-dated Hebrew Scriptures. In order to arrive at this conclusion, Justin had a concept of the Logos that bridged the gap between the Hebrew and Greek cultures. The logos principle was referred to by the early Greek philosophers, and was developed as an important part of Plato’s philosophy. The Apostle John used this word to refer to the pre-incarnate form of Christ in his Gospel; and Justin further expounded upon the term in his first apology.

“We are taught that Christ is the first-born of God, and we have told you already that he is a the Word of whom every race of men partakes; and that those who lived by their reasons were Christians, even though they might be called Atheists. Such men among the Greeks were Socrates and Heraclitus, and others like them; and among the barbarians, Abraham, Ananias, Azarius, Misael, Elias . . .”2

In the above quote it can be seen that Justin made a comparison of Socrates to Abraham and that he believed that God gave all men glimpses of truth regardless of ethnicity. However, he also stated that with the birth of Christ, the incarnate word, all the previous philosophies were culminated, and that now Christianity is the “true philosophy” 3.
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1. Justin Martyr, Marcus Aurelius and His Times: Apology (Roslyn, New York: Walter J. Black, Inc., 1945), Pg. 245.
2. Ibid., Pg. 282.
3. Ibid.

While all others were merely foreshadows of it. Truth is truth, argued Justin, regardless of its source. Justin had the most developed theology of the effect of Christ’s incarnation of any of the other apologists, Justin was martyred in Rome during the time of emperor Marcus Aurelius by decapatation.1

Tatian was a pupil of Justin Martyr. His original home was Mesopotamia. He further developed Justin’s teachings of the logos, although in his doing so he “gave Justin’s thesis a violently anti-Hellenic and polemical edge that would have distressed Justin.” 2

Tatian believed that before creation, God was alone, although the Logos was lying dormant in him, much in the same way that the potentiality for our words lie within us until we use them. In the same way he also believed that when the world was brought into existence that is was just as much a part of the Father as our words are a part of us, yet at the same time that word took nothing away from the Father when it was spoken forth.. Tatian was an early Trinitarian as was Justin, although neither explicitly taught the doctrine; but rather it could be derived from their writings by their references God, the Logos, and the Spirit.

“According to Tatian, the Spirit of God is not present in all but He comes down upon some who live justly, unites Himself with their souls, and by His predictions announced the hidden future of other souls.” 3

He also believed, like Justin, that man had a free will and was in a fallen state requiring salvation to bring him back into union with God.
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1. J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines (San Fransico: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1960), Pgs. 168, 169.
2. Henry Chadwick, The Early Church (London: Penguin Books Ltd., 1967), Pg. 79.
3. J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines ( San Fransico: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1960) Pg. 102.

 

Theopolis, Bishop of Antioch, was another second century apologist. In A.D. 180 he wrote a letter defending Christianity addressed to an individual by the name of Autolycus.1 In this letter, which was of a rambling nature, he “traces his conversion to a perusal of the scriptures and to fulfillment of their prophecies.”2 Theopolis became the first apologist to use the term ‘triad’ in a relation to the Godhead. He drew a parallel between the three days preceding the creation of the sun and moon, and the Godhead, stating that they,

“’were types of the triad, that is, of god and of His Word and of His Wisdom . . .’ He envisaged God as having His Word and His Wisdom eternally in Himself, and generating Them for the purpose of creation; and he was also clear that when God put them forth, He did not empty Himself of Them, but ‘is forever conversing with His Word.”3

Theoplis, as Tatian, believed that man was not created good, evil, mortal, or immortal, but with the capacity to become either. In his fall, Adam lost the guidance of the Spirit, and was now subject to demonic attacks.
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1. Henry Chadwick, The Early Church (London: Penguin Books Ltd., 1967),Pg.79.
2. Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of the Expansion of Christianity, Vol. I: The First Five Centuries (Grand Rapids, Mich., Zondervan Publishing House, 1937), Pg. 120.
3. J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines ( San Fransisco: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1960), Pgs. 102 &104.

Clement of Alexandria was the first great teacher of the Cathetical school in Alexandria, Egypt. His exact dates of birth and death are unknown. Clement led the school during the last two decades of the second century, and left it in A.D. 203 due to the persecution under the Emperor Septimus Severus.

Clement, like Justin Martyr, was very sympathetic towards Greek philosophy.

“He contended that the philosophy of the Greeks was a preparation for the Gospel, to those who were familiar with it paving the way for perfection in Christ. He held that God is the source of all good things, of philosophy as the old and New Testaments. Indeed he held that the Greek philosophers had learned much from Moses.”1

Paul Tillich stated that “Clement’s thought is a great example of a synthesis of Christian thinking and Greek philosophy.”2 Clement is best known in modern times by his writings, especially three surviving works entitled “The Exhortation to Conversion (Protrepticus), The Tutor (Paedagogus), and The Miscellanies (Stromateis) which he never completed.”3 From these works it is possible to construct a picture of Clement’s theology. This picture is extremely important since it entails the subject matter which was taught at the second century’s most influential center of Christian theology.
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1. Kenneth Scott Latorette, A History of Christianity, Vol.I: Beginnings to 1500 ( New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1953), Pg. 148.
2. Paul Tillich, A History of Christian Thought, Edited by Carl E. Braaton, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1967), Pg. 56.
3. Henry Chadwick, The Early Church (London: Penguin Books Ltd, 1067), Pg. 94.

As it was before mentioned, the purpose of organizing the Church and its doctrine was to combat corruption of the original teachings of Jesus and the apostles, or at least what the consensus of the Catholic church was. However, Clement was an objective scholar who understood that even heresies contained some amount of truth in order to survive. Therefore, although Clement opposed the Gnostic heresy, he believed in a true gnosis (knowledge), that of the Gospel which required faith in order to enact salvation.

Clement was a moderate who opposed the asceticism, which was gaining in popularity in the Christian circles at that time. He felt that each individual must determine his or her position regarding such things as dietary habits and alcoholic consumption; however, he opposed hedonism. Henry Chadwick, an English historian who wrote on the early church states that “the central principle of Clements thinking is the doctrine of creation. This is the ground of redemption.”1 Another important aspect of Clement’s theology could be found in his teachings on the relationship of Jesus to God. “Clement taught that God is one and that the word or logos always existed as the ‘face’ of God, and in Jesus was made flesh and shed His blood to save humanity.”2 Clement felt that the Logos, translated as Word or reason,

“prepared the Jews by the law, and the Greeks by their Philosophy. He has prepared all nations in some way. The Logos is never absent from people.”3
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1. Henry Chadwick, The Early Church (London: Penguin Books Ltd., 1967) Pg. 97.
2. Kenneth Scott Latourette, Christianity Through he Ages (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1960), Pg. 49.
3. Paul Tillich, A History of Christian Thought. Edited by Carl E. Braaton (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1967), Pg. 55.

Clement’s principal writings were done as a layman, while he supported himself as a independent teacher. There is some evidence that he was an ordained presbyter in the church prior to his death. However, this was most probably as a part of an effort to try and regulate independent teachers like Clement by the Catholic Church.

The second century marked the beginning of what later became a schism within the Catholic Church. The two factions of this division are known today as the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. The pioneers of the Eastern theological views were Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen. The first clearly Western theologian was Quintus Septimius Tertullianus.

Tertullian was born in Carthage in A.D. 160. He was the son of a Roman Centurion, and was trained to be a lawyer by profession. When at middle age, he became a convert to Christianity. He used all his talents in the defense and development of a Christian theology. Prior to him, only Greek had been used in theological writings. Although he was proficient at Greek, he chose to be the first major theologian to use Latin in his writings. The reason for this lies in the fact that by the end of the second century and the beginning of the third, upper class Rome was being reached by Christianity. There now was a need for Latin to be used to make Christianity more personal to the aristocracy.1
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1. Kenneth J. Pratt, Lecture Notes From The Early Middle Ages (California State University at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Calif., Fall Quarter, 1979).

This adoption of Latin had two ramifications. First, as the western church adopted Latin, the Eastern church held onto Greek which eventually led to theological language differences. Second, as Latin was adopted by the Roman Catholic Church, and as the Roman Catholic Church exerted its influence on Western Culture, Latin became the primary language in place of Greek even for the lower classes.1 In his early days he relied on the Stoic philosophy for many of his reasoning’s and arguments for Christianity. However, in his later years he rejected all philosophy as being false and demonic. He especially attacked Plato.

Tertullian was an intense extremist. In his early life prior to his conversion, he gave himself wholly to pagan pleasures, so it was only natural for him to likewise give himself to Christianity. Since he saw life as a struggle between the forces of good and evil, with the Empire representing all that was evil, he condemned any participation in the system from civil service to attending games. He became an ascetic puritanist. His theological writings had a great deal of influence on the Catholic Church. Kenneth Latourette states that –

“His view of the trinity proved highly influential in Catholic thought. He believed that God is one in His substantia, or substance, but that in God are three personae (a Latin legal term), Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He held that in Jesus Christ, one of the personae, the Word (Greek Logos) was incarnate, that Jesus was both divine and human, but that the two natures did not fuse.”2

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1. In the late Fourth & early Fifth Centuries Jerome translated the Bible from its original tongues into Latin. It was called the Vulgate, since it was the vulgar or common language of that time., Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of Chrstianity, Vol. I: Beginnings to 1500 (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers 1953), Pgs. 132, 133.
2. Ibid., Christianity Through the Ages (New York: Harper & Row, Publsihers, 1960), Pg. 49.

His greatest joy was in supporting some minority cause, which is what Christianity was in the Empire, at that time. However, this later led to his leaving the Catholic Church. He supported the Montanist movement, which was both extremely puritanical and ascetic. He denounced the Catholic Church as being too worldly, “and embraced Montanism as a more outright application of the teachings of Christ.”1

The last influential figure within the Church mentioned in this paper is Origenes Adamantius (Origen). He did not become influential until A.D. 203 as Clement’s successor as the head of the cathetical school in Alexandria. However, his importance to the second century is because of the fact that he organized and categorized all the theological developments that had occurred previous to his ascension. He is considered by some to be the Church’s greatest theologian.

Origen was intense in his Christianity like Tertullian. However, being an Alexandrian he reconciled Greek philosophy with Christianity. Origen’s father was executed as a Christian during the persecution under Septimius Severus; and he was only prevented from joining his father by the fact that his mother hid his clothes. It is said he wrote as many as Six-Thousand books, including tracts.2 He was considered the father of Christian allegorism, just as Philo was of Hebrew.
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1. Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. III: Caesar and Christ (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1944), 3:613.
2. Ibid., 3:615.

