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Monday, March 31, 2008

Deepak Chopra endorses Barack Obama?

Spiritual author offers another understanding of Jesus
'Third Jesus' is mystical and radical, but not institutional, Deepak Chopra says.
By Eileen Flynn, AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF




When Deepak Chopra's new book "The Third Jesus" landed on my desk, I was worried. I wondered, half seriously, whether I had missed the second Jesus.

I have to admit I was tempted to cast the book onto my pile of other titles offering new insights on the Christian messiah. But when I found out Chopra, a famous author and advocate of alternative medicine, would be visiting BookPeople today, I decided to crack "The Third Jesus." It opens this way:

"Jesus left behind a riddle that two thousand years of worship hasn't solved. The riddle can be stated in one sentence: Why are Jesus' teachings impossible to live by?"

Not difficult, mind you. Not challenging. But impossible. I was intrigued.

The third Jesus, Chopra said, stands behind the historical Jesus and the institutional Jesus created by church leaders to fit a theology. The third Jesus, he says, is mystical, cosmic and far more challenging to follow.

Of course, Chopra isn't the first writer to call for a closer examination of Jesus' message or to argue that most Christians don't really understand their own faith. But he provides a unique perspective, having learned about Jesus and the Golden Rule as a non-Christian from Irish Catholic missionaries in India and having moved from a fascination with the rituals of the Catholic Church to a deeper appreciation of Christ's radical teachings.

He said he came to realize that the Golden Rule, taken literally, means you must treat your enemy as your equal, "which means in essence you can have no enemies," Chopra writes. "It calls upon a country not to wage war (or defend itself if attacked). It demands complete empathy for criminals and evildoers."

Many Christians would not agree with this interpretation. But at a time when it seems more believers are searching for ways to carry out that radical message in their daily lives, Chopra's ideas are an important part of the conversation.

In a phone interview, Chopra explained the three distinct concepts of Jesus and talked openly about the use of Jesus in the political sphere (he likes Sen. Barack Obama's approach).
Chopra breaks down the three versions of Jesus like this: First we have the historical Jesus, the man who lived some two millennia ago in Judea, the man about whom we have recorded, albeit differing, accounts.

The second Jesus, he said, represents the institution of the church, which dates to Constantine's conversion in the 4th century, when Christianity became the official Roman religion.
The institution-created Jesus, he says, fueled the crusades, abortion clinic bombings and homophobia. Yet, were it not for the institution, he added, "I wouldn't be speaking English with you right now. ... You wouldn't have all this wonderful work going on in Africa. So this institutional Jesus has two faces: divine and diabolical."

But the third Jesus, he said, reveals the divine within everyone.

One of the complaints I hear from Christians is that Jesus gets used as a political football, an idea I couldn't resist raising with Chopra as we find ourselves approaching of the presidential primaries here in Texas.

"Do you ever hear any hint of the third Jesus in the rhetoric of the current presidential candidates?" I asked him.

Chopra didn't miss a beat.

"I do not," he said, "for the simple reason that politics is unfortunately a game of power, and when you play that game, you say what you think will be perceived as the most popular thing to say."

But, he quickly added, "I sense a spiritual awakening when Obama speaks. And he doesn't evoke religion to do it. ... He's not pandering to religious belief, and yet his message is very transformative and refreshing and spiritual to me."

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