Transcript:
Ken Turner: Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you, Tom. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Mark, thank you so much. That is the way to enter a room. I'm telling you. Huh? Boom. First of all, before we get started, I want to share with you something that I believe everyone should do. Okay? Is that all right with you? Yes? Okay. Once a year you should come to here, Tom. Right? Once a year, at least, you should make that your Mecca trip to come and hear Tom. Right?
Now, we were fortunate, we were here last year for the conference, so that gave us last year. And then we're here again, so I can speak from experience that's a very worthwhile thing to do. Now, we start our service occasionally with this special prayer. And I'd like to share with you a special affirmation, really. And as I share it with you, I'd like you just to center yourself on the reality of where you are, who you are, and what Unity is. And then, move yourself, embrace the bigger picture of all of that. You, Unity, and where you are.
There's an infinite source available to everyone. It's there for each who seek it, no matter their race, gender, or religion. Believe what you may, but know that the source of the universe is also the source of each of us, and therefore, the power that's in the stars is the power that is within each and available to each of us. As you accept it, so it manifests. Blessings and bless. So it is.
Wow. I was picking up my wife, because I was running late as usual. And as I drove up, she was in the other car. And she said, "Come on." Now, you know those of you that are with someone, when that "come on" comes, you know it's time to move, right? And I said, "I'm on the phone. I'm on the phone." And she looked with that loving look. And I responded, "I'm on the phone." But I didn't want to let her know what was going on. But as we were getting into the car to get to the parking to go to the airport, Mark was saying, "Could you do me a favor?" I said, "Sure, Mark, what is it?" He said, "Present tomorrow." "Sure, Mark. Why not?" And that's how I came to be up here. So when Mark and Tom asked me, "Do you have props? Do you have slides?" I said, "You're lucky to get me."
I want to greet you from Unity of Chicago, South Chicago's newest spiritual center, expansion ministry. Thank you.
I have an honor that not too many people will ever have. Ever. I was at the senior minister at the oldest African American New Thought Institute in the state of Illinois. And then I pioneered the newest Unity in the city of Chicago. Come on, how good is that? How good is that? Now, I doubt today if I'll share anything new or even make known what's unknown to you. But I hope that we can explore a fresher, a different blend of our knowledge.
Now, I want to give you an alert. My next book is, the working title at least is, Metaphysics: A Magic. So it kind of works up today what are we going to do. But I'd like to have some fun before our next presenter comes up. And I do want to say to Mark one thing. If you ever put me after Tom again, I will shoot you. Spiritually I will shoot you. If you would indulge me just for a moment, and I want you to relax, and at some point close your eyes and go on a journey with me.
And this journey, I want you to see someone, or see yourself even. If you are a male, see yourself in a bow tie. A bow tie that you feel is beautiful, is lovely. And if you're a woman, see yourself in a beautiful scarf. And now I want you to imagine that you are surrounded by lovely, newly painted white walls and a beautifully new appointed floor. I want you to hear the recorded music coming through your favorite spiritual, your favorite gospel tune. And now I want you to put yourself behind the lectern looking out at the people. I want you to bask in that just for a moment. Are you there? Is anyone there? Are you there yet? I hear one person that they're there. Now I want you to come back, excuse me, to this place. And I want you to open your eyes and just stretch a little bit. You have just visualized, you have just taken yourself from this physical place to Unity of Chicago South, and you were behind our lectern talking to us.
You physically were here, but you transported yourself beyond your physical. And I want you to hold onto that. Beyond your physical self you actually transported yourself some place else and you actually saw yourself behind the lectern there. Now, I want to share one more story with you, if I could. And I want your opinion. I do. Imagine a child in a bassinet in the hospital. And imagine that the parents are in the hospital room celebrating the birth of their new child. And imagine someone comes into that nursery and decides that they want that child. And imagine them taking that child out of the hospital and claiming that child for their own.
If you were the parent, would you ever give up looking for the child? That's really a question. We need response. No. I've hit some no's. Did somebody back there say it depends on what the child grew up to be? Did somebody say that? No? No, you probably would not stop wanting, searching, looking for that child, because that's your child. Right? That's your child. So no matter what happened to that child, that's still your child. Well, I want you to hold onto those thoughts, and I want you to hold onto the journey that you took, because they're going to come into play a little bit later.