Although Origen was considered one of the Church’s greatest theologians, it did not save him from eventual condemnation by the Church as a heretic. The reason for this condemnation was due to the fact that he applied his method of allegorical interpretation to every area of scripture; and the case of eschatology, it culminated in what was termed the doctrine of ‘the restitution of all things.’ In this doctrine he spiritualized the second coming of Christ to be that of individual spiritual experiences, Hell as the sinners misery here on Earth, and finally that “at the end everyone and everything will become spiritualized; the bodily existence will vanish.”1 Origen even found that Satan himself could be saved. This interpretation was partially motivated by his attempt to reconcile Greek philosophy with Christianity, and “because freedom is never cancelled out, there is the possibility that the whole process could start over again.”2
Although Origen was an Allegorist, he for the purpose of maintaining his Christian purity committed an act that even the Ascetic literalists did not perform. Based on Matthew 5:27-30, in which Jesus told his disciples to remove a body part if it caused them to stumble, Origen castrated himself. He died in the year A.D. 253. This was only three years after he was tortured by being stretched on the rack during the persecution under the emperor Decius at the age of sixty-eight. 3
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1. Paul Tillich, Ahistory of Christian Thought. Edited by Carl E. Braaten (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1967), Pg. 64
2. Ibid., Pg. 64
3. Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. III: Caesar and Christ (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1944), 3:615.

CHAPTER IV
CONFLICTS: EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL

The shaping of the second century Church was affected by a multiplicity of stimuli. However, the area that had the greatest influence was that of religious competition, both internally as seen in many heresies, and externally as seen in the co-existing mystery religions and cults. The mystery religions were so called because of the secrecy that was involved in their rituals. All of those religions had rituals and what they termed ‘Holy Stories’ (Hieros Logos). As a rule they all involved sin atonement purification, and grades or steps of achievement, which usually involved asceticism. They all promised immortality, had a paid clergy and, were looking for converts. They were transported into Rome from every area of the Empire, both by soldiers and slaves. Some of the main cults and mystery religions included emperor worship, Dionysus or Bachus worship, Mithraism, Eleusanianism, Serapism, Cyble (Magna Mater) Worship, and the Orphic cult.1
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1. Kenneth J. Pratt, Lecture Notes from The Early Middle Ages, (California State University at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Calif., Fall Quarter, 1979

There were many similarities between these pagan religions and Christianity; and for this reason some accused the Christians of plagiarism in regard to their beliefs and practices. Examples can be seen in how an initiate to Cyble was placed in a pit where a bull was slain over him, thus cleansing him with the blood. Mithraism, which evolved from Persian Zoroasterism, had a sacred meal in which bread and wine were consumed as in a communion service.1

Serapism was the Greek form of the Egyptian Isis, Osiris religion. The Holy Story deals with Osiris being dismembered by his son Set, and how he was then resurrected by Isis. Many of the pagan religions had a resurrected leader as the center of its sacred story. It was also common for the central figures of these religions to be God-men born of sexual union between a divine being, as in the case of Jupiter (Zeus) and Semel begetting Dionysus (Bacchus).2

However, there were a number of drawbacks to these religions. First, many of them were sexist and open to men only. Second, others required exorbitant initiation fees, eliminating the middle and lower classes. Finally, the figures in each of them, excluding emperor worship, were mythological figures not having any historical credibility.3 In contrast to these drawbacks of the pagan religions, Christianity had a real historical founder. It also had a universal appeal in that there was no sex, age, class, or nationality discrimination. Along with these factors, Christianity appealed to the people of the Roman Empire because it offered a hope in immortality, a universal brotherhood of mankind, and the hope of the coming of the Kingdom of God, which would bring an unprecedented golden age for all mankind.4
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1. Kenneth J. Pratt, Lecture Notes from The Early Middle Ages, (California State University at Los Angeles, L.A. Calif., Fall Quarter, 1979)
2. Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinches Mytholigy
3. Kennneth J. Pratt, Lecture Notes from The Early Middle Ages, (California State University at Los Angeles, L.A., Calif., Fall Quarter, 1979).
4. Ibid.

The internal conflict which shaped the Church dealt with deviations from the direction in which the Catholic Church was moving. This internal conflict brought three results as previously mentioned: (1) Apostolic succession, (2) determination of authoritative scripture, and (3) condensing of the apostles’ teachings into its simplest form. These ramifications were the main ingredients for the ecclesiastical structure which became the Roman Catholic Church. The heresies were of two types: Those which were a syncretization of Christianity, and other philosophies or religions, as Gnosticism and Marcionism were; and reactions against the cold calculating anti spiritual, highly structured organization that the church was evolving into, as Montanism was. The first area of investigation dealt with is Gnosticism. Gnosticism existed before Christianity was born.

“The Gnostics were not a sect; if anything, they were many sects. Actually, however, gnosticism was a widespread religious movement in the late ancient world . This movement is usually called syncretism. It was a mixture of all the religious traditions of that time. It spread all over the world, and was strong enough to penetrate Greek philosophy and the Jewish religion . . . It was also strong enough to penetrate Roman law and Christian theology.”1
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1. Paul Tillich, A History of Christian Thought. Edited by Carl E. Braaten (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1967), Pg. 33.

As further investigation took place it became obvious that Gnosticism was a major factor in shaping both the political system and the Church itself; because,

“while the political movement went from West to East, the religious movement went from East to West. Hence Gnosticism was an attempt to combine all the religious traditions which had lost their genuine roots, and to unite them in a system of a half philosophical, half religious character.”1

For the Gnostics, all created matter is evil. They differentiated the God of creation in the Old testament and the God of Salvation in the New Testament. Christian Gnosticism taught that one of the heavenly powers of the good God, called an Aeon, descended through the realm of the Evil God of Creation. In his descending he passes each of the planets which are controlled by demonic powers, this is as in astrology. As he descends he takes the seals of each of these powers along with their name. He then takes on the likeness of flesh, not real flesh since all flesh is matter and thus evil, and is called Jesus. He then reveals the gnosis (knowledge) that he has obtained to his disciples. After pretending to die, he ascends back to his heavenly realm. Now his followers may follow by using the gnosis which he revealed to his disciples to pass through each successive realm controlled by demonic powers, until the liberation of the spirit is completed. This is done through a gradual learning process of secrets that Jesus orally transmitted, but were never written down.2
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1. Paul Tillich, A History of Christian Thought, Edited by Carl E. Braaten (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1967), Pg. 34.
2. Henry Chadwick, The Early Church (London: Penguin Books Ltd., 1967), Pgs. 22-28.

“The principal ingredients which Gnosticism derived from Christianity was the central idea of redemption. But not all second-century sects included Jesus as the redeemer.”1

Gnosticism taught that men were at three levels. Some were the elect who had a divine spark within them, and were destined to salvation. Others (ordinary church members) had the potential to achieve a lower level of spirituality, but not attain to the same degree as the chosen ones. A last group were comprised of the heathen, who were hopelessly lost without any hope of redemption. According to tradition, Simon Magus, the magician of Samaria found in Acts chapter ten, was one of the founding fathers of Christian Gnosticism.

The second area of investigation was probably the most successful of the early Christian heresies. Its founder, Marcion, was a native of Sinope, a city of Pontus in Asia Minor. It is believed that his father was a Christian bishop in that city. Marcion was wealthy and migrated to Rome in about A.D. 138. Upon his arrival in Rome he presented the church there with a sizable gift and joined himself to it. By the year A.D. 144 he was excommunicated from the church and had his gift returned upon his departure. However, when he left a number of members followed him, and they formed their own church. The proof of his success lies in the fact that Marcionism persisted up until the fifth century, when it is believed that it merged Manichaeism.
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1. Henry Chadwick, The Early Church (London: Penguin Books Ltd., 1967), Pg. 37.

Marcion’s theological concepts are similar to Gnosticism in many respects and were often confused with it. Marcion clearly taught a dualism between the God of the Old Testament, which he called the Demiurge, as the Gnostics did, and that of the New Testament. He taught that the God of the New Testament was unknown to man until Jesus, at the age of thirty appeared. He rejected the birth and the childhood of Jesus as a falsification of the true story.
Marcion believed that the flesh was evil as the Gnostics did. He went so far as to forbid sexual union among members who were married. According to his concept, birth further continued the evil creation of the Demiurge. Naturally, since the flesh was evil, Christ could not have actual flesh and blood, but only appeared to be, as a phantom. This idea of appearing to be flesh is called Docetism, and was taught in many latter heresies as well.1 The main point of departure between Marcionism and Gnosticism lies in the issue of a secret knowledge (gnosis). Like the Gnostics,
“and indeed, like the Christian churches as whole, he was deeply concerned with the salvation of men. This, however, he conceived to be not, as did the Gnostics, through initiation into a mystery, but by simple faith in what he believed to be the gospel.”2

Because of his rejection of Old Testament, and the fact that he felt that the Gospel was distorted, he compiled a New Testament composed of ten of Paul’s letters and Luke’s gospel. He edited out Those portions which contradicted his teachings, and accused them of being latter additions.
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1. Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of Chrstianity, Vol. I: Beginnings to 1500 (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1953), Pgs. 125-128
2. Ibid., Pg. 126.

Tillich states that “Marcion was not a speculative philosopher, but a religious performer.”1 His reforms were listed in his book entitled Antithesis, in which in which he clarified the distinction between the Old and New testaments, and how he was making the final severance between Judaism and Christianity, which Paul had begun, but which was later distorted by his disciples.

The final heresy investigated in this paper is Montanism. Montanism, as Marcionism was named after its founder. Montanus was also from Asia Minor, from the area called Phrygia. Prior to his conversion Montanus “had been a priest of Cybele, and apparently was a man of enthusiastic and neurotic temperment.”2 He merged the ecstatic characteristics of his former faith with the teachings of Christianity, and the outcome was Montanism. Montanism had many positive factors in it, which made it a rather formidable opponent to orthodoxy. So formidable, in fact, that Tertullian, the great second-century theologian, defected to it. 3
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1. Paul Tillich, A History of Christian Thought. Edited by Carl E. Braaten (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1967), Pg. 34.
2. Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of Christianity, Vol. I: Beginnings to 1500 (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1953), Pg. 346.
3. Ibid., Pg. 129.

