THE SIXTH ORDER |
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Why and How To “Take The Sixth”  This is the first sermon of the Church of the Sixth Order. The core doctrine of the Order, which has been circulated since ancient times as the most fundamental rule of human conduct, is “thou shalt not kill.” In the Mosaic listing of commandments this is the Sixth Commandment, and for purposes of communicating the message at this time and this place, the Order has chosen to designate itself in this manner. The Order has existed throughout time and under other names. The One Teaching of Buddha Maitreya is exactly the same doctrine, and the legend of Maitreya states that as the darkest hour for humanity approaches, Buddha Maitreya will teach his doctrine of not killing, and reverse the tide of bad karma that threatens to engulf humanity. The Order exists to provide a moral foundation for the conduct of its members. We are here to urge you to do the right thing, and to commit in advance to doing the right thing. In the simplest terms, becoming a member of the Order means sincerely promising right now that you will not kill any other person, regardless of virtually any political or occupational justification you might come up with. We say “virtually” because the Order does recognize an exception from the rule for physicians assisting a terminal patient to end their life with dignity. And we say “virtually” because rationality demands that their be an exception for true self-defense or defense of others. However, these exceptions are personal and immediate, and never extend to politically-motivated warmaking. For a member of the Order, membership in the military forces, or serving in a position to supply or aid their work of killing, is anathema. Just as Thomas Jefferson said, “we hold these truths to be self-evident,” the Order holds the value of its core belief to be “self-evident.” To be sure, it is buttressed in its wisdom by the application of the Golden Rule – since no one wishes to lose their life, no one should take the life of another. Some religions, founded and supported by worldly powers, enjoin their adherents to kill under certain circumstances, and even argue that “believers” will receive benefits in the afterlife, or in future incarnations, by killing in this life. Indeed, virtually none of the “mainstream” religious organizations take an unequivocal stand against killing, and gladly ship their faithful off to destroy the lives, families, homes and factories of people in distant lands. The Order strongly affirms that such religious doctrines are false doctrines, and cannot be legitimately considered religious, or spiritual. They must be rejected as anti-religious. While the truth of the value of not killing other people is self-evident, its merits bear expounding. The merit of joining the Order is based on the merit of deciding in advance that one will not be a killer of humans. Chief among the merits of not killing are: 1. One will be free of mortal guilt. The benefits of not killing are concrete, and do not require expenditures of “faith” in the sense of believing, as St. Paul said, in things that are “hoped for,” but “not seen.” A member of the Order knows that she is making the world a better place today, now, and in the actual future. She does not have to wait until death to discover whether she made the right choice – she knows it right now. The Order does not exist to assuage troubled consciences or issue insurance policies for the hereafter, and it does not require “belief” in things that cannot be ascertained by living people. The investment of faith that the Order requires is of a different sort, and so are the dividends it pays. The Order exhorts us to have faith in ourselves, in the value of every unique human life, and in the joy of keeping free of the taint of murder. There doesn’t need to be any altruism in your heart to be a member of the Order. Just being able to say, “I don’t kill people,” will be a huge benefit to you personally, and as the number of people who go on record as being non-participants in the killing business grows and grows, the war industry will ultimately die out. Just imagine how much better you’d feel if the daily headlines read, “Last General dies of old age. No mourners appear.” While such an announcement may seem far-fetched, it just shows how perverted our world has become. War was once an activity of soldiers battling soldiers, but today soldiers attack civilian populations and avoid engaging with other soldiers whenever possible. Today the entire world is held hostage by nuclear pirates playing with weapons that are inconceivably destructive to future generations, terrorizing the gene pool of humanity with mutative radiation. Today one bomb costs more than a hundred schools, and cripples and traumatized people are created in mass numbers. Yet it would all come to an end if individuals simply realized that committing murder to get what you want is like setting your head on fire to get rid of dandruff. Some people may say that it is naïve to plan for a world without war. Some people may say that it is for world leaders to decide whether and when to wage war. The Order is not concerned with political science. The Order is concerned with personal freedom. While warmakers will certainly continue to spread their doctrine of mutual destruction, with the aid of pseudo-religions that lead their children to death like the ancient Babylonians fed their young to Moloch, they do not have the right to compel others to kill. We are each born free, and the most fundamental freedom is the right to say “no” when ordered to take another human’s life. The Order exists to lend doctrinal support to this fundamental freedom. There are great forces arrayed against one who wishes not to kill. During the Iraq war, several U.S. soldiers have been court-martialed for refusing to participate in an immoral, homicidal mission. These people are heroic, and they inspire others, but they are isolated, and one by one, their sacrifices are buried under the flow of war propaganda, and the murder machine clanks on. To protect yourself and those you love from contributing support to the war