The journey that you took was metaphysical in nature. You were beyond the physical because your physical was right here. And you left this place and you were behind the lectern talking to my congregation. And that child that laid in the bassinet that was yours represents Christianity as you know it. As you know it. And there are those that have tried to obfuscate it, take it away from you. And you have to make a decision. And you made that decision. You said, "I want that child." That's where we are in Unity right now. We have Christianity being taken by the religious right, the evangelicals. And we have Christianity being taken by those that I like to call the left, or orthodox light. You know the ones that promise prosperity, good living, if you just follow the Bible the way I tell you. You've never heard of those? You spent your Sundays only in Unity? What's going on here?
Wait a minute. Let me go back to what Tom said. Let me go back to what Mark said. This is an interactive thing. When a question is asked, it's a real question. It's not rhetorical. In fact, I'll tell you when it's rhetorical, I'll say, "Rhetorical." So that means don't answer. So if you don't hear rhetorical, it's a real question. So, what do we do? What do we do? We have a choice. We can give up Christianity and say, "Go ahead and take it. I don't want it anymore. Forget it. If that's what you're going to do with it, take it. Go ahead on with it. Be what you want with it. I'm in Unity." Then what does Unity become? What do we hang our hat on, if not Christianity? What is different about any of the other practices?
They all have some similarities. They all have someone who became enlightened. Shared that enlightenment with others. No difference. So if you want to run away from Christianity, you'll only run to something very similar to Christianity. What does that mean? What does that mean for our challenge? And that's how I took the topic today that Mark shared with me. We have a challenge on how are we going to pursue growing Unity? That's our challenge. And we can stay stuck in, or we can decide to move forward? For what? Forward march. And if we decide to move forward, we were given a couple of things by Tom earlier. No, maybe it was Mark. And he talked about the underserved, the unserved. And we call them seekers.
When we meet, when our core group meets, someone says, "How are we going to appeal to the masses?" Now, I know none of you have had that issue. How are we going to appeal to the masses? And I calmly look at them. My wife usually is there, that's why I'm calm. And I say, "We're not looking for the masses." "What do we offer the people that believe in the Bible literally? And what do we offer the people that believe in the resurrection and the crucifixion? What do we offer them? How do we make it different?" And some of our people were at one time with Johnny Coleman and they said, "Well, when Johnny did it, she had this prosperity thing." And African American people hadn't ever heard of that, and so it was exciting. Now, what do we do?
I say to them, "First, our market is not those that are in church." If your Market is trying to convince those that are already in church that you have a better way, I say to you that you're missing a larger market. The underserved, the unserved, and the seekers. What is it that we give them? What is it that we bring to them? We bring to them our practice. Our practice has a long history. Our practice is deep in tradition. Truly deep in tradition. Now, I want to warn you, sometimes I have to put on my glasses because my writing gets cold. I'm not a quoter, but a mentioner. I will mention people, but don't look for the quotes. Okay? I'm not going to have them. I can tell you they're there, and you can go research them.
Jesus, the Christ, was a metaphysician. Jesus, the Christ, was a Jew. We all knew that, right? Everybody's looking at me like, "Right. Tell us something we didn't know. Give us some new stuff." Jesus did not carry a Bible. We don't see where he carried the Bible. I haven't found that in my reading. But he referred to scripture. Right? He referred to scripture. Some of us know some of the scriptures he referred to, right? Okay. Now, when he referred to those scriptures, did he redefine them? Did he use them in the context that would give the listener, the hearer, his audience a different perspective?
Does your scripture not say that ye are Gods? Trying to give them a personal connection with a divine presence, right? That's metaphysics. That's metaphysics. And you'll see that Jesus, the writings say that Jesus practiced this regularly. If I'm a Christian, which we'll get into a little bit, and this faith is Christian faith. More though, moreover, the fact that this practice follows the teachings of Jesus. You see, the teachings of Jesus. Why is that so different? We'll get to that. If in fact Jesus used metaphysics as he reinterpreted his own scripture, why should we feel ashamed by practicing what the head of our practice says to do?
That's the real question. We should have here, he said we shouldn't be ashamed. Okay, practice with me. We shouldn't be ashamed. Okay, very good. We're going to get there. Okay? We're going to get there. You're lucky, because Mark told me, he said, "The camera only goes from here to here." I would be down there right now. I'm just letting you know. We should not be ashamed of the metaphysical interpretation of Christianity. We should not be ashamed of the metaphysical interpretation of the Bible. And if I want to get to where Tom is, where I can say, stand with my brothers who don't believe what I believe and say it's okay, I prefer them just to do what they do. I'm being honest, I know this is screaming. I know I'm in trouble with someone, but that's not unusual. Not at all. But I prefer to be strong in what we do, and get so deep into what we do that I can share that and walk away from you if you don't believe me.
