… see ACIM Based Cults, Ministries and Organized Religions

Is it “OK” to become an ACIM minister? To join an ACIM based religious order, cult, or organization or to start one?

Sometimes it can take the wind our of our sails as a friend recently put it to realize that it is no longer illegal for people to do what they want to with the contents of this beloved course, as seen by the many who have been its students for years before the copyright decision by a NY judge to place it in the public domain changed everything. Sometimes it even hurts for those who would see themselves as ‘true’ followers or students.

Unfortunately, we cannot say that activities like publishing mock-up copies of A Course in Miracles, altering it or breaking it apart or starting religions and cults in its name are illegal activities. They aren't even unethical any more, though they could be seen as such, since the material was originally stolen and disseminated widely through the internet before the copyright decision was made by a court.

But no, they are not illegal, and no longer can they be called that as everything is now blessed by the legal system of this country and its copyright laws.

However, could they be mistaken? Yes, according to the purpose that Helen Schucman, the actual scribe of the course identified for the course back in 1977, and which I quote here, bold and underline are mine:

"The names of the collaborators in the recording of the Course do not appear on the cover because the Course can and should stand on its own. It is not intended to become the basis for another cult. Its only purpose is to provide a way in which some people will be able to find their own Internal Teacher." (http://www.acim.org/ACIM/HowItCame.htm)

Though true then, that the course is not intended to become the basis for another cult or religion, it does not stand that this is a ‘sin’ since in ACIM there is no ‘sin’, only error, which calls for correction, not condemnation. There is no prohibition by Jesus in the course as He does not prohibit worldly behavior. How could He, when He is teaching that "there is no world!" (W-132.6.), why would He then give us commandments on how to operate in an illusory world He is telling us is not really there although it seems so real and it is the reason why we feel imprisoned and not free to accept our birthright the Love of God?

All the teachings Jesus brings to us in ACIM are to be applied to the cause of the world, the mind projecting it. Changing, modifying, prohibiting or its reverse, indulging, behavior only helps to emphasize the false idea that there is a world in which to act or not to act, therefore making it all the more real to us and plunging us deeper into the world of the ego, making it stronger by reinforcing our belief in its reality.

Another thing that the course asks of us is to be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle; to be kind and respect our brother's path. Everyone is embarked in a path of Atonement. Some are further along and some would appear to be stragglers. But these differences occur only "in time" while we believe we are here. In reality there is no difference among the Sons of God, but while we seem to be having this experience some walk to God on the left side of the path, some on the right, some in the middle and some between the blurred lines. That is ok. We all get to come Home in the end for the Prodigal Son is only dreaming of a world of scarcity, apart from his all loving and completely benevolent creator.

Some people can only conceive of loving God or serving their brothers within the confines of organized religion, not realizing that the true spirituality or true religion is their life process itself. That their real church is in their homes, in their minds, in their personal and interpersonal relationship with the world that apparently surrounds them, where forgiveness lessons await them ripe for the taking and without which they will not be able to find their way home as these are the very lessons that they have brought with them to learn and forgive.

The reason it makes us feel bad when we see what these organizations are doing to the course and we react defensively, is because these persons and organizations remind us at a subconscious level of all the times we too have rejected the Love of Jesus or God in our own life, wanting to make Him fit into our own little box and parameters within which to accommodate Him and conditionally accept him.

What scares us in reality, at a very deep level, is this awesome unconditional Endless Source of Love and the ego fears disappearing into it and ceasing to exist. So you accept God in small portions, with answers to specifics in prayers, with religions and rituals, in bits and pieces, but not as your complete Being, Author and Source. And that is ok.... everyone is fighting this same battle.

So as to your neighbor, be kind to yourself. See this for what it is, and remember that the Love of God is unconditional, meaning there is no condition under which He cannot love you, because you are His Love Itself. And we all get a little scared at that and tend to run a way in many, many forms.

Becoming a minister, starting a church, printing another course and altering it, and teaching others about love are some of those ways in which we sometimes run away.... the ego says "better them than I" also using this as a defense mechanism to rid the self of the guilt that this rejection deeply entails. It, projection, is self-medicine…. or a form of what the course calls magic. And even that is overcome in the end by the loving part of the mind and the minister realizes that he or she has only been teaching himself all along.

And that is also ok, Jesus just waits in infinite patience as He is outside of time and so to Him time does not matter... and He does not condemn, having unified with Love Itself, He only Loves, and Is that Love, infinitely patient, kind, generous, comforting, and always available.

Just know that we are loved and that no matter what any of us does to run away from Love, Love simply is and waits in infinite patience until we are ready to fully accept It as our own, until the fear subsides.