In short: Because the potter loves the pottery which is created in and of love as the potter is and the pottery gives meaning to the life of the potter. It is basically a matter of treating everything with dignity is it not? However, if we feel we place no value on ourself we will not give it to another. This is the subconscious mindset the cloak of spirituality can conceal.

The long version:

Yes, guilty as charged, sort of. I speak as one who has known of Jesus as a Big Brother and confidant for over six decades who no longer can call herself Christian due to doctrinal absurdities that have been brought to my attention by the Holy Spirit. For eight years I have been a dedicated student of A Course In Miracles (ACIM) which is not supposed to be a religion but a personalized philosophy that leads one to walk with the Holy Spirit/Inner Voice, which according to the Course is God and our Highest Self (Soul). (The original scribe of the material was an atheist jew who did the writing because of an undeniable attraction she had for a co-worker. I suggest Jesus was getting desperate for our welfare as a race as he suggested according to the biography of the Course’s origins.)

Interestingly, the editor, who was not the original scribe, by his own admission “having gone over the Course word by word with the scribe to be sure it had been gotten down correctly” was a man who believed in the metaphysical and had already shown he desired to exit this existence of duality before he found the Course by nearly committing to a life of a silent (Catholic) monk. Here again in his words he confessed to not having studied or even had an interest in Catholicism or its spiritual side for long.

The point is that his teaching of the Course worldwide, which he claimed by overseeing the translation into other languages, suggests monism (1.a theory or doctrine that denies the existence of a distinction or duality in some sphere, such as that between matter and mind, or God and the world).

With this understanding, I see the teachings of Jesus in the Bible and in ACIM as very misunderstood in the world. My faith today is such that I see only God in all that is and as the Creator of all manifestation; physical or energetic without boundaries of dimension or extension. The “created”, that which is manifested or has a consciousness of itself I see as “The Son” or “Christ”.

Beyond this, and only for the purpose and time of learning, which is basically the “undoing” or “atoning” of the idea of Separation is the Holy Spirit.

My comments would address then the situation you describe of the pottery and the potter, which I see as the Created/Son/Christ and the Creator/Father/God. (Even the use of “I” is being eradicated in our society to eliminate the individual and if that is not what anyone has promoted when they want to “create a new world” -I am thinking of Nazi’s or communism here- I do not know what is.)

My peers in the study of ACIM, which was channeled by Jesus of Nazareth according to the original scribe, promote the very concepts, often in those very words that you write in your article, and I do believe that it is exactly what keeps us from truly embracing the “atonement” (Not the crucifixion, resurrection, ascension in form but the spiritual concept.) that Jesus has been asking us to join him in.

My dilemma is that my peers seem to have risen to some esoteric place where they can deny the very reality of creation by recognizing, solely, the Creator and even then denying Him and enlisting a non-dualistic Self in His place. Everything in my being and circumstance testifies that I have existence as an individuated part of creation (I am not talking form here, but consciousness and sovereignty). Even though today I understand that I have never left the “body/mind” of the Creator.

All of my life experiences have caused me to fight for identity and allowance of existence. I have not succumbed to physical destruction but psychologically I have been tested and continue to face opposition to my own existence in the very concepts that you speak of in your article.

I believe this is key to humanity arising out of its current cycle of contention and strife which your article pointed out so well.

This kind of discussion will give us an opportunity to see the need for the atonement Jesus wants us to join him in so that we can have all that the Father desires to bless us with. And interestingly, we cannot leave out Hitler, Jesus, or anyone else we have angst against within this equation (including anyone who has differing political views) or we deny our own inheritance and reality.

I think that may be behind the pretense of “Love conquers all” rally cry. Meaning that it somehow covers up that which he or she would rather not have in the equation of the Whole. Which really defeats the idea of unity and oneness that is proclaimed. And I suspect that you have picked up on this and are trying to expose it, which I enthusiastically and gratefully applaud.