Just walk away. I'm not upset. Now, I'm talking about me. Now, I don't expect you to do this. You do what you do. As my wife says, "Do you." That's when she's really mad at me. "Do you." I know then I better go do me. No more talking, no more trying. No more honey. Just go and do me. Just go on.
Now, if we look at our history, we look at the history of metaphysics and we look at the history of Newthorne. And I know what was said, and I wasn't privy to the IMTA situation with the Fillmore. But we are a part of Newthorne. That's how I see it. This is very personal. I stand on that, we are a part of Newthorne and we are Christian. There's no doubt about it. But if we look at not just Jesus, but some of the metaphysical pioneers that we stand on their shoulders, we have nothing to be ashamed of. The Fillmores, Holmes, Quimby, and Hutchison, all were engrossed in reinterpreting for the betterment of mankind this book called the Bible. None of them had any desire to create a church.
We found out earlier that the Fillmores had no desire to start a church, but they lived from the result of their practice. They lived from the results of their practice. They taught from the results of their practice. So those of us that run away from metaphysics, maybe, I'm just saying, maybe we're not tight with our practice. Not an accusation to anyone, I'm just finding reasons why we would run away from who we are. Why we would want to leave who we are when we speak in the history of who we are. We're not a Johnny-come-lately. We may be only a 125, 30 years old, but we're practicing from ancient times.
I'm going to talk about metaphysics just a little bit more. We can talk about Christianity, but even when we go back to the ancient religions in Egypt, it was metaphysics. They didn't believe a man looked like a bird. They didn't believe that. That was trying to convey a deeper meaning. Metaphysics has been around in religion for eons, eons, and eons. When you interpret metaphysically, you should be proud. We should all be proud. In fact, I get a little arrogant, but I do. Just because you can't do it doesn't mean nothing to me, because I can. I can do this. You can't. You study trying to prove to me the history of the Bible, and I already know.
See, we don't just get metaphysics, do we? We get steeped into Bible history. You can teach some of the Evangelics Bible. You know about it. There's nothing to be ashamed of. I know Bible. I know Christianity. I know Jesus was not a Christian. That usually gets them. You really want to get them. Get them. That'll get them. That'll get them. And then when you can give it to him that you see what Jesus was teaching was a better way to live the Hebrew life. Maybe that's why they called it, what? The way. And what we do is to teach individuals to live a better life right where they are.
They don't have to convert. No, they don't have to do... What did they used to call it? The blood thing? The blood brothers? They don't have to do that. They only have to practice, believe, and try. That's what we teach. We're in the footsteps of a Jesus. Now, if you want to talk about conversions, you want to talk about Paul, that's a different story. That was Paul's job. If you want to talk about Christianity, you want to talk about Paul. That's what Paul did. Nothing bad about that. Nothing bad. Now, if my tone seems that I'm putting anyone down, that's just because you don't know me. If you knew me, you'd love me.
My tongue would be acceptable to you. You would say, "That's just him." So it is not, it's to bring an enlightenment to us. To share, as I said at the very beginning, things that we already know, but maybe mix them together in a different way. You kind of use the same ingredients to make a chocolate cake that you do for a white cake. Same. You just make a few adjustments. So that's all we're doing here is taking the knowledge that you already have and saying, let's just adjust it a little bit. Let's just fine tune it a little bit. Let's be proud that we are Christian metaphysicians. Let's be proud of that. And let's go out and teach from that place. We have no reason to have to stand back and stand down to those that proclaim, "I'm a Christian, and this is what Christians do, and this is what the Bible says."
Think about that. Truly think about it. As I look around the room and I see such a group that has studied and studied and studied, you know already that if you wanted to, you could take that person, sit them down and say, "Now, this is Bible. This is where it came from. This is how it was written. This was the idea behind it. These are the historical facts. These are the books." But you choose not to. And it's okay. But know in your heart that you have the capacity to do it. Know in your heart that you have the strength to do it. Because when you do that, you become more confident in what you do, do.
I want to tell you a story. Tom asked, "Who grew up in the church?" I couldn't even get my hand up almost raised. I just wouldn't do it. At 12 years old I left the church. I left the church because I couldn't handle the story. They didn't make sense to me. A friend of mine, we would drop a piece of candy on the ground. He said, "Pick it up and kiss it to God." I said, "No, I might lose something." I just ate it. It didn't make sense. And to some of the people that you deal with, it really doesn't make sense. And what you bring to them is a sensibility that they could work with. Sometimes it takes a while before it clicks. Sometimes it takes a while before they really, really get it.
