Articles from Dr. Steve McSwain, | Selfgrowth.com
- Why Christianity is Dying While Spirituality is Thriving...
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Submitted on Oct 23, 2012 from Dr. Steve McSwain,I published this article first with the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-mcswain/christianity-is-dying-spirituality-is-thriving_b_1950804.html The title of this post alone will put some branches of the Christian church immediately on the defense. The fact is, however, I ...
Views:1843
( 1 vote) - Wisdom from the Spiritual Traditions: The Real Meaning of the Law of Attraction
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Submitted on Apr 01, 2011 from Dr. Steve McSwain,Mohandas Gandhi said, "I consider myself a Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, and Confucian." I grew up in a very conservative Christian environment. But, if you regularly read my articles, you know I have moved beyond many of those early beliefs, most of which can work as long as you ...
Views:1358
- Secrets to Living the Life You've Always Wanted
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Submitted on Feb 19, 2011 from Dr. Steve McSwain,It seems rather odd to refer to any of what follows as secrets. For one thing, the word “secret” implies that something is hidden and the wisdom below is anything but secret. In some form or fashion, you could find these in virtually any spiritual tradition. Second, “secret” implies that the ...
Views:2049
( 1 vote) - Our Shared Fears and 5 Ways to Overcome Them
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Submitted on Nov 23, 2010 from Dr. Steve McSwain,In life, we experience two kinds of fear: Real fear, and psychological fear. Or, as I prefer to think of the latter, ego-fear. In the words of Immanuel Kant, the ego is “our precious little self.” Or as Eckhart Tolle calls it, “the voice in the head.” It isn’t who you really are, but the you ...
Views:1448
( 3 votes) - Wanted: Straight Christian Allies
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Submitted on Nov 13, 2010 from Dr. Steve McSwain,Fact: I am a Christian. Fact: I am straight. Fact: For much too long, I have stood, just as much of the church has, on the wrong side of the gay/lesbian issue. Instead of standing with homosexuals, many in my tradition, and I was one of these once, have mistakenly thought we were upholding ...
Views:1313
- God in America: The PBS Special and a Conversation with Stephen Prothero
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Submitted on Oct 19, 2010 from Dr. Steve McSwain,"God is dead," said Nietzsche. Well, maybe somewhere, but not here, as the PBS special, God in America makes abundantly clear. I recently interviewed the chief editorial consultant to this PBS special, airing this week, Dr. Stephen Prothero. As the distinguished professor of religion at ...
Views:1461
- What Elizabeth Gilbert, Jesus, and the Buddha can teach you about prayer
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Submitted on Aug 15, 2010 from Dr. Steve McSwain,She says it’s her favorite book ever. And, lately, all my wife talks about is seeing the movie version of Eat, Pray, Love, starring Julia Roberts. So, I finally decided to check it out for myself. I wasn’t expecting much. I got to the first scene, however--the one where the author, ...
Views:2039
( 1 vote) - Eat, Pray, Love Many Gods: Why Elizabeth Gilbert’s book inspired so many to find God off the beaten path
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Submitted on Aug 15, 2010 from Dr. Steve McSwain,It made little sense to me why my wife would hide Eat, Pray, Love in the nightstand beside our bed. So, when I decided to see what all the fuss was about, I reasoned, “No need to buy a copy since there’s a perfectly good one in the nightstand beside our bed.” You’d have thought I just made ...
Views:2136
- Why Do You Think the Church is in a State of Crisis?
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Submitted on Jul 23, 2010 from Dr. Steve McSwain,The church today appears to be more lost than the world it's trying to save. One reason is that the church has so wedded itself to western culture that Christians today look and live more like the culture around them than the Christ before them. The irony is, while the church almost continually ...
Views:2168
( 1 vote) - What is Your Experience With Other Faith Practices?
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Submitted on Jul 23, 2010 from Dr. Steve McSwain,I was introduced to many other religions, not intentionally, but more by accident. My father was a minister, but my mother was a travel agent and tour leader. When I was just a child, she began leading tours and taking groups to Europe and the Middle East, the Scandinavian countries, even to the ...
Views:2266
( 2 votes) - Questions I’m frequently asked: Are you still a Christian?
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Submitted on Jul 23, 2010 from Dr. Steve McSwain,Interesting you would ask me this, as others have asked me this question, too, and I suppose it is because I no longer pretend to believe that Christianity is the only way to know God. Yet, as far as my own faith journey is concerned, I regard myself as more Christian today than I've ever ...
