As we look at our relationship with God, let us begin by considering the use or the overuse of the Bible. Since its beginning, people have put much importance on the book called the Bible. Many say it contains the mind and will of God. Others say the words in the Bible literally originate from God. ...those who claim such high esteem for the Bible my well be in danger of deifying it: that is-making it a god. The lofty status of the Bible has lead those who esteem it thus to follow codes and formulas which have lead them to a place akin to a castle keep replete with moat and battlements. But not a single castle...many and thousands of them! Each of these flies a different flag and holds to a different code and formula. Each citadel believes they have arrived at the understanding of what it is to have the only acceptable arrangement with God; how to appease Him while enjoying an insider's view of His true nature. I'm not saying that the Bible, in and of itself is bad or can be blamed for our overuse of it as inspired Godly concepts and revelations are in there; however, what I would like us to consider at this time is the fact that Godly concepts and these revelations of God, can be found many other places as well. And I don't mean some abbreviated, shrunk down version of revelation-revelation. It can be found within experiences of meditation or in experiences with nature while contemplating God's creation which is all around us all the time. The more we get sucked into the Bible method, the more we tend to think of God as being critical of our actions as His main thing...and that He is constantly looking at us through eyes of scrutiny rather than eyes of love. We can only see our own personally-biased aspect of God; that is to say, we are paranoid about how God is regarding us: are we doing things correctly?! Subsequently, as we take on these aspirations to please (or appease) God by our behavior, we hold accountable those around us to do the same. Being caught in this Bible method in the end will render a highly inaccurate version of God and His nature. To focus only on this Bible-eyed view of God is to really focus more on a judgmental God who is ready to pounce...a God that has to do with our personal destinies. The real God is much more than this; He is creative and loving. Can we come to a broader perspective of these aspects of God using the Bible method? How often are these aspects of God's nature brought to the foreground in sermons or in church study groups (without referencing the sinful nature of man); let alone researched or made a matter of deep worship? How often is His creative nature referenced in the Bible other than the telling of the 7-day story of creation as presented in the first few pages? This just gives us the fact that God did create; what about His process of creating; that His creativity is relentless and all-pervasive; and the mind-blowing scope and diversity of His creation? These areas are rarely if ever broached by Christian study groups. The fact that this overwhelming and even outrageous aspect of His nature is overlooked or worse-swept under the rug speaks loudly that Christian traditions based upon the Bible method are in effect denying Him this awesome part of His nature. Is this not a breach of the First Commandment? I am the Lord thy God thou shalt not have strange gods before me! Though we proclaim His divinity as Christians, if our interpretation of His nature is incorrect, how does this inaccurate interpretation not render a strange god in our collective mind's eye? This is a strange god whom we have come to embrace and promote within our faith tradition. As this misrepresentation has lived on and flourished over the ages conventional Christian beliefs have perpetrated the lie and perpetuated this puny image of God. We begin to see the danger of being so mono-focused in the promotion of the Bible method and by lifting the Bible up to be, in essence, the 4th person of the Trini
About the Author: James was born and baptized as an infant into a long and broad Catholic tradition. He was educated in the 50s and 60s by Catholic nuns, priest and good Catholic lay teachers. He attended seriously strict, and academically-oriented Catholic Schools where he attended daily masses celebrated in Latin. James graduated from Catholic Central High School in 1969. In 1970, he had a conversion experience and was baptized (for the second time) into a derivative of the Mormon persuasion and in 1993 He was ordained a Priest into that same faith persuasion. In1999, at age 48, James was married for the first and only time and in 2001 he, along with his wife Diann began to develop an interactive curriculum for teaching kids how to interface proactively together. It was designed to interleave with conventional study subjects and add the dimension of building a team approach to learning. In this way a team approach would not only bring a supportive rather than competitive tone to the learning process; but it would serve to build a fun, creative spirit which the whole classroom could enjoy. This curriculum eventually grew into an education paradigm called IPPI (Integrating Proactive Persons Initiative). Throughout the first half of the millennial decade James and Diann worked hard promoting their program; while they had little monetary success, their endeavoring yielded for them much experience and expertise in launching team-building and community-building initiatives. Feeling that much of their lack of traction in marketing their program stemmed from people's seeming inability to grasp the real nuts and bolts of the IPPI concept, James thought an in-depth explanation of it might help. In 2010, with this end in mind James began to write what would eventuate into this book: the Jesus clone.