But the thing that we have to remember is that we're on a mission, and our mission is to teach what? Christian metaphysics, a practical approach to Christianity. And I hope I can find the quote that I have. As I sat there with Tom I was like, "Just don't go too far into my stuff. Just touch on it, but don't go too far." And he was very gracious in not doing that.
Let's look at Christianity and let's look at the Bible in a different light. And if I'm running, make sure that you raise your hand, say, "You know, need to stop running." Just raise, I don't bite. Truly. I am from Chicago, but I do not bite. We want to look at Christianity in the new light. Christianity is really a launching point into spirituality. In itself is nothing. It's when the spirituality and the person become one, that's when something's really going on. And it doesn't matter what name it is, be it Buddhism, Islam, Krishna, it doesn't matter. We are all in the same boat. We are there to provide a platform for folks to become more spiritual. To allow the spirit that they are to come forth in their life. That's what we do. The Bible, it's not an anchor, it's a launching point.
Tom mentioned earlier that there are scriptures that people read and they reread. And when they do, they find joy. They find guidance in them. How did that happen? He did a show once, Jim Lewis, if many of you have ever read, was one of my favorite authors. I was reading Jim, and my cohost was talking about how did the Bible become so popular? I looked at a lot of TV when I was younger. It was good TV then. The guy would kiss the girl and then it would go black. The door would close. Absolutely. Ozzie and Harriet had twin beds. As you got older, you realize, you say, "Well, how did David and Ricky, how did they come on with that? What happened?" Those things would happen. And so, we were discussing the Bible and I remembered the wagon trains and westerns, it was one of my favorites. And they would cross the prairie and they would stop and have Bible time. And there was one western where one guy had the whole collection of Shakespeare. All of it.
But that was an unusual situation, but everyone seemed to have a Bible. Thus, the popularity of a Bible, everyone has one. We read from the Bible. Not because it was some sacred text, even though they may have thought it, but it was convenient and they had it. Are you reading up on the Bible? No. I'm saying to you that the Bible has a very, very special place, but it is up to us to understand that it is a launching point. A launching point.
We don't have to beat up on someone because they believe the literal interpretation of something. We have to understand that that's a launching point, and I know from my metaphysical interpretation and my commitment to Christianity that there's a way that I can take that scripture and share it with them in a different light. And that is my job. Because what? I'm here following the Fillmores, I'm here following Jesus to what? Give a path to a better life. Go back to Jesus. When did Jesus say, "Boy, you better do this."? "If you don't do this, my father in heaven is going strike you."
Tom mentioned it earlier. No. Jesus gave love, and he gave people the opportunity to change. You want to follow Jesus? You want to follow that ministry? You give people an opportunity to change. But what do you have in your tool bag? I can metaphysically interpret this scripture. And if you listen to me, you're going to have a different thought about it. That's in our tool bag. Why would you want to run away from that?
You remember that child? Most of you said, even though you didn't say it out loud. We hadn't developed our relationship at that point, so you were silent because you didn't know. You were like, "I don't know if I should say anything to that fellow." But you were thinking that, yeah, that is my child. And I will keep that child. I will keep going after that child. I will hold onto the thought of that child. Christianity is our child, it is our baby. Nobody can take it away from us. And we just walk away, say, "Oh, go ahead and take it. Go ahead. Come on."
Audience: [inaudible 00:28:47].
Ken Turner: That's what Mark told me. I'm just following Mark.
Audience: [inaudible 00:28:52].
Ken Turner: Okay.
Audience: [inaudible 00:29:03].
Ken Turner: Yeah.
Audience: [inaudible 00:29:52].
Ken Turner: Yeah. To me, you are. The rest of them, they're not saying yes or anything like that, so I don't know. Yes, yes, absolutely. Absolutely.
Audience: [inaudible 00:30:03].
Ken Turner: Yes.
Audience: [inaudible 00:30:06].
Ken Turner: Yes.
Audience: [inaudible 00:30:18].
Ken Turner: You just said it. Let me tell you about my baby. Let me tell you about my baby. Yeah.
Audience: [inaudible 00:31:14].
Ken Turner: Yes, yes, yes.
Audience: [inaudible 00:31:18].
Ken Turner: Yes, yes, yes.
Audience: [inaudible 00:31:28].
Ken Turner: When you accept it and commit to it in a different way, in a non-apologetic way, but not in our akin way, which was an arrogant way. I was very arrogant with it. I enjoyed arguing with people. I've come full circle. That means that anyone can. No matter where you are, if it's on the end that I need to explain to you. If it's in the middle where I can tear your religion down, your practice down. Or you get to the other side where it's all good, and I will share with you what I have because I'm confident in what I have. I'm no longer in awe of my lack of knowledge.