Montanism accused the Orthodox Church of growing too lax and worldly. He instituted strict discipline and moral standards. Although marriage was allowed, celibacy was prized, and communal living was encouraged. There were two areas of emphasis, which were basic Christian teachings of the first-century Church that the second-century Church began to supress.1 The first was that of the working and continuation of the prophetic spirit. Montanus claimed that he spoke in tongues at his baptism and that he was the Paraclete promised by Jesus. Ecstatic prophecies were encouraged among all members. Two women by the names of Priscilla and Maximilla became the primary source next to Montanus, for receiving the oracles of God.2
A second area of emphasis had to do with the second coming of Christ. The first-century Church had taught his imminent return. However, after over a century had passed, laxity set in and the emphasis was switched to living in the present world. Montanus taught the urgency of Christ’s return. In fact, he led a group of people out to a plain in Phrygia to await the descent of the New Jerusalem as spoken of in John’s Apocalypse. A result of the immediate expectation of Christ’s return was the neglect of materialism and things dealing with the present life, increased fasting, and martyrdom being held in high honor.3

Montanism spread through Asai Minor, Africa, and Rome. It persisted well into the eighth century. However, it was excluded from the Orthodox Church from the beginning, but as Paul Tillich stated concerning the Church “victory over Montanism also resulted in loss.”4
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1. Paul Tillich, A History of Christian Thought. Edited by Carl E. Braaten (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1967), Pg. 41.
2. Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. III: Caesar and Christ (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1944), 3:605.
3. Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of Christianity, Vol. I: Beginnings to 1500 (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1953), Pgs. 128 & 129.
4. Paul Tillich, A History of Christian Thought. Edited by Carl E. Braaten (NewYork: Simon & Schuster, 1967), Pg. 41.

Tillich states that this loss occurred in four areas. First, there could be no new revelation, only new insights, but even that was greatly “reduced in power and meaning.”1 Second, the prophetic spirit was excluded from the Church and replaced by hierarchy. Third, the idea of the end of history was eliminated and subrogated by each individual preparing for their end of history at death. Fourth, discipline was disregarded in the Church as it gave way to growing laxity.
_________________

1. Paul Tillich, A History of Christian Thought. Edited by Carl E. Braaten (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1967), Pg. 41

CONCLUSION

Heresies such as Montanism, Marcionism, and Gnosticism definitely had an influence upon Christianity, as did the pagan cults and the mystery religions. However, the object of this paper has been to point out how these supposedly negative stimuli contributed positive influences as well as negative. Results such as apostolic succession, a New Testament Canon, and a rule of faith were the three principal contributions, but countless others occurred as well.

Although politics, ideas, and theological achievements were critical to the development of the second-century Church, the people who originated and promoted them, being their source, were far more important. Therefore, an understanding of individual, personal contributions ranging from the emperors Trajan to Septimius Severus, from the apologists Aristedes to Origen the Alexandrian are crucial to the total scenario. Grasping the influence of the aggregate of all the above is essential for a complete understanding of the twentieth-century Church, both institutionally and theologically. It also answers the oft asked question: “What happened to the first century Church?”

I wrote this paper 34 years ago, so I have some additional thoughts to share in my addendum to the conclusion. The question of “What happened to the Jesus Movement?” can be answered with the same answer of “What happened to the first century Church?” They both became part of the system and no longer had spiritual power, but were simply another arm of Babylon, which is the secular world. There have been spiritual events that are outbursts of the true gospel throughout history regardless of the geographic location or controlling political power. However, as soon as the persecution and suffering or social upheaval ends and the rules and regulations begin, the original power dissipates and what remains is an impotent relic of what once was, as a reminder of what can and will be again when the time comes. Some spread the fire and some keep the embers burning until they are needed again.

Chuck Girard Interview Part 2

I forgot to post part 2 of my Chuck Girard Interview. With all the hoopla of the “United We Will Stand” concert last week and the emphasis on the roots of CCM and Jesus music, I thought that it would be advantageous to let Girard finish his story. His interview and dozens of other pioneers of CCM were what I used to write my book “Jesus Rocks The World: The Definitive History of Contemporary Christian Music.” It was the first and unless someone rode on my coat tails, the only book of its kind on the subject. In the future I’ll publish other interviews that I did for the book with other primary sources, like Tommy Coomes, Michael Blanton and Billy Ray Hearn, along with dozens of others. My blog and book are 2 places that you can get an accurate academic analysis of CCM. Here is part 2 of my interview with Chuck Girard, which began on December 10, 2014.

Bob Gersztyn: You know an interesting thing while I was looking through your online book, and you had that example that a lot people come up with about some missionary going into Africa, and his kids play some rock song that the natives say sounds like something that their witch doctor would use to conjure up evil spirits with. Did you by any chance see the Martin Scorsese PBS documentary on the Blues that came out?

Chuck Girard: No, I didn’t every actually get to see it but I knew that he had done it, I think I saw a little bit of the segment with the Taj Mahal on it, I saw a little bit of that one.

Gersztyn: Well this one thing that blew me away was when he had commercial blues artist Keb Mo, go to Africa, and they went to this remote village somewhere, and they played a Muddy Waters song for him. These guys listened to it, and they said hey he is one of us, and they start playing this same melody under native instruments, and they start singing, and it is unbelievable. They are singing the same melody, except his words are different, he is talking about a city in his existence where as our song we’re talking about going out, and hunting a lion, and how the harvest was, and stuff like this. They said these are our traditional folk songs. I thought wow that kind of blows the hole in the whole witch doctor thing.

Girard: I’ll have to check that out because that is very interesting, I would love to see that, that is the one with Keb’ Mo in it?

Gersztyn: Yeah I can’t remember what night it was.

Girard: That’s all on DVD now I think so you can probably rent it.

Gersztyn: Yeah, they went to Africa they were there for I think that whole episode, and they were looking for the roots of the Blues, and where it came from. It kind of showed the evolution of the whole thing, and something that was interesting at the same time Robert Darden who’s the senior editor of the Wittenburg Door, he wrote a book called People Get Ready which was on the history of black gospel music. He has a lot of this stuff in it. If you want to read a really good book that talks about how music, Rock music, I mean he is specifically talking about black gospel music, but you can see it coming into doo-wop, and all this stuff, and the melodies he’s talking about, how this came from these ancient folk songs from that period.

Girard: I believe that, I’m not a scholar of it but I believe that would be a very easy case to make, and I’m sure he does a great job of it.

Gersztyn: What are some of your current musical projects right now?

Girard: You know I’m getting older, and I’m not in the public eye anymore, and I’ve been doing my own thing since about 1980, and it’s been kind of difficult because it’s very expensive to make an album. Part of my latest transition in my life was that three years ago I moved to Nashville. I happen to be out on the West Coast right now but I live in Nashville now, and my son-in-law has a studio that I’m able to use free of charge, and then I have a very good overdub room in my house so the cost of albums has gone measurably down. I’m looking forward to in my later years here being able to be a little more prolific because back from 1980 on I’ve really only made about four albums so that’s only one every five years or something.

Gersztyn: So you came here to Salem, Oregon back, boy I can’t remember if it was the late ‘80’s or the early ‘90’s but I took my son to go see you, and you played at a church here. I talked to you briefly, no way you would possibly remember but I just thought I’d throw that in.

Girard: Well thanks, it’s always a thrill to hear those kind of stories. Back to current projects, I put an album out in 1996 called Voice of the Wind that was a live worship album, kind of pre-dating really the worship movement because even though it came out 1996 I had been working on it for ten years because it took so long to make it. So I’m currently developing volume two of that, in fact I actually brought all the basic recording equipment, the computer, and all the outboard gear that I needed here to LA. Actually last night recorded some people my daughter put together from her church for the congregational part of it because we needed to record, you can never really successfully record a group of people singing in a church because of the sound leakage, and all of that, so you have to go back in a re-record it later. So we did that last night and while I’m out here I’ll also put my friend Caleb Quaye who did all the guitar parts on my first worship project. I’m going to have a few days with him to do some guitar stuff out here. Caleb was with the Elton John band in the early days, and he teaches music out at Life Bible College now. So I’m going to be able to be a little more prolific here in my later years, and hopefully by the end of the year I’ll have this volume two of this very different, I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Voice of the Wind album but it’s very down tempo, low key, an hour long piece that kind of pulls you into, as I’ve been told, into worship, and into prayer, and into praise. So a lot of people have been waiting for volume two for a long time. The concept of this album is to record it live, the basic song, and then embellish after the fact with adding guitars and bass and drums, and all that after you record the initial connection with the audience. I didn’t want to have bunch of musicians on stage with me because it would be distracting so the basic live recording is just me and a keyboard with a group of people, and then we embellish it after the fact. So that’s the next album that would come out. After that’s done, I’ll make my first studio album with live players since 1991. That will be the project that comes after the worship project and I am really excited about that because it will be my first album of kind of all original tunes done in the studio since 1991. So that’s the next two, and then I don’t know where I’m going to be going from there.

Gersztyn: Well that’s very interesting do you think you might have a Love Song reunion at any point?

Girard: That door is never closed; we actually did a reunion this summer. Calvary Chapel was refurbishing the big sanctuary during the month of April and May, and they set up circus tents again for six weeks, and I flew down. I was up in Canada on tour, and we got together, and we played one night in the tent, and it was web cast, and the whole thing, it was really a brilliant night, and it really came off just great. The guys really love to play together. Tommy Coomes and I have our own ministry direction going so we are less hungry for the opportunity to play. But Bob, and Jay, and those guys they play at the drop of a hat. There’s always talk about touring again, but here’s the problem, you have to get someone to promote it, and in the climate of the way things are today, and the expense involved in mounting a tour with five players it would have to be somebody that really had faith in the project, and was willing to put some money into it. So I don’t really know if we’d ever be able to put together a successful reunion tour because we couldn’t mount it, the financial side if it, we couldn’t do it ourselves, and I don’t know if we could find someone that would believe enough in the idea. At the end of the day they have to make money, and I don’t blame them for thinking that way because you can’t go out there with the idea that you’re going to lose money, and I just don’t know if there is anybody out there willing to take that kind of risk.

Gersztyn: With the Christian radio stations all over the country I would think that somehow there would probably be some way, but again somebody would have to take up and want to do it.

Girard: You’d be amazed at how little interest there is with Christian radio stations about anybody back from the ‘70’s. There is a whole new generation of young people out there that don’t even know what the Jesus Movement was much less who Love Song was.

Gersztyn: Sure, my daughter who’s just going to Bible College right now, she says to me Dad she says I’m finding out all of this stuff about how the hippie movement started the Jesus Movement she said you ought to write a book about that. She said I never even knew about all of that, and these people don’t have a clue about it, and the only reason I even know is because of you. I look at right now why I’m interviewing you about the interest in the 1960’s because of the forty year anniversary of the summer of love, and I would think that the same sort of thing would be going on within the people who want to make money in Christianity. I mean you have to look at it totally not from a spiritual point of view but from a monetary business point of view, well there’s a buck to be made because of the fact that there’s the anniversary of the Jesus Movement. Just like Woodstock, right now you’ve got a two year period between the summer of love, and Woodstock, and they are going to be going crazy for this whole two years with the 1960’s. Well at the end of that the Jesus Movement begins, and so you might just run into somebody, and drop something, and maybe they’ll get interested who knows.

