I went to the Billy Graham Crusade in NYC on a hot Sunday afternoon. I was prepared for the heat and the crowds. I was prepared to sit in the middle of a huge group of people, in the hazy hot and humid sunshine and listen to some spiritual music and some spiritual words. I got all that and more. The Crusade was great and I drank a lot of water. I also got a bonus – a visit with people who had the solution to all of my problems.
They call themselves the Twelve Tribes and their members were posted all over Flushing Corona Park. At first they were just part of the typical New York scenery. Large crowd + public space = people selling stuff. There were food venders and people handing out leaflets for diet programs. Many of the leaflet passer-outers were promoting various religious groups/books/videos/etc. One person was holding a sign that read; Graham is sending people to Hell. He had a crowd around him but I don’t think they were too friendly to his cause. The Twelve Tribes people looked like everyone else. They were handing out booklets that condemned wealth and promoted their commune concept. I started to pay attention to them when I noticed their appearance. The women all wore long skirts, had straight hair rolled into a bun and wore hats. The men all had beards and wore clothes that were earth tones. They looked like Shakers or Quakers or something along those lines. I couldn’t help but notice one guy’s feet poking out of his leather sandals. He looked like he had climbed Mt. Everest without shoes. Talk about some seriously gnarly feet. Anyway, they stood out in the middle of this enormous crowd. So I decided to read their booklet.
The Twelve Tribes tell me that they have all of the answers. Get rid of your possessions and live the simple life. Join them in their communal life with their skirts and their beards and their gnarly toes. I just wish it were that simple. I remember reading a woman’s account of joining a commune in Virginia in the 1970’s. At first everything was great as the group pulled together for the common good. But over time, petty arguments and selfish behavior created cracks in the group structure. The writer of the article pulled out. She was smart – she didn’t tell them about the some money in a bank account and the car parked at a friend’s house. She had left herself a lifeline to her past and future life. I was left with the impression that communal living is tough to pull off and the experiences of time haven’t changed my mind one bit.
The Urantia Book tells us that the believers in Jerusalem pooled their resources and shared everything in common. They ended up needing help from the believers in Antioch to keep from starving (2067.3). I don’t think that the concept of communal living is the problem. Sharing everything in common works fine in most families. I think the problem is assuming that a social system can be put into place that will convince or compel an individual to “love thy neighbor”. The communal system works in families if all of the members truly love each other and work for the common good. But add more people and there is more chance for conflict. Therefore I think that the answer to all of life’s problems is not found in any social system, but an individual’s heart. If an individual truly loves God and loves the people around him/her then living a life of sharing works. This was the case with Jesus and the disciples – with of course one big exception. Social solutions for the world’s ills never satisfy. This is why involvement in politics always ends up disappointing. The solution is located in an individual’s desire to seek God. The rest is just a matter of working things out.
I wonder how gnarly toes got his feet to look like that? I thought they were tree roots coming out of the ground. Ah the Big Apple – how could anyone not love it? A big event with thousands of people crammed into a tight space. The smell of hot dogs – the cry of a prophet proclaiming the end times. It’s like one big happy (?) family.
God Bless You,
William Whitehead
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