Stopping the Madness
A case study in bad religion
In 2018, my church went crazy. Someone needed to stop the madness, and looking around, I noticed I was the man for the job. So I sent an open letter to the board of directors, and also posted it on Facebook:
To the Core Council:
My relationship with Bodhi is now completely inauthentic, and irreparably broken. I have been sitting in service all year, biting my tongue, and I just can’t do it anymore.
So let this serve as my final rebuttal to Rev. Lola.
1. THIS STRANGE NEW BODHI
This is no longer the spiritual center I joined in March 2014. Lola has hired a marketing consultant, and intends to create a new brand as a “global center for consciousness.” And because “Bodhi Spiritual Center” is a terrible name for what she has in mind, I predict she will change it sometime in 2019, probably at the same time she disaffiliates from the Centers for Spiritual Living.
And this is what the new tee-shirts might say:
Reveal Anger
Dishonor White Males
Celebrate Self-Righteousness
2. THE DIVISIVENESS MINISTRY & THE PURGING OF HERETICS
The Bodhi mission statement declares that we “awaken individuals” and “reveal Oneness.” We used to have a team of people do that every week, hands-on, and for many years it was an important part of Bodhi. And then on July 30th, I got an email from Linda Jackson, acting on behalf of the Care Council, firing me from that job. We were told someone had decided we were not part of the new brand.
(I freely confess that I have been pissed-off about it ever since. The primary reason I need to write this email is so I can finally release my emotions about the way I was abused.)
Shortly thereafter, our Leader Champion, Anthony Bozzi, was abruptly fired as a Bodhi Licenced Spiritual Practitioner, for reasons which have never been made clear. And I would still like to know what happened with Scott Lundius.
Why was the Oneness Ministry incompatible with Lola’s plan? Perhaps because it’s not useful for purposes of political incitement.
3. NEW THOUGHT IS A WEAK THEOLOGY FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE WARFARE
Justice is not a God quality, and does not feature prominently in the Science of Mind. In my experience, New Thought is mostly about prosperity, healing, and relationships. If I were setting out to design an activist church focused on issues of social justice, I would start elsewhere: perhaps a liberal Catholic model, or something Pentecostal. But not Bodhi.
I listened to Lola’s October 7th talk, and she had to twist Ernest Holmes into a pretzel to serve her agenda. If Lola wants to pretend be a cross between Beyonce and Nelson Mandela, she will need to adopt some version of Black Liberation Theology.
So it doesn’t surprise me to hear that Bodhi has stopped training spiritual practitioners.
4. THE WRONG WAY TO FIGHT RACISM
It’s a mistake to teach people to think of themselves as white, and then shame them for it. I believe that what Lola is doing is deeply counter-productive. It will undo decades of racial progress in America.
The right way to dissolve racism is to give up our attachment to being in any particular group, or at least any group smaller than America as a whole. Perhaps someday we can expand that to include the entire human race.
The problem with “White Women Get Woke” (see attached JPEG) and “Normal White People” is it teaches people to identify as white, so as to make them wrong. It then blames them for events that happened long before they were born, and stigmatizes their very being. I cannot think of a faster way to create racial division, and provoke an organized counter-attack.
Lola is playing with fire, and doesn’t even know it’s hot.
5. THE PAINFUL TRUTH
I have lost my beloved community, and it has left me heartbroken. I still have my purple Bodhi tee-shirt that I wore when I was on the parking team, but putting it on just makes me weep, because it still says:
Reveal Love
Honor All Paths
Celebrate Life
The only way to save Bodhi is to fire Rev. Lola,
and make Rev. Rainbow the new senior minister.
Lola responded the following Sunday.
The part that I still love about her was her willingness to tell the truth about what she’s going through, and how she feels about it:
And here’s the timeline of what happened next:
Spring 2019: Bodhi disaffiliates from CSL, and becomes the “Bodhi Center.”
July 2019: Bodhi runs out of money, and stops meeting on Sunday mornings.
Fall 2019: Bodhi stumbles on, holding occasional special events.
February 2020: Rev. Lola Wright resigns as senior minister.
Spring 2020: the Core Council dissolves Bodhi.
All that’s left is a dead website: bodhicenter.org
Religion is a very powerful context, but when it goes off the rails it can wreak havoc.