Girard: Well it could happen, and if somebody did it right I think it could be successful. You know it takes some capital. I am actually working on writing my life story right now, and I kind of wish I had that ready right now but it’s quite a project to really just sit there, and remember everything and write it down. I was talking to Jay Truax the Love Song bass player about some chronology. We are e-mailing to figure out what happened when , did this happen first or did this, because so much of it is so mushed together because of the drugs and all of that, so I forget the chronology of it. When I felt like really led of the Lord to write this all down I thought “who cares about my life, and what do I have to write about?” I never even became really famous, but as I really write down the experiences that I had it is amazing. Even I’m interested, and I’m going “wow, this is great if I was reading this about somebody else I would be totally riveted”. I’m going up to Northern California in the next couple of months, and I’m going to have a lot of down time where I’m not going to be around my comfort zone, and hopefully I’m going to try to really just peck out some pages of this book, and get his thing finished because I think it is going to be a very interesting story. It is representative of just what you’re talking about, it is all about the Jesus Movement, and it will be in its own way a history book.

Gersztyn: Well you were right at the epicenter of it, and if anybody would have had something to say about it, it would definitely be you.

Girard: Well you know it is funny because my life, in a way, parallels the progression of rock music. When I became musically conscious rock music was in it’s infancy. So my whole life span kind of parallels the growth of rock and roll from doo-wop to what it is today. In a way my story is not just a history of the Jesus Movement it’s a history of music because I get into a lot of the stuff about starting out in the studios. Back in the days when I first recorded we would use three track machines. I was working in the same studios where Phil Spector cut the Ronettes and the Righteous Brothers, and a lot of the book is going to cover musical history too, so it is going to be interesting on a number of levels. I’m actually more excited about that almost than I am some of the musical projects, about getting it done at least.

Gersztyn: Who are some of the other people that you would name as being important like yourself who came out of that period?

Girard: I’m not saying I’m important

Gersztyn: When I say important I mean you’re important because of the fact that you were at the epicenter of it. And I’m not saying it for an egotistical sort of reason, but the fact that well here’s an example, Mylan LeFever. I used to go to rock concerts, I’m from Detroit, Michigan originally, and when I was a hippie I would drop acid, and I’d go to the local rock venue called the East Town Theater, and I went to go see Traffic one time, and Mylan had a group. I knew nothing about them but in the middle of the rock concert I’m telling my wife who was my girlfriend then, “I feel like I’m in church,” and then I find out ten years later he was a back-slidden Christian.

Girard: Well I’ll tell you I guess the way to answer the question would be like. who’s book would I want to read. I think Barry McGuire could write a very interesting book. I think he’s been faithful for many years. In many ways he’s the patriarch of the whole movement because among my peers Barry is the oldest one of us. See here’s the deal.. age-wise I’m about ten years older than most of my peers, Randy Stonehill, Larry Norman.Larry is a little older but most of those guys are about ten years younger than I am. Then in my range there are a few people that are kind of in their sixties now but then it goes up to Barry who is in his seventies so he is really a father, and has had a very interesting life. Andrae Crouch would make an interesting book if it is not already out. Some of these guys might have already written a book for all I know. Those guys were pioneers.. they were like the first guys. When I got born again Larry’s album was out, Larry Norman, so he was really the first. Upon This Rock was already out, and Andrae was doing stuff. So for a little period of time there about all there was out there was Love Song, and Larry, and Andrae. Those people would have interesting stories. Larry lives right up there where you are I think right?

Gersztyn: Yeah, I even did some photography for Larry a few years ago.

Girard: So they are interesting people that had something to do with it, I think after it gets into the Michael W. Smiths, and the Steven Curtis Chapman’s it’s already kind of commercialized, and I don’t know that those stories would be as interesting to me as some of the earlier ones, it is just a handful you know.

Gersztyn: I was writing articles for an encyclopedia, and I needed to talk to Barry, and I did. I started to talk to him like I was with you about the early days, and when I brought up the subject of drugs he got very upset so I don’t think he would really want to talk about that early period.

Girard: I know him pretty well but he has some little places, and then he will change his mind too. I don’t know? I don’t get that, why he would get angry with that if it is part of your experience.

Girard: How long ago was this?

Gersztyn: I think it was 2004.

Girard: I don’t know him as well as others do but I know him pretty well but I didn’t know that side of him. I didn’t know that he had that kind of little eccentricity I guess you’d call it.

Gersztyn: I’m interested in the whole, because I came out of the hippie movement, and LSD. It’s like one night I just had a bad trip like you, and I said that’s it I’m done with this stuff, and I flushed it down the toilet. The next day I had a Bible, and I started reading my Bible. Within a few months after that I became a born again Christian. It’s like to say there wasn’t a connection between that would be absurd, so I’m interested, and I feel everybody who was involved in the drugs has that connection, because it’s an obvious connection.

Girard: Yes it’s part of your story, and I’m a little shocked that he’s like that.

Gersztyn: Well even Mike Macintosh I remember listening to his testimony about taking acid, and having a bag over his head, and somebody shooting a gun next to it. And Odin Fromm talking about how he was in the desert and had a hundred hits of the most powerful acid, and he saw a vision of Jesus, and everybody would talk about it. Anyway I think that I got plenty of information here, more than enough that I’ll need for the interview, and the only other thing is I’d like to get some photographs to go along with it, and the thing that is really frustrating is I photographed you in Love Song many times back in the ‘70’s, and I gave somebody all my slides. They were going to do something with them, and they never gave them back to me, and I can’t remember who it was, and these things would be irreplaceable. One set of them if you ever see them they had the name Laverne Campbell stamped on them because I did them for the pastor of my church.

Girard: I know Laverne, he’s dead now right?

Gersztyn: Yeah, he was my pastor, and in fact I photographed Love Song for him; I think you guys were going to the Philippines.

Girard: Yeah he had something to do with that.

Gersztyn: Yeah, and so I think he went with you even.

Girard: Yeah I think he did actually.

Gersztyn: And so I shot a roll of film of you guys, and gave him the slides, and I think I have two of the slides right now.

Girard: Alright, I’m glad we got to do this, and I’m sorry that it took so long.

Charlie Hebdo

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-darden/in-the-wake-of-charlie-he_b_6431010.html 
When I was an associate pastor at an inner city church in Los Angeles, California back in the 1970’s I read a magazine called the Wittenburg Door, that was the world’s only religious satire magazine. As time went on I left the ministry, became disillusioned and eventually became an associate editor for the Wittenburg Door by the end of the 20th century. The 10 years that I worked with it were some of my favorite as a freelance journalist. I got to interview and lampoon everything from Scientology, to the leader of “God Hates Fags” Fred Phelps. We lampooned everything and there was nothing sacred to the magazine, but we killed you with laughter not bullets. My editor at the magazine was Robert Darden and he published this article in the Huffington Post that mirrors my feelings exactly about the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

http://www.wittenburgdoor.com/

The Night Before Christmas

After driving a taxi cab for 9 years I accumulated thousands of experiences that I cathartically write about. This is my most recent photo essay as a seasonal piece for Christmas.

The Night Before Christmas by Bob Gersztyn

 

 

 

INTERVIEW WITH A WITCH: PART 2

 

INTERVIEW WITH A WITCH: Part Two

By Bob Gersztyn
This is a continuation of my interview with Wiccan radio talk show host Marcus Tempe. We continued to talk about the battle between cultures and religions as human civilization evolved into its current manifestation.

THE DOOR: An objective study of world history reveals that every culture and ethnic group has relocated, exterminated or assimilated another. Some feel that this progression of history is in actuality orchestrated by a shadow organization, who in fact call the shots. This organization is usually associated with Witchcraft and the occult. What do you know about the illuminati?

THE BEAR: Robert Anton Wilson wrote a wonderful series of books of fiction. I enjoy the heck out of it; he did something that is absolutely crucial to any storyteller. He borrows enough of the truth to be able to make you go, you know that sounds possible. What if? Now he’s got you. Any good science fiction writer will base his story on good hard practical scientific fact. State of the art technology that goes one step further. What if? Political theory as far as criminal conspiracies are concerned are very much the same sort of thing. People can take any three unrelated facts and go, what if? Maybe they’re on to something, but maybe they’re not.

THE DOOR: You can’t fool us. What do you know about the controlling council on the 7th level of the illuminati, and its plans to subjugate the entire human race for its evil purposes?

 

 

THE BEAR: Absolutely nothing. Frankly I’m more concerned about 2nd Amendment issues. Because I am one of those rarities, an ACLU supporter, who has been invited by the ACLU as a moderator of one of their forums on a new web site they are putting up. This will take place when the move from AOL occurs. AOL has invited the ACLU to end its interaction and its website in AOL’s umbrella. The move will take place sometime during November 1999. This has got a lot of people very upset, because AOL has come across like they are kicking out the ACLU. The ACLU has maintained a presence there for a number of years and this is not what I would regard as a good thing.

THE DOOR: Wait a minute. The ACLU is being kicked off AOL because of its support of the 2nd Amendment?

THE BEAR: No. Mainly because of 1st Amendment violations. There are occasions where people will use dirty words, and naughty language and talk about female body parts. This has a lot of the more Church Lady types in the AOL user community very upset with the ACLU because they allow dirty words in ACLU discussions. Isn’t this terrible? No it isn’t. But it’s modern day American Protestant Christianity that has recognized or attached to these particular body functions and body parts the dirty word syndrome. Every time that you establish something as sinful simply because it’s sinful. It says in scripture here it’s sinful. Then reason and judgment effectively shut down. You have people who have made up their minds and stop looking. You can’t have a free and open discussion and explore possibilities if you’re worried about dirty words violating some ancient sheep herders taboo, out of a body of lore that was put together 4 or 5,000 years ago.

THE DOOR: I guess you don’t agree with Josh McDowell then? What do you think will eventually happen with religion on a global scale?

THE BEAR: I think that we’re heading to a shift in consciousness. If you read books like Jose Ortiaz and The Mayan Factor, if you read any of the works on Native American traditions, the Hopi elders, the prophecies that they have. New interpretations of Nostradamus coming through. A lot of different teachers and seers and forecasters have come to the conclusion that we are entering a paradigm shift, which is going to be a pretty bumpy ride for the next 15 years or so.