No longer am I in awe of that. And what Fillmore said, I'm glad you brought that up. What Fillmore said... And again, I told you I mention but don't quote. I do that with my group. If they come up to me and say, "Reverend, where did you get that quote?" I'll say, "Look in Luke." It's there and it's like, I can go back and give you the book, but you should read it. Fillmore said that the Bible is really the unfolding of the soul, and that's how we look at it. The people and the places that all have significant meaning, but let's understand that's not new.
See, that's the big thing. It didn't start with Unity. It's based on eons of practice before Unity, before Fillmore. So we have all of that to lean on. And maybe for some of us it's going back into history and saying, "You know they practice metaphysics here, and this is how I can tell you that, because I read such and such." Maybe. It depends on the individual. It really depends on you. But if there's a struggle, and obviously we're having this conference, there is a struggle with Christian metaphysics and holding on to Unity's identity with Christianity. But we have a right. We follow the teachings of Jesus.
Jesus was a metaphysician in addition to be a new thoughter. That was bold. Oh, come on, you know you going to say, "Now he's gone a little too far now." He had a new thought about the Hebrew religion, and he needed metaphysics to bring forth the new thought. Let's understand, he didn't start a new religion, he only practiced the way to practice this Hebrew religion in a new and a better method for the individual. I can't emphasize that enough. And that's probably telling on me because I used to, again, challenge people. It was a joy. I know something you don't know. You didn't read this. You don't even know what the Bible is. Y'all never been there, huh?
Audience: [inaudible 00:35:40].
Ken Turner: Yes.
Audience: [inaudible 00:36:10].
Ken Turner: Absolutely.
Audience: [inaudible 00:36:16].
Ken Turner: Yes.
Audience: [inaudible 00:36:19].
Ken Turner: Yes.
Audience: [inaudible 00:36:35].
Ken Turner: Yes.
Audience: [inaudible 00:36:46].
Ken Turner: Yes.
Audience: [inaudible 00:36:52].
Ken Turner: When you live it, and when you get there, you know what I'm saying? You don't live it from the beginning. Yeah. I like those people that play like they've always done it. I've always been brilliant. I've always been loving. No, you haven't. You got there.
For some reason, I feel I want to share this story. And my people, they know that I'll go and share some stories. In fact, I usually don't say [inaudible 00:37:24] on the Texas law. But my wife has very traditional people in her family. In fact, me saying I was a minister, she was like, "Not so much."
Because then they're going to ask you what kind of [inaudible 00:37:44]? Not so much. And so, one of her cousins who at one time we were okay. Holiday we were talking about religion, and I said, "Well, I'm a minister, [inaudible 00:37:54]. I have a church here." Because I haven't seen him for a while, they didn't know. He said, "Oh, well, since you're a minister." And so he goes on, and we discuss some things in the Bible. I said, "Really, the Bible is something different for us. I respect you with your belief in it, but it's a little different than us." And actually, I usually do this very gently. Jesus didn't have a wife. They usually get like you did, quiet. Because they can't figure out what you're saying. Then I say, "Other than when he wrote in the sand, there's no record that he even wrote anything. I'm just sharing with you."
I have to get a dig again once in a while. But then he got to a point, he said, "Well, you don't believe this, and you don't believe this, and you don't believe this." And I said, "No, I don't. That's not what our practice is." He said, "Well, you're just wrong." I said, "But our practice also includes your right to believe it. Your right to believe it. And all I ask for you is you give me the same courtesy." And the conversation ended. That's it. That's where we are. But we cannot be there and my time is here. We cannot be there if we are ashamed. Come on, shame. If we can't articulate who we are and why we're here. More, why we're here. And I hope if I've done nothing else but taken some of the knowledge that you've already had. I have not given you anything new but knowledge that you've already had, and given you an opportunity to see it in a different light.
When you understand that Jesus was a metaphysician, when you understand that Jesus was a new thoughter. And if you can accept that and prove it very simply to yourself, you'll find that it's so much easier to share with others. And whether they believe it or not makes no difference to you. But when we feel that, there's a bully and I'm inferior, and I have to do something to protect myself, we're always in an argument. We're always in a fight. There are no bullies. We're on a spiritual path. It's not for everyone. It's really not.
And I want to close with, if you've been reaching out to the local congregations, trying to find people that are not happy and hoping they come over to Unity. That's a lot of energy that could be used reaching out to those that have no anchor, have no attachment, but are looking for something more and they don't even know what they're looking for. They're looking for us. They're looking for Unity. They're looking for a better and positive way to a spiritual life. [inaudible 00:40:49]. Thank you so very much.