machine, you need to ally your beliefs to those of like-minded people. You need to declare your moral beliefs far in advance of the call or seduction to war. You need to seek out friends, associates, and mates who share your dedication not to kill. As the old proverb states, one reed is easily broken, but a bundle of reeds cannot be broken even by a strong man. By making the promise to never kill another human today, you can establish the basis for your position in the face of all coercive forces. By making your commitment official, on the record, as a member of the Order, you join your strength to those of others. If solicited by a recruiter, or confronted by your local draft board, you just say, “It’s against my religion — I took the Sixth." In “The Rights of Man,” Thomas Paine explained that the basis of the powers of all hereditary rulers were crimes and coercions practiced upon past generations of subjects by past generations of “banditti.” No divine right of kingship or inherent right to rule exists, nor can a rationale for such a regime be devised. People have inherent authority over themselves that prevents any other person from arrogating to himself rights of mastership. Yet to this day, and in the very “land of the free,” there are those who deny that we have the power to rule ourselves. Slavery not only deprives the slave of freedom – it wrongfully increases the power and strength of the master. Through the slave, the master does what he would not directly do, be that growing sugar cane or polishing silver, mining gold or committing murder. It is unquestioned that few men, far less than the vast numbers presently employed in the business of war, have any inborn disposition to kill their neighbors or people in distant lands; nevertheless, they kill others when so ordered. The conscription of free people to kill other people, usually people far more like themselves in wealth and lifestyle than the generals who direct their martial expeditions, is an hallowed tradition and jealously-guarded power of government. Democracies and dictatorships alike make excuses for so enslaving their citizens, invoking “defense” and “destiny,” “honor” and “a generation’s place in history” to buttress their claim that every family must sacrifice blood to protect the nation. Leaving aside the fact that conscripts are never drawn from the moneyed class, and thus the scions of wealth are not expended as cannon fodder on the battlefields of the world, the very notion of turning free men into indentured killers gives the lie to all the speeches on freedom proclaimed from the steps of statehouses, the pulpits of churches, and the loudspeakers of stadiums thronged with crowds of fervent patriots. There is no freedom left worth mentioning to any person who has been armed and sent against his will to kill “the foe,” the designated enemy, who is in all likelihood the mirror image of himself, a conscript, a victim of history, of the ancient lineage of banditti who compel others to do what they fear to do. The doctrine of the Sixth Order is based on protecting the fundamental freedom to be free from commands to do what runs counter to good conscience. No man or woman is born so high above me that they have the right to order me to so much as pick up a piece of paper. So much less can they command me to take up arms against another, to kill him and his children, to destroy his home, or be punished for my refusal. Anyone who purports to so command me violates the fundamental law of equality, and they will not be the master of me. Of course, none of us can stand alone against the power of massed stupidity, against the strength of ages of ingrained insanity. We must join together, and all those who join the Sixth Order shall receive asylum from the beastly destroyers of human life and liberty. Asylum is today thought of as refuge from those who would kill or torture the person seeking asylum, but asylum in the Sixth Order protects our freedom and dignity. When we take asylum in the Sixth Order, we ally ourselves with others who support freedom – the freedom to live without killing other human beings. Humans unite when danger pushes them together. Eight hundred years ago, in the thirteenth century, Pietro di Bernardone, aka St. Francis, created The Third Order, an order of laypersons who vowed, among other things, to carry no weapons. As a result, many wars that had vexed the people of Italy were brought to an end. As Pope Pius XI said of the Third Order, referring to members of the Third Order as “Tertiaries”: We will not call this merely a brotherly fellowship based on the practice of Christian perfection, but rather a shield of the rights of the poor and the weak against the abuses of the rich and the powerful, and all this without prejudice to good order and justice. From the association of the Tertiaries with the clergy … new members were permitted to participate in the same exemptions and immunities which the latter already enjoyed. The Tertiaries no longer were called upon to take the so-called solemn oath of vassalage, neither were they conscripted for military service, nor had they to go to war or to bear arms, for in this the Rule of the Third Order was opposed to the feudal law, and by their membership in the Order they achieved a liberty which was otherwise impossible under the conditions of servitude under which they had lived. Speech by Pope Pius XI on the occasion of St. Francis’ Birthday, April 13, 1926. The Sixth Order has been created in the spirit of the Third Order of St. Francis, for it is our intention to set up a shield against the abuses of the rich and powerful, to protect the poor and powerless, and by valuing freedom above all other possessions, to make that shield impregnable. You who prize the right to live free, join us now. Let no one tell you to kill this one and spare that one. You are the judge of your own actions. You alone command the body that is under your control. Take asylum now in the Sixth Order and put behind you the ways of the assassin-slave.
A Circle of Ten Virtues
Clarity is the product of stability *** Content copyright © 2007 Charles Carreon.
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