THE DOOR: So you equate Nostradamus with Native American Seers.

THE BEAR: I think that if you have the same message coming across like boats, there’s going to be a major change in the world happening between now and 2015. Be prepared for it. You see these things happening in the Mayan’s, in the Hopi, in the Navajo, in Nostradamus and in people who are doing interpretations of a lot of sources. We need to at least look at these things, and see if the forecasters and visionaries are right. Even if not.

THE DOOR: Even Christianity has its doomsday prophets going back to Jesus Himself.

THE BEAR: However, Christianity generally does not check itself with non-Christian sources. The people I’m talking about are coming from Native American sources, from Nostradamus, which is a cabalistic magick source, from people who are psychics, which gets into ESP and the parapsychology field, which may have absolutely nothing to do with either Native American or Cabalistic magick. The point is, when you have all these different people, from all these different traditions saying, yeah we’re entering into a bad patch, the prudent person would say, just in case the power does go out and the flood waters do rise I think it would be prudent to lay in an extra case of food and maybe another couple of dozen candles. Just in case. Because even if nothing happens it’s like having insurance. Very cheap insurance to guarantee your survival over a bad patch. Whether the disaster happens to be Y2K,or going through a bad winter, like a couple of years ago, with the flood waters rising above the 500 year flood level, or a sustained blizzard or the long overdue earthquake actually strikes. Fill in the blanks for whatever disaster happens to strike.

THE DOOR: Let’s go back to your sources of information. You said witches are very eclectic and choose from a smorgasbord of spiritual ideas, borrowing from any and all existing religions. Yet there are these rituals that you speak of and I assume they go back a long ways.

THE BEAR: They are an attempt to reconstruct from fragments of oral tradition, which is all that we have left after the burning times.

THE DOOR: So there were books that were written and burned? During which period?
THE BEAR: No, no not books that were written, oral traditions that were handed down from high priestess to student. Often times from Mother to daughter or from Father to son. I know a few people who claim a family tradition of witchcraft. They are called Famtrad for short. Family traditional witches have a certain body of lore, which they don’t teach to anybody outside of that family. They claim the lore was handed down from generation to generation. These people are very hard to get to talk about any of this.

THE DOOR: Why?

THE BEAR: Because, the penalty for revealing this was usually a short trip to being burned at the stake. So what we do have in the way of modern witchcraft are fragments of oral tradition, which are handed down in story. Discovered by people like Gerald Bruce O’Gardiner, who wrote about witchcraft for the first time, in modern times, in 1950.

THE DOOR: What was the title of the book?

THE BEAR: He originally wrote a book called “High Magic”, by the pen name Seire. Then he wrote a couple of other books on modern day witchcraft, which you can find in major libraries and occasionally you’ll find in large bookstores, like Powell’s, here in Portland. Gerald Bruce O’Gardiner is credited with being sort of the father of the modern resurgence of witchcraft.

THE DOOR: He was a witch himself?

THE BEAR: He was a practicing witch himself. He claimed that he had been introduced and initiated into Wicca by a family traditional witch in England.

THE DOOR: How many witches are there worldwide would you say?

THE BEAR: Impossible to estimate. In the United States I’ve heard figures anywhere from 100,000-600,000.

THE DOOR: So way under a million.

THE BEAR: I’ve talked to Z Budapest who is another very well known figure in the witchcraft world. She is a refugee from Hungary. She got out of Hungary after the 1956 Soviet invasion, when she was 16 years old. She feels that with family traditionalists it’s impossible to make an accurate estimation worldwide.

THE DOOR: Is there any sort of Wiccan governing structure? Do you ever combine forces for a specific purpose and how?

THE BEAR: It depends on the issue for example on the Web you will find the coalition for religious freedom that is run by an attorney in Pennsylvania, who is also a practicing, witch. You will find the WADL (Witches Anti Discrimination League). That is another long running pagan religion organization. Locally we have the nine houses of Gaia and many of the groups listed in the community directory will be able to turn you on to additional groups, which they are local chapters of or have a loose working relationship with.

THE DOOR: What about you specifically? When and what were the circumstances of your becoming a witch?

 

 

THE BEAR: I began my spiritual pursuit when I was between 13 & 15 and decided consciously to actually stop being a good Catholic kid, according to my mom.

THE DOOR: Mom should know.

THE BEAR: By the age of 17 I completely severed all ties with the Catholic Church and really began an active pursuit of my own spiritual traditions. I became interested in Zen Buddhism. I read a lot of works by David Reps, who is an American Zen Buddhist.

THE DOOR: How did you get interested in your spiritual pursuit initially?

THE BEAR: As I became more of an adult I began to realize that what I had been taught as the answers were not complete answers. Somebody was holding something back. There were things happening that did not make sense. For example, the teaching and decimation of the Catholic Church is that this is the be all and end all of solution. This is the one possible answer, this explains everything, and it’s not only ridiculous, it’s a mortal sin to start inquiring any further. Well the more education I got, especially by the time I got into college and started taking courses in philosophy, anthropology and other things that you normally don’t get taught in Jr. High School, I began to realize that there were a lot more answers, and also a lot more questions, than the Catholic Church had been willing to teach me as a kid. I became interested in witchcraft in the early 70’s and was initiated into witchcraft in 1975. So I’ve been a practicing pagan for almost a quarter of a century now.

THE DOOR: How old are you now.

THE BEAR: Lets see, what year is this? 51.

THE DOOR: How have other religions treated Paganism, Witchcraft, etc.? Whether Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Islam, whatever, in countries like India, Japan or Saudi Arabia. Do they have any sort of policy against it?

THE BEAR: As a rule in a Muslim country, today for example, you are technically allowed to have a book of your own particular religion. For example Christians are theoretically allowed to bring in a Bible. However, Islam in practical terms can be very, very intolerant about public celebrations of anything other than Islam. To an extent, I found that in the brief visit that I made to Israel, I found that attitude also applied to a nation, which had based itself upon the Jewish religion. To a lesser extent you may find that in other countries such as Japan, which as you pointed out is officially Shintoist, but which also has a large Buddhist population. The Buddhist countries however, such as Thailand are generally quite open and accepting of a wide variety of other religions. I spent two years in Saudi Arabia, which gave me a good up close look at a fundamentalistic religious theocracy, in 1980-82.

THE DOOR: Why were you there?

THE BEAR: I was on contract, as a computer technician and light equipment maintenance technician, with a company installing a medical computer system. The first one to go into Abha, the capital of the Asir Highlands, in Southwest Saudi Arabia.

THE DOOR: Ah yes, one of our favorite places. What were your observations and conclusions?

THE BEAR: I had a chance to see what Islam is like from the inside, up close and personal. I went, that’s interesting. When I came back to the United States it also gave me very sharp appreciation about what it is like to live in a free country, as opposed to what it is like to live in a theocracy. Then I began working very seriously on the idea of promoting in whatever humble way that I could the notion of getting people to use their thinking of spirituality in terms of not sacrificing their souls to God, but using it as a vehicle of personal liberation, on a level that has not been normally experienced before. Most questions of liberation politics at that time had been political not economic. I wanted to expand the realm, because I believe very strongly that the spiritual element is precisely where questions of freedom are decided, and that any spiritual tradition that emphasizes freedom is one worth looking at. That tied very well into my training and experience in Wicca.

THE DOOR: What about Jesus’s statement in the Gospel of John concerning knowledge of the truth being the catalyst for freedom?

THE BEAR: First of all, that’s an example of something that a Wiccan, or Pagan, or Buhhdist, or Hindu or somebody else might find to be very true, because it is true whether or not it’s in the Bible, Koran, Torah, Bagavad Gita or any other sacred text. In other words you do not accept something that’s true simply because of the authority figure attached to it you accept it as true because it checks out. It checks out and it happens to ring true. It’s something that you can rely on. In the case of Wicca, the idea is that you are responsible for your spirituality. You are responsible for putting yourself through the training and discipline.

THE DOOR: Somebody had to train or at least get you pointed in the right direction occasionally. Who was that?

THE BEAR: The lady who inducted me into Wicca is living on the Oregon coast right now. She’s in her 60’s. She was a very good friend, who was a practicing witch for a number of years. She initiated me into the Wicca tradition as a Gardinarian witch.

THE DOOR: Gardinarian, is that like a denomination?

THE BEAR: Gerald Bruce O’Gardiner established a tradition of witchcraft through his books and through his students, who all went on to teach other witches. That’s why Gardiner is regarded as the father of modern witchcraft.
THE DOOR: Just like John Wesley is the father of Methodism or even the first Pope?

THE BEAR: Not like the pope, more like John the Baptist. He was a voice crying in the wilderness to make clear the path.

THE DOOR: So then, is there a Messiah coming?

THE BEAR: No. That whole Messiah trip, you have to; again this is the trap of Orthodox Christianity and the mindset. Christians are very guilt driven. They believe that we’re guilty and that the Messiah died for our sins, he’s gonna come back, and that sins will be washed away. This whole sin, guilt, fear trip is something that is very particular to the Semitic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It is not something that has any parallel with the normal pagan religions that you’ll find elsewhere in the world.

THE DOOR: So, you don’t have any guilt problems?

THE BEAR: No. We don’t have a guilt problem as far as original sin and the whole concept of sin, because we have a sense of right and wrong.

THE DOOR: Then you believe in free will?

THE BEAR: Yes, as a matter of fact I believe that the free will we exercise directly creates the manifestation of the universe that we experience. In other words, free will is the way that we approach the limitless facets of the diamond. Which facet we choose to look at, that is the exercise of our free will.

THE DOOR: What about good and evil?

THE BEAR: I believe in the “as ye sow, so shall ye reap” type of approach, or looking at it from the viewpoint of other people: “By their fruits ye shall know them”.

THE DOOR: That sounds familiar. What if you were put in a situation where you were forced to do something that was evil in order to survive? As an example you embezzled some money from your work to avoid bankruptcy. How would you view this?

THE BEAR: You would have to look at the harm done and the total dynamic of who was doing what. Who benefited from it, who lost from it?

