49th Live Stream with Carlton Pearson - Why do you believe what you do?

About this sermon

What do you believe and why do you believe it? Cognitive dissonance is the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change. Millions of people the world over are experiencing this dissonance in personal and profound ways with regard to religious traditions and even some of the emerging social mores or moorings. Psychologists describe Cognitive Dissonance as the distressing mental state that people feel when they "find themselves doing things that don't fit with what they know, or having opinions that do not fit with other opinions they hold." In my over 40 years of ordained ministry, I have encountered this in thousands of people struggling with what they believed theologically and what they were experiencing personally. What you believe and what you know are, more often than not, in conflict these days. Your reality and your idealistic "fantasies," including what you believe about God, Jesus, the bible, holiness, heaven and hell, etc, are shifting and the world is being forced to reconsider what they believe and why they believe it. As so-called "people of faith," many are coming to the conclusion that they can no longer ignore or hide their theological crisis in the business- as-usual attitude of the "church," regardless of whether it's Judaism, Christianity, Islam or several other faith traditions. This was recently admitted by Exodus Intl, a Christian based organization that for the last 27 years, has taught that gay people can and should be changed to straight orientations through therapy, prayer and scriptural practices etc. They apologized and closed their organization down. Within the Catholic Church there is internal pressure from clergy for rule changes pertaining to sexual mores, especially regarding homosexuality. According to a recent USA Today article by Brett M Decker, consulting director at the White House writers group: "The pink elephant in the chancery rarely discussed is the large percentage, perhaps even a majority, of priests have been gay for decades....An institution cannot successfully continue to hold the line against a lifestyle supported by a large number of its officials. Eventually, an organization lives what it teaches or it adapts its teachings to reflect how it lives." The Roman Catholic Church is facing a kind of civil war as the new Pope Francis has put the 1.1 billion Catholics on notice that major changes are on the way. Polls routinely show that a majority of Catholics favor more permissiveness. The same is becoming increasingly true for many evangelicals, reformists Jews and progressive Muslims the world over. Carlton Pearson After college at the Oral Roberts University in Tulsa Oklahoma he served for 15 years on its Board of Regents, and two years as Associate Evangelist of The Oral Roberts Association, (ORA). In 1977, Pearson founded Higher Dimensions Ministries (now New Dimensions ), in Tulsa, which grew to over 5,000. Bishop Pearson was consecrated to the office of Bishop in 1996 thru a College of Bishops headed by Bishop Charles E Blake, presently the Presiding Bishop of the Churches of God In Christ, the denomination he was raised in and through whom he was ordained in 1971. In 1993, Carlton married the former Gina Marie Gauthier who is a professional Life Coach and Yoga teacher. More recently, he has felt a passion to proclaim the "Gospel Of Inclusion" and has written a widely acclaimed book by that name, published by Simon and Schuster. It confronts the Christian church's exclusivism as being inconsistent, in spirit with the teachings of Jesus. Pearson's frank and often controversial take on a number of different subjects has earned him appearances on television programs such as NBC and MSNBC's Dateline, ABC's Nightline, 20/20, Good Morning America, CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, BET Tonight with Tavis Smiley, The Edge with Paula Zahn and Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, The Monique Show on BET, and a number of other television, radio and print media outlets. Bishop Pearson was recognized as one of America's 10 Most Influential Black Ministers by Gospel Today and Belief.net. He has received several honorary doctoral degrees. Bishop Pearson recently served as the Interim Senior Minister at Christ Universal Temple in Chicago. He and Gina now host New Dimensions of Chicago, building a local multi-cultural and radically Inclusive spiritual community that emphasizes expanded consciousness and Self Actualization. His newest book, God Is Not A Christian, Nor A Jew, Muslim, Hindu...God Dwells With Us, In Us, Around Us, As Us was published by Simon and Schuster and released in the spring of 2010. Visit our Youtube Channel for more video! Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/bishoppearson Website: http://www.bishoppearson.com Join Email List: http://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/d.jsp?llr=cqgwpvn6&p=oi&m=1011112155650

Topics

• Faith