Theos-Talk Archives (June 1997 Message tl00662)

In a message dated 97-06-28 19:49:43 EDT, Liesel wrote:

>  Nobody
>  has apologized to me yet for dragging CWL through the mud repeatedly.

Dear Liesel,

I have mixed feelings about CWL. First of all, I truly liked his book "The
Inner Life" (the only one I have by him) and feel that he made a wonderful
contribution to humanity by writing it. Secondly, without having "been
there", there is no way for me to judge whether he did the things that he was
accused of or not. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt about these
things DESPITE a) having been abused myself as a child by an uncle whose
death was an occasion for great joy and jubiliation <g>; and b) having worked
with a rape crisis center for three years. Charges like this are so serious,
IMHO, and distressing that the damage they can do if unjustly brought is
absolutely horrendous.

At the same time, some really compelling information was posted to the list
by Alan (I think it was you, Alan. Correct me if I'm wrong.) that has me
really torn about it. And, I can understand his wanting to show that the idol
has clay feet if indeed he does. Yet at the same time, having clay feet doesn
not necessarily detract from the quality of the information he shared. I
believe that there is an extremely critical point (perhaps more than one) in
spiritual development where powerful energies are being realigned (with
temporary imbalances occuring), chakras are being forced open, and the person
is in danger of becoming involved in a variety of sexual (and other)
activities like the ones that CWL is accused of. So the main feeling I have
about this is wanting to express the quality of compassion for all involved:
for CWL regardless of the truth or wrongfulness of the accusations; for those
making the accusations; etc. This whole CWL issue is extremely complex.
>
>  RE teaching masturbation in the schools. I think you're right that it
>  shouldn't be mandatory. It's one of those areas that's really private,
even
>  though teaching it is meant to prevent teen mothers, which is a very
public
>  issue, involving lots of tax money. I think it should be a choice the
>  parents and kids make. I'm including it at the choice of the kids too,
>  because some parents don't give a hoot one way or the other, and some kids
>  might, and I'm with CWL, if they masturbate they'll not make babies.

You're right that auto-eroticism is not a fertile activity. ;-D In fact, when
this whole thread started about CWL, the first thought that popped into mind
was St. Paul's injunction about it being better to marry than to burn. (Or
was it when we had the celibacy thread? For a list devoted to a
spiritually-oriented philosophy, we talk about sex a lot! That's one reason
why I can't wait for each digest of theos-l to download. ;-D)

But the problem is that it should *not* be a public issue. Before everything
began falling under the purview of the government, teen (or single) mothers
were the issue of private organizations. Tax dollars were not involved. Folks
might say that those days were terrible because of "shame", etc. imposed on
single mothers, but what's wrong with a little shame? (If there was a bit
more "shame" about our behavior, we may just behave a bit better all around.)
This is just another example of things that individuals and groups should be
doing for themselves being abstracted (and totally secularized) to
government. It's the same argument that was given when they were trying (and
succeeded in) pass the motorcycle helmet laws. Those on the side of
individuals wanting to be able to make their own decisions about personal
safety were told about the public expense of paying for devastating brain
injuries. Well, why should government be paying for that in the first place?
Once we move beyond the assumption that all problems are the government's and
the taxpayers' (really!) responsibility, we may be able to come up with
better solutions than one-size-fits-all (which teaching masturbation in
public schools is).

Lynn