THE DOOR: So you’re advocating relativism?
THE BEAR: In my personal book I’d say that relativistic ethics are probably about the only ethics that you actually can apply to the real world. Because the exact same action in 12 different environments and circumstances could have 12 different evaluations and 12 different consequences. For example killing someone: “Thou shalt not kill”. The Bible says, according to Billy Graham and some other Fundamentalist ministers “Thou shalt not murder”. Lets take it at the face value that most people are familiar with. “Thou shalt not kill.” Okay, I teach armed self-defense as a certified pistol instructor. I have an Oregon concealed handgun licensee. I have one of the first 2000 licensees issued in the state for 10 years now. I have come close to dropping the hammer on 4 maybe 5 people in the last 10 years. I also work security so that ups my exposure to situations. Do I feel happy about the prospect of taking a life? No. Would I hesitate to take a life if in my estimation that became necessary? No, because at this point I’ve rehearsed it and studied the issue and I’m aware of the full dynamics of actions, contributing factors, and the repercussions, which would flow from that, to be able to widen the game so to speak. In other words I don’t look at just the killing itself, but everything that led up to the killing, the killing and the results that flowed from the killing, as part of an integrated dynamic. All of which have to be looked at. If for example the person I encountered happened to be a career felon and I didn’t kill them, I feel that I would share in the moral blame that would accrue from every criminal act in the future that, that person would commit.

THE DOOR: I guess you would support capital punishment then?

THE BEAR: In certain circumstances. Again, there have been too many cases where capital punishment has been to hastily applied or applied to the wrong person. That’s legalized murder.

THE DOOR: In a case like John Wayne Gacy or Jeffrey Dahlmer, who have committed heinous crimes, yet are indifferent to them, and may even be psychologically incapable of complying with societies laws or morality. What would your verdict be?

THE BEAR: In my book that person has volunteered for the death penalty.

THE DOOR: Interesting. Let’s go back to guilt for a minute. According to Freudian psychology human beings are motivated by guilt stemming from suppressed thoughts and experiences, ranging from infantile masturbation to oedipal fantasies and beyond. How do you view this?

THE BEAR: Freudian guilt is the product of an essentially Christian culture.

THE DOOR: So then if there were no Christianity there would be no Freud?

THE BEAR: Without Christianity there would be no Freud. There would be no need for a Freud.

THE DOOR: What about Jung?
THE BEAR: Jung is a different case. Jung very much focused on archetypes. He believed that people regardless of culture or background felt and experienced certain spiritual truths in much the same way. It’s simply the the symbolism and the language by or through which they interpreted that transmortal experience varied from person to person and culture to culture, and there’s good argument for that.

THE DOOR: So then in some cases, as you’ve already stated you’re in agreement with certain parts or pieces of different religions and philosophies but you don’t have any particular set structure, except the book you mentioned by Gardiner?

THE BEAR: Even that has been extensively modified.

THE DOOR: Okay, lets put it another way. If somebody wants to become a Christian what they do is find a church. Next they ask to speak with the Pastor, they tell him “I want to become a Christian.” Next the minister will tell them whatever that denominational formula requires for them to become a good Christian.

THE BEAR: Accent on the word formula. It’s a very external structure imposed. You see in the founding days of Christianity.

THE DOOR: Yeah, but how do you do that with Witchcraft? Let’s forget about Christianity for the moment. How would anyone even begin to look? Are their any witch ministers, clerics, priests, priestesses etc.?

THE BEAR: In some cases. Again study the list of organizations in the directory I gave you and ask for some basic information. You’ll find a huge range of responses. Some people who practice paganism and witchcraft adopt or create a very hierarchical structure. There will be initiates, 1st degree witches, 2nd degree witches and 3rd degree witches.

THE DOOR: Is this group called a coven?

THE BEAR: Yes, a coven. They will have the kind of formal structure that you’re talking about. Some people function best in that type of formal structure. Other people are solitary witches; they will have nothing to do with a coven. In fact they will often times have only a few years of training, or they will be entirely self taught. Some people find that they adhere to a particular divinity. In fact I’ve talked to some witches who have actually had an intense visualization of some goddess or god figure, totally unexpectedly, without anything in their background to predicate that, that is the goddess or god figure to whom they would give their allegiance. Others, like me are syncretic or eclectic. We look and we find things that are true in many different god forms, and many different pantheons in many different disciplines including religions that have very little if anything to do with Witchcraft, such as Christianity.

THE DOOR: An evangelical Christian would call these visualizations of gods and goddesses a demonic experience. From a Jungian perspective then you would have had an archetypal experience. However, putting that aside for the moment, what good are these experiences?
THE BEAR: I’m relating them to how people see the truth. Some people need and depend upon a very rigid structure. They’re going, okay I have jumped through these particular hoops, I’ve taken this particular training, I must be doing this right. That’s the particular structure with which they approach the universe.

THE DOOR: Then there’s the Zen Buhhdist approach where you have to come to a point where you know nothing.

THE BEAR: That’s my point, everything is illusion, it’s all a matter of will. Read the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The opening chapter is essentially a recitation of about how everything is a matter of the viewpoint that you choose or allow yourself to default to. What is the Ultimate reality?

THE DOOR: Please tell us.

THE BEAR: Well, from a mortal viewpoint you will find as many different answers as you’ll find mortals. The whole purpose of the show in the practice of the show in the practice of paganism, that I personally adhere to is, by their fruits you shall know them.

THE DOOR: Where have we heard that before?

THE BEAR: If somebody is on a particular path that reads well upon them, they’re bright eyed, bushy tailed, happy, productive and a benefit to the people around them. You can tell by their body language, posture, tone of voice, how they relate and how they handle themselves in their relationships, whether they are a healthy or not healthy individual. Then I don’t really care what the name of the religious structure of the spirituality is that you hang on it. Sahheed Hamid for example is a Black Muslim. He is also a friend. He has been a friend of my families and mine for more than 20 years now. He is probably as far away from my particular spiritual orientation as you could possibly get. In that he’s African American, he’s a Muslim practitioner, he is very loyal to his faith and has found a huge amount of benefit in Islam. I’ve had him on my show and we’ve spoken of this at length. The commonality that we experience however, is not one of the same ritual, or the same name of God or even the same practice of spirituality. The commonality we see, is that each of us recognize that the other is on a path which is good for us, because we are benefiting the lives of those around us.

THE DOOR: What occupation do you work in to pay the bills?

THE BEAR: I’m in the security field right now. I’ve been trained and licensed by the State of Oregon as a private security advisor site supervisor for a local security company. I’m also a certified pistol instructor and I do self-defense training, as well as working with a martial arts school.

THE DOOR: So you are proficient in all these self defense techniques?

THE BEAR: Yes, I believe in the concept of personal empowerment.
THE DOOR: So then witchcraft isn’t pacifistic?

THE BEAR: Witchcraft is, in that most people are what I would call bunny huggers. They are very pro-ecology and pro-animal rights. Their lifestyle and mindset reflects this. Ninety nine out of a hundred would not know which end of a firearm goes bang.
THE DOOR: You already said that you supported capital punishment if the crime warranted it. What about abortion?

THE BEAR: I come down on the side of “free choice,” with the proviso that any man who attempts to pass judgment on what any woman does with her body is showing perhaps more bravery than sense. Women, I’ve noticed, get into one form of Paganism or another because they’re drawn to the empowering aspects of spirituality that emphasizes the pre-eminence of feminine over masculine power, the Goddess over God; Witches like Z Budapest or Starhawk in San Francisco have strong opinion on the subject, which they’ve written books about. At the same time, Pagans disagree about abortion probably as much as they disagree about vegetarianism, or any other political subject. Sienna, a Witch friend of mine in Vancouver, who own Laughing Bird Books and teaches classes on Witchcraft, said, “Getting Pagans to agree on ANYTHING is like herding cats.”

THE DOOR: Very interesting. While were on politically controversial subjects How about drug usage to enhance the spiritual dimension, much like Native Americans and other regional aboriginal peoples use conscious expanding substances, such as mescaline, psilosybin or marijuana in their rituals?

 

 

THE BEAR: I know of no Pagans who use drugs as part of ritual; raising the “Cone of Power” requires discipline, the ability to visualize clearly, and the ability to coordinate and work well with other in the Circle—all of which are skills which are damaged or defeated by drugs, not enhanced by them. The kind of “high” you get from any pharmaceutical means that it’s the pharmaceutical that’s working—not you; so, whatever “power” you think you’re generating, is strictly a chemical-based delusion. True, there ARE some ethnic groups whose spiritual traditions involve psychedelics like peyote and mescaline—but as their “medicine men” and “medicine women” will tell you, it takes literally years of work, training, and discipline (there’s that word again), studying as an apprentice under a master of some sort, before you can safely and effectively use drugs as a tool for the controlled raising and directing of spiritual or Magickal “Power” of any sort.
Unfortunately, in this day and age of instant gratification, there are too may teenyboppers who’ve seen The Craft or The Blair Witch Project, picked up a book, and decided that they’re “really” Witches and so want to be casting spells, etc.—and right now. Since they’re used to getting high, they figure, “Why not?” and start to “experiment” with ritual Magick and various drugs. However, teenagers will be teenagers, and may have to learn the hard way that drugs don’t “improve” anything you do that’s at all important—including raising Power and working Magick. This is not to say that Neo-Pagans are all prudes and teetotalers. Some are; others aren’t, to varying degrees, just like the population at large. I know of one Pagan who drinks, smokes tobacco, AND smokes pot; his wife smokes tobacco and pot, but doesn’t drink. Another Pagan friend of mine drinks occasionally, but doesn’t smoke anything at all. The basic rule, again, is what we know as the Wiccan Rede:
“Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill;
An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will.”
When you couple that with the Three-fold Law—that what you do, will rebound upon you three times, good returning for good and evil returning for evil—you’ll find that most Neo-pagans (both drug-users and “straight) just don’t abuse, misuse, or over-indulge in drugs of any sort. There’s no point to it, and some heavy dues to pay for screwing up, so why bother?

THE DOOR: Do you believe in God?

THE BEAR: A divinity? Yes. God in term of Jehovah or Yahweh? No.

THE DOOR: Do you believe in a personal God?

THE BEAR: Myself, I’d have to say no. I believe in a trans-mortal something, but it’s bigger than I am and I haven’t got the means to put a handle on it. Let alone define it and label it.

THE DOOR: What about the devil?

THE BEAR: The devil? Satan? Prince of evil? Christian concept. Anti-God. I gave that up when I gave up the church.