Views:2928
( 1 vote) - While Many Have Left Organized Religion, There's Still an Interest in Spirituality
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Submitted on Jul 23, 2010 from Dr. Steve McSwain,There is in everyone the longing to know intimacy with the Divine. The only difference between people is that a few are aware of this longing, while most are not. For those who are not, life is a constant challenge, even a frustration, as they search for God everywhere but the one and only place ...
Views:3091
( 1 vote) - Is Christ-consciousness the same thing as the "Buddha-nature"?
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Submitted on Jul 23, 2010 from Dr. Steve McSwain,When I speak of "Christ-consciousness" I am referring to the degree of your awareness along three lines. One is your awareness of yourself. I sometimes ask people, "Who are you when no one is looking?" It's an important question but, unfortunately, most people live as I lived for much of my ...
Views:6741
( 2 votes) - Is Jesus the Only Way to God
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Submitted on Jun 03, 2010 from Dr. Steve McSwain,For centuries, Christians have not only believed but vigorously defended the view that Jesus is the one and only way to God. As a Christian myself, I was one of these who not only believed this but was ready to argue and debate with anyone who questioned what I thought was an unquestionable ...
Views:3095
( 2 votes) - The Myth of Your "Calling" in Life: How to Know What You REALLY Showed Up to Do
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Submitted on May 28, 2010 from Dr. Steve McSwain,The Myth of Your “Calling” in Life Our culture has confused people, and continues to do so, in this regard. For example, what young person does not grow up expecting that there is something special they are here to do and that their greatest life challenge, or test, is to figure out what that ...
Views:2124
( 1 vote) - What Do Easterners Mean by Awakened, Enlightened, Transformed, or as Christians Often Say, "Converted, Born Again, or Saved?"
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Submitted on May 11, 2010 from Dr. Steve McSwain,What does it mean to be what easterners describe as awakened, enlightened, transformed, or as the Evangelical Christians say, "born again, saved, and converted?" Who knows? This much I do know. Virtually every religious tradition has coined words and concepts to tell the story of their ...
Views:1883
( 1 vote) - How To Be Happy: The Culprit in Virtually All Human Unhappiness
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Submitted on May 11, 2010 from Dr. Steve McSwain,Robert Louis Stephenson once wrote: "I have a little shadow who goes in and out with me; and what can be the use of him is more than I can see. He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head; and I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed." Clever poem, but what is he talking ...
Views:2123
- What the Movie 2012 and the Rapture Have In Common?
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Submitted on Nov 18, 2009 from Dr. Steve McSwain,Recently, my wife and I saw the movie 2012. It reminded me of the doomsday nonsense that fundamentalist Christians (and I was once one of them) have been saying about the RAPTURE – the return of Jesus to catch-up all his followers into the clouds and whisk them away to a kind of benign judgment ...
Views:1515
( 4 votes) - Death is Your Guru: Let It Teach You
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Submitted on Nov 18, 2009 from Dr. Steve McSwain,So said the Buddha. In the months that followed his death and burial, I felt confused, afraid, and lost. I tried to help my mother manage her grief even as I struggled to handle my own. To say that my life unraveled would be an understatement. Within twenty-four months of his death, I left the ...
Views:1434
( 4 votes) - Why the “Law of Attraction” Doesn’t Work for Most People
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Submitted on Nov 18, 2009 from Dr. Steve McSwain,Similarly, there is a naiveté about how the universe works that’s quite popular today. Just as the ego in some Christians enjoys the illusion of having God on a leash, there are some religious and pseudo-religious people today who believe they can harness the Divine laws of the universe for ...
Views:3910
( 5 votes) - The Day I Woke Up, Became Enlightened, Awakened…I’m Not Real Sure What to Call It
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Submitted on Nov 28, 2009 from Dr. Steve McSwain,“The hour I have long wished for has now come.” -- Saint Teresa of Avila (1515 – 1582) I had reclined on the living room couch, picked up the remote, and began surfing the plethora of television programs, most of which are repetitive and useless. I paused from channel-surfing just long ...
Views:4221
( 5 votes) - Giving Is At The Heart Of The Christian Faith, And To The Life We Really Want
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Submitted on Dec 30, 2007 from Dr. Steve McSwain,Stephen B. McSwain has written a thoughtful book in The Giving Myths: Giving Then Getting the Life You’re Always Wanted (Smyth & Helwys Publishing, 2007) that comes out of his personal interests and professional work as a vice president of Cargill Associates Inc., a philanthropy and fundraising ...
Views:1119
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