User talk:Maz Weber-Caspers

Welcome to Wikipedia: check out the Teahouse!

Hello! Maz Weber-Caspers, you are invited to the Teahouse, a forum on Wikipedia for new editors to ask questions about editing Wikipedia, and get support from peers and experienced editors. Please join us!

I, and the rest of the hosts, would be more than happy to answer any questions you have! SarahStierch (talk) 16:48, 5 January 2014 (UTC)

A little hot cocoa for you

	A Cup of Well Deserved Hot Chocolate For You
	For a very constructive start at A Course in Miracles to what I hope will be a long and productive editing career. Scott P. (talk) 20:48, 5 January 2014 (UTC)

About the "User Page"

If you would like to have your name show up like most other editors in blue, instead of red, you are most welcome to click on an instance of your your red-name-link, or just click on the "user page" tab above, and create a sort of an "about-me" User-Page. Once you have created your User-Page, your name will then be displayed in blue instead of red. Editors are welcome to put as much or as little about themselves as a they might want on their User-Pages. If you even only put the word "hi" on your User Page, then your name will be shown in blue from that day forward. For a sample of what a User Page might look like, you could try clicking on my username.

Looking forward to working with you, Scott P. (talk) 20:52, 5 January 2014 (UTC)

THANK YOU Scott. I made a user Page on WIKI. Zipping my Chocolate I appreciate your message, and greet you, brother. If I only knew how to send messages there to other users outside the editing circuit.... I will find out.. i hope. 22:50, 5 January 2014‎

Re: Ken Wapnick's relationship to Jesus

As you and I both know, Ken Wapnick was never a fan of emphasizing whatever connection there might be between Jesus of Nazareth, and the voice of ACIM. Some people say that he actually denied that there was any connection, however that claim is completely false, as far as I can tell. I've read a lot of his stuff to try to get to the bottom of that question. In Ken's regular question and answer sessions that are recorded on the FACIM website, many times people have asked him what the connection was between Jesus of Nazareth and the Jesus of the Course, and he would always answer with something like, "Since in reality bodies don't exist, therefore, in the truest sense, it's meaningless to even ask that question." These types of answers from him would always seem to me to be inadequate. This, coming from a man who has described himself as having wept for 24 hours when he first felt the presence of Jesus in his life, when he was once trying out life as a Trappist monk!

I truly respected Ken, and still do. I've found it interesting that in Ken's lessons, he often spoke of how "Jesus said to do this," or, "Jesus asked us to do that," almost speaking of the person of Jesus as if Jesus had just been another person, sitting in the room with Ken and the others, and speaking freely with them! Here is my theory of why I think Ken seemed to want to minimize the connection between the Jesus of Nazareth and the Jesus of ACIM: I believe that Ken wanted to make sure that ACIM students never saw ACIM as a sort of a mere "improvement" on Christianity, but instead hoped that they would understand that it was in fact a completely different way of thinking, from what has been handed down to us as the "official party line" of the established Christian Church.

When people like the Endeavor Academy folks came along, attempting to mix ACIM heavily with the Bible, I strongly believe that Ken must have felt that that would be a travesty, and he did everything in his power to try and stop that, yet he seemed to fail miserably in that attempt. Personally, I agree with Ken in being concerned about the possibility that ACIM could very easily be hijacked by well-meaning do-gooders, just as the original message of Jesus of Nazareth was eventually hijacked, and turned into something that was almost the opposite of what Jesus actually taught. (Jesus's earlier teachings on forgiveness, that can still be found in the Bible, are notably almost the opposite of what Paul taught about forgiveness, yet I have not yet found any Christian theologians who are willing to freely discuss this fact!)

Also, regarding Ken's obvious removal of much "Christian phraseology" from ACIM, I think this might have been a reflection of that same concern of his (and presumably of the Jesus of the Course as well.) Most importantly, even though Ken (working with both Helen and Bill) did do much more editing to the Course than we had been led to believe, the fact that ACIM has been such a major success, may be due to this.

I hope you will forgive my ramblings here, but I would be curious to hear your thoughts and feelings on this.

Thanks,

Scott P. (talk) 00:03, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

PS: You can email any Wikipedia editor who has opted to be able to be reached by email, by clicking on the "Email this user" link on any user's page that has that link on their page, including my own Wikipedia User Page. Thanks, Scott P. (talk) 00:26, 13 February 2014 (UTC)