 

Interview with Ralph Sonny Barger of the Hell’s Angels

During the 20 years that I was a rock and religion journalist I did well over a hundred interviews with everyone from rock icons like Bo Diddley to members of the legendary intellectual hippie comedy quartet the Firesign Theater. Many of them were published in one of three publications that I worked for, The Wittenburg Door, Blues Review/Blueswax or Folkwax. However, there were some interviews that were never published for various reasons, like the magazine or ezine ceased publication. So I decided to publish them on my blog. I want to start with Sonny Barger the president emeritus of the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels. Back in 2000 when I interviewed him it was during a signing of his then just published autobiography. Since then he’s written and published another 5 books and is celebrating his 75th birthday on October 13, 2014. All the information about Sonny can be found on his website located at: http://sonnybarger.com/

Happy Birthday Sonny.
RALPH “SONNY” BARGER INTERVIEW

August 26, 2000

Ralph “Sonny” Barger helped start the Oakland, California Chapter of the “Hells Angels” motorcycle club back in 1957. He and the other wild bikers that he rode with decided on the name “Hells Angels”, from a patch that Don Reeves, A.K.A. Boots found. By 1958 Barger took over as President. His administration both consolidated and expanded the club by absorbing, dismantling, or driving rival clubs out of the state. At the same time the Angels were granting prospect charters to existing clubs, as far away as Australia. By the mid 1960s Sonny was the #1 Hells Angel of the world’s largest outlaw motorcycle club. He hung out with Ken Kesey and the Grateful Dead. He was present at historic war protest rallies in Berkley, where he and other Angels beat up protestors. Barger has been charged with murder, kidnapping, income tax evasion, gun possession, drug possession, and conspiracy. He’s served 13 years in prison, and he co-wrote a book with Keith and Kent Zimmerman, a British bestseller team. The autobiography bears the title “Hell’s Angel” (The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club), published by William Morrow / Harper Collins.

Mr. Barger was doing book signings over the weekend at two Borders book stores in the Portland, Oregon area. Since I was the staff photographer for the Wittenburg Door magazine (Pretty Much The World’s Only Religious Satire Publication), which the store carried, I decided to try to get an interview with Sonny. I called Borders and gained permission to enter the store on Saturday with my camera gear and to plead my case when Sonny arrived. By the time I got there the parking lot was cordoned into two sections, one for motorcycles and the other for cars. The bike section was nearly full. By the time Barger arrived with his entourage there was a line outside the front door. After being introduced to Sonny by the store manager I gave him a copy of the magazine and asked about doing an interview with him. He told me that he would give me a 10 minute interview after everyone had their books signed, and I could take all the photos I wanted while I waited.

During the next 2 hours a non-stop line made up of everyone from hard core bikers to middle-aged housewives purchased anywhere from a single copy to a stack of Sonny’s books, and he signed each one, posed for photos and politely conversed with everyone. He advised one pre-teen girl not to smoke, and pointed to the gauze covering the hole in his throat, where his vocal cords were removed. He speaks without any mechanical aids, so his voice is hoarse and raspy. His bodyguards were from the Washington State and Arizona Chapters, since there aren’t any “Hell’s Angels” chapters in Oregon. According to Barger, after the Hell’s Angels ran the Gypsy Jokers out of California, they gave them the state of Oregon. After the last person left I was directed to the table that Sonny was sitting at. After we shook hands I asked him if he would sign my book, which he did, I took a few pictures of him holding it.

BOB GERSZTYN: Thanks for agreeing to do the interview Sonny, I just interviewed Mickey Hart, from the Grateful Dead a few weeks ago.

RALPH “SONNY” BARGER: Okay, I know Mickey. The only thing is this, let me tell you first, we don’t make fun of our club. We don’t joke about it. If you’re gonna do a satire it’s probably better we don’t do it, because we just don’t joke about our club. You know what I mean?

BOB: Yes, I understand what you mean, but I’m not going to satirize the Hell’s Angels. The interviews are dead serious.

SONNY: Okay. I just wanted to make it plain that we don’t do that. We have too many people dead and in jail for sticking up for the club name when it was made fun of in an article.

BOB: There would be nothing insulting, we guarantee. In fact we’ll even include what you just said in the interview so we can start off with the right understanding right up front.

SONNY: They had me booked to do a program called Politically Incorrect. I went down there, but after talking to those guys I walked out. What they wanted me to do was really stupid.

BOB: The magazine has interviewed everyone from Billy Graham to Anton LaVey.

SONNY: Gee, I haven’t heard that guys name since the 70s.

BOB: Anton LaVey?

SONNY: Is he still around?

BOB: No, he died. In fact, another journalist did a postmortem interview with him. Now what I’d like to talk to you about today is the place that God, religion, or anything of a spiritual nature may have in your life. This would be both within the context of your involvement with the Hell’s Angels and in your personal life.

SONNY: With me it’s very simple. I’m not religious. I don’t believe in God per se. I feel something’s happening and I don’t know what, and I really don’t even care. But people can put a gun in their mouth and pull the trigger and live and other people can fall down at 10 MPH and die. So I personally don’t believe that you can make it happen until it’s your time. However, you can mess yourself up really bad and wish you had died by trying, but unless it’s your time it isn’t going to happen. What causes that I don’t know and I don’t care. When it’s my time they’ll tell me. I’ve had a heart attack, I’ve had cancer, I’ve been hit by a pick up truck and I’m still here. Other people fall down on the sidewalk and die. You know what I mean?

BOB: Yes.

SONNY: There’s something there that says when it’s your time, but I don’t know what it is. I don’t even care what it is.

BOB: Was there ever a time that you attended church, even as a child?

SONNY: When I was a child I used to have to go to Sunday School at an Episcopalian church.

BOB: I take it you don’t attend anymore. At what point did you quit going?

SONNY: When I got old enough to turn the corner the other way when my Dad wasn’t looking.

BOB: How old were you then?

SONNY: Probably 7 or 8.

BOB: How about psychedelic drug experiences? Did you ever have any spiritual trips?

SONNY: I had out of body experiences on mescaline. I was sitting in my front room on mescaline and all of a sudden I realized that I was looking down at everything instead of looking out straight. I looked up to see what was looking down and my brain was on the rafter looking down at the conversation.

BOB: Did any of these experiences prompt you to contemplate things like God or open the door to any sort of spiritual thoughts?

SONNY: No.

BOB: Let’s look at the moral code of the Hell’s Angels organization for a moment. People who are involved in Judeo-Christian faiths will use the 10 Commandments as a guideline. Is there an equivalent to this for Hell’s Angels?

SONNY: Well yeah, our thing is we treat everybody the way we want to be treated. Then if they don’t treat us back that way, sometimes they’re very sorry.

BOB: I see.

SONNY: But the 10 commandments are basically a good example. We don’t lie to each other, we don’t steal from each other, and we don’t fool around with each other’s wives. You know what I mean?

BOB: Yes.

SONNY: We live a very moral life when you get right down to it, within ourselves.

BOB: That’s with the club members?

SONNY: Yes.

BOB: So then anybody outside of the club is fair game?

SONNY: They get treated the way they treat us. I mean there’s always the exception. Maybe one time out of a thousand some guy might get beat up or treated bad that don’t have it coming, but normally I think I can say in all honesty, I’ve never hurt anybody in my life that wasn’t trying to hurt me or mine.

BOB: In your book you have a story about the first time that you were arrested in a motorcycle incident. It was after a party and you tried to drive your motorcycle home drunk. You cracked up into some guy’s parked car, and when he came out and was concerned about your condition, you blamed him for the accident because of where he parked his car, and beat him up.

SONNY: No, I didn’t beat him up. I tried to but I could hardly even get up.

BOB: You’ve recovered from a heart attack, throat cancer, and being broadsided on your motorcycle going 70 MPH by a pickup truck. Have any of these life-shattering events ever prompted you to think about your mortality?

SONNY: No, it just wasn’t my time.

BOB: So it just goes back to what you’ve already said.

SONNY: Exactly.

BOB: You were in the middle of some of the greatest turbulence and nation changing historical events of 20th century America. How would you describe the 1960s in a nutshell.

SONNY: I don’t know? That’s very hard to sum up, but it was like the sixties were just a good time. They’ll never happen again. Nobody in the world will let happen what happened in the sixties happen again. I was a very fortunate person. It would be nice if I was only 25 or 30 years old again, but I lived through some really good times.

BOB: Do you think what happened in the 60s produced a better world today?

SONNY: I’m not sure how to answer that, but I think every life experience makes you better.
BOB: Do you think that the way people thought changed because of the 60s.

SONNY: Oh, I’m sure it did. Yeah.

BOB: From what you’re saying it seems that you just took one day at a time.

SONNY: Everyday of my life has been one day at a time.

Carolyn Arends

 

 

The first time that I saw Carolyn Arrends was in 1996 when I was covering a Jefferson Starship concert in Portland, Oregon at the

Aladdin theater for a Deadhead publication called Duprees Diamond News. She was the opening act and I knew nothing about her, but

as soon as she began to perform I sensed something different about her music. By the lyrical content of the songs and the musical

presentation I concluded that she was a Christian and talked to her briefly during intermission before Jefferson Starship came on. My

suspicions were confirmed and I became a fan. Since that time she’s released 10 albums and written 3 books.  Her official website is at :

http://carolynarends.com/about/#sthash.wcV3DbRl.dpuf

 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/bob%20gersztyn

Rock & Roll and Religion

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xzr_GBa8qk

Rock & roll and religion is like oil and water to some, who see foot tapping beats as the entrance of the highway to hell. Then to others the combination is as natural as peanut butter and jelly, as mega churches build massive cathedrals with worship bands that have recording contracts. Ever since Alan Freed coined the term rock & roll and Ike Turner and Bill Haley recorded “Rocket 88” and “Rock Around The Clock,” there has been controversy about the place that rock & roll should have in the life of a Christian. One guilt-ridden musician once asked me if I could see Jesus playing an electric guitar, to which I answered, “Yes, He could have put the parables to music and sung them to the crowd.”

Before there was rock & roll there was Black gospel which was the flip side of Blues. Many of the early gospel singers during the early and mid 20^th century played both genres and in some cases were even ministers with churches. One of the earliest gospel rockers, and certainly the most successful was Sister Rosetta Tharpe. She was born in Arkansas in 1915 and her mother was a COGIC (Church of God in Christ) minister. She began performing in church services at the age of 4 and continued to do so in a traveling gospel show. She married a COGIC minister named Thomas Thorpe in 1934 and after divorcing him, used a variation of his name for her stage name.  She was signed to Decca Records and in 1938 she performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City as part of John Hammond’s Spirituals To Swing concert. Her performance was controversial, since at the time women didn’t play guitar and gospel had never been incorporated with blues and jazz in public performances before secular audiences previously. Then she regularly performed at Harlem’s Cotton Club with Cab Calloway. Sister Rosetta’s popularity continued to soar and she was remarried before a crowd of 25,000 people in Washington D.C.’s Griffith Stadium in 1951. Afterwards she performed a gospel concert in her wedding dress.

 

Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s popularity continued to soar until she recorded a blues album in 1953 and then fell out of favor with her main audience, church going Christians who considered blues the Devil’s music. Her popularity rose again by the time the 1960s brought the rock revolution and a fascination with its primitive music roots. She performed with both gospel and blues stars like James Cleveland and Muddy Waters. Tharpe continued to perform until her death in 1973 at the age of 58, but her legacy lives on in her recording and the proliferation of her performances on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeaBNAXfHfQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xzr_GBa8qk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR2gR6SZC2M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOrhjgt-_Qc

http://www.biography.com/people/sister-rosetta-tharpe-17172332

http://www.amazon.com/People-Get-Ready-History-Gospel/dp/0826417523

http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Rocks-World-volumes-Contemporary/dp/0313377707

The Purpose of Existence

Back in 1969, I was a hippie college student, going to college on the G.I. Bill, after my discharge from the army that I was drafted into in 1966. I was raised a Roman Catholic and continued to follow that faith, until it was obliterated in my expanded mind. One of my favorite hippie pastimes was going on LSD and mescaline trips. Some of them were very intense and life altering, as far as thinking about reality was concerned. During the summer of 1969, in Michigan where I lived, marijuana was harder to find than LSD. All the hippies were taking acid unless they had bad trips that turned them off to the mind altering hallucinogen. It was also the summer of Woodstock, the Baby Boomer rock music festival that established that generation as significant adults, who could vote and engineer gatherings of nearly ½ million.

Some of the LSD was imported from San Francisco by outlaw motorcycle gang members, who belonged to clubs like the Hells Angels, Mongols, and many others. If you knew a biker you could score big time, with some of the most perfectly manufactured LSD since Sandoz Pharmaceutical Labs ceased to produce the entheogen. Some of it was manufactured by Owsley Stanley, the Grateful Dead’s light technician and personal chemist. Marty was the name of the biker that I was connected with. I first met him through Marvin, a friend that I made in my first semester of college after getting discharged from the army. Marvin just got discharged from the army around the same time that I did, and he was also attending college on the G.I. Bill, so we hung out and partied together after school.

I purchased 5 hits of what Marty told me was Owsley Orange, for $3.00 each. It looked like dried orange plaster and was broken into hits ¼ inch square and 1/16 inch thick. He told me to only take ½ a tab because it was a heavy dose. When I left his house, I took ½ of one of the tabs as I was driving past Detroit City airport on Outer Drive the East side at around 7:30 PM. After I got home a little past 8:00 PM, I put 4 tabs of acid in my dresser drawer and took the other ½ tab at around 8:10 PM. Then I found out that Marvin had called, so I called him back and he said that he would be coming by with his fiancée, Mary, to pick me up to go to our hangout, the Duchess lounge, around 9:00 PM. I told him that I got some good acid from Marty and I already took some, so to be on time. He assured me that he would, so I got ready to go and by 8:30 I was feeling the effects of the drug. I killed time by listening to the radio until a few minutes before 9:00 PM when I shut it off and went upstairs from the basement and sat in a chair on our front porch.

It seemed like an eternity that I waited for Marvin to show up, but that was because the effect of the entheogenic agent was escalating. When he finally arrived I ran to his car and got in, as he drove off and tried to make small talk. I was succumbing to the effects of the hallucinogenic agent, so I was reticent and watched the lights as they burned with an intensity that I never noticed before and seemed to blur like a slow shutter speed photograph. When we arrived at the Duchess, it was a normal Tuesday night with a small crowd. The last thing that I remembered after we were seated was ordering a bottle of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, as the bar maid left, leaving a trail of stardust behind her as she walked away through a membrane that separated our reality from another one.

That other reality is where I remained for most of the rest of the night. It was the first time that I travelled there, although it wasn’t my last. I had dropped acid with Marvin and by myself around 30 times by now, but this was my first real trip, where I left my body and experienced the death of my ego and the birth of a new reality. The rest of the night was a traumatic experience, until finally a biker chick helped me come back to reality, and I truly became born again for the first time. As spring became summer I continued to trip, and by September when my second year of college started I was a veteran inner space astronaut.

I was taking an English writing class, where we read fictional short stories by everyone from Franz Kafka to F. Scott Fitzgerald, and wrote essays analyzing them. We also wrote papers about a variety of other subjects and were even given the opportunity to choose our own topic. For this paper I chose “The Purpose of Existence” as my topic. I drew my inspiration from the mind altering LSD trips that I was taking and had concluded that the purpose of existence was to fuck, because it served a double function of sustaining the existence of our species as well as achieving the greatest sensual pleasure possible in a relationship with another person.

I was given a B- grade for my paper, which in some ways was generous. As I read the paper today, 44 years later, I found that my logic was too simplistic and my examples were poor and even flawed. Over the next 2 years I continued to trip until my brain was completely fried and I decided to quit using mind expanding drugs and turn to religion for answers, since that is why they existed and most of them had been around for thousands of years. Since I was raised a Roman Catholic, I dedided that I was a Christian and decided to stick with what I already knew. I dug into it deeper, by beginning to read the Bible, starting with the gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.

A few months later I transferred my job with the postal service to Los Angeles, where I became a born again Jesus freak and discarded my pagan philosophies and theological systems and fully embraced conservative fundamentalist Pentecostal Protestant theology. After studying the Bible by repeatedly reading it, and attending church four days a week, I finally attended and graduated from Bible college where I read the scriptures in Greek and Hebrew.

After graduation I became a licensed and ordained minister, working as an associate pastor of a Foursquare church in the Los Angeles inner city with my wife and three children. The next 35 years saw me leave the ministry, travel the country searching for God’s will, until finally settling down in Salem, Oregon, where I worked for the US Postal Service until I retired and then drove a cab for 9 years. During the same four decades, I also worked as a freelance photographer, writer, and journalist covering rock and religion, first for the church and then for a variety of publications. Then one day, around 2003 or so, I began to think about my conclusions regarding the purpose of existence from 1969.

I began to think to myself, “if the Bible was actually inspired by God, then it should explain the purpose of existence. Where would that purpose be given?” I thought and then concluded that if God intended the Bible to be the answer to all of life’s questions and mysteries then it should be in an obvious place. The most obvious place I concluded would be the first sentence of the first paragraph of the first page of the first chapter of the first book of the Bible, better known as Genesis 1:1a. When you read Genesis using the Hebrew original language, the first words of the Bible are “Beresheet bara elohim,” which translate as “In the beginning God created.”

“In the beginning God created,” wow I thought, this is the same conclusion that I came to in 1969 on an acid trip. Creation is the purpose of existence. Creation is the source of one of humanity’s greatest pleasures as well as the way that we ensure the continuation of our existence. This is what God inspired the writer of the book of Genesis to say, and it was chosen by the Church Fathers to be the first book of their sacred text in their new religion called Christianity. Now it has been 17 centuries since the council of Nicea and the Bible is the central book for the Christian religion in both the Protestant and Roman Catholic sects.

The Second Century Church

When I was studying for a Master’s Degree in Ancient History from Cal State L.A. in 1980, I wrote a paper that could have been my Master’s thesis if I had completed the program. The title of the paper was “The History of the 2^nd Century CE (AD)  Church.” I wrote it for an independent study history class where you choose any subject that you want. I chose that one because ministers were always talking about how we had to get back to the 1^st century church and I decided to find out what happened during the 2^nd century to change the church. What I found was a variety of flavors of Christianity that were slowly eliminated or restricted, until the Catholic (Universal) church based in Rome became the final religious authority.

During this time period, important doctrinal issues were committed to writing by theologians and apologists like Clement, Origin, and Tertullian. Tertullian was a lawyer prior to his conversion to Christianity, and he used his persuasive skills to propound his theological beliefs to the church at the end of the 2^nd century. His most famous doctrines were that of the “Trinity,” which establishes that God is 3 separate persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost all rolled up into one, along with establishing the necessity of the divinity of Christ.

Tertullian eventually joined Montanus who claimed that he was the incarnation of the Holy Spirit and followed him out onto a plain where Roman soldiers mistakenly slaughtered them as insurrectionists. Tertullian is known as the father of Latin theology, because he, as an upper class Roman, began to write theology in Latin rather than Greek, the common language of the people at the time. This made Christianity appealing to upper class Romans, who held all the power.

All this got me thinking, and I found that I was confused, because I was working as an associate pastor at an Evangelical fundamentalist Pentecostal church at the time. I had a wife and 3 kids and didn’t want to return to working at the post office where I had been for 6 years prior to Bible college. I was an ordained and licensed Foursquare minister and wanted to help others find the salvation of Jesus Christ like I did. The only thing was, I was seeing a theological system that was evolving as it reacted to questions and issues raised within its ranks. This was still happening today and I was part of it, because the Jesus movement that I was part of was a result of the reaction that the established Christian church had to the counter culture youth movement of the 1960s. The counter culture was fueled by a mystical belief system that resulted from the ingestion of mind altering substances ranging from marijuana and hashish to LSD, mescaline, Psilocybin, DMT, and STP.

Once hippies exhausted the potential of the entheogenic agents to expand their understanding of the universe, they turned to established religion. My own search had absorbed me into the Jesus movement which was in full swing in 1971. I entered it and was transformed by it, into a godly person who eschewed everything that was worldly and part of my old life. I did this to the point of offending friends and relatives, as I was driven by the need to provide a witness of my conversion. After years of faithfulness and study I was in God’s perfect will or so I thought, as doctrinal differences within the church continued to rear their ugly heads. 

I was completely immersed in academic study and ministry, but my family demanded attention as well. I didn’t know what to do other than try to find God’s perfect will for my life, so I began to search for it, as Jonah did for Nineveh. I believed that the geographic location made a difference in God’s will, and it did, only I wasn’t listening. Initially I felt called to the Pacific Northwest, centering the state of Oregon, so we moved there. I wrote the 2^nd Century church paper during that move and didn’t actually turn it in for a grade until I eventually returned to Los Angeles after moving cross country 3 times, totaling 4,000 miles in an 8 month period.

I continued to flee from God’s will until I racked up another 4 cross country moves totaling another 7,000 miles of cross country travel over another 4 years, until we ended up in Salem, Oregon. It’s been 27 years since we arrived in Salem and 33 years since we first left L.A. to minister to the Pacific Northwest, and I must confess that a lot has happened along the way. In fact it’s been another lifetime. During that new lifetime I lived another existence that helped me focus my direction by using everything that came before it, into the future. The future is now, because I can only live so long until my time is up. I now go back to my paper from a lifetime ago and I find that I now follow Gnostic theology, even if it is self styled, because I now believe in do-it-yourself religion, since I have achieved a level of knowledge that allows me to see past most of the bullshit.