To me, the heart of Eckhart Tolle's bestseller, A New Earth: Awakening To Your Life's Purpose, is about a shift of perception—specifically, the fact that we humans have the ability to understand things in both "lower" literal terms and "higher" spiritual terms. This has been the centerpiece of my work presenting the selfish, literalist teachings of Bible-based religions versus the Bible's Good News of the Selfless Spirit. I was inspired to write Selfless Spirit, Selfish Ego while participating in Oprah Winfrey's recent, unprecedented global Webcast featuring Tolle's work.

As far as the Bible is concerned, faith in God is about at-One-ment with the Spirit of Selfless Love. Atonement. The ministry of God is that of atonement, or reconciliation. We are instructed to reconcile our selfishness unto Selfless Love, or overcome our evil with good. Human selfishness is at the heart of every war. And we all know how much certain selfish ones love their warring and bloodshed.

In the Book of Revelation, we learn that the Whore of Babylon is fornicating with the Kings of the Earth, meaning that selfish religion is in bed with world politics. It seems like religion mixed with politics is in the news every day. Barack Obama's recent words about wanting to reach out to faith-based people who vote Republican prompted a nasty response by Jesse Jackson involving the removal of Obama's testicles. I see how American politicians routinely pander to faith-based institutions and religionists. Are we not governed by a secular Constitution? Why is "faith" an issue for politicians when we supposedly have a country built upon separation of Church and State? And when they speak of "faith," aren't they really speaking about religion? What does religion have to do with faith? No one needs to be religious to have faith. As far as the Bible is concerned, there is only One Faith, which is entirely about producing the fruits of Selfless Love. It has nothing whatsoever to do with selfish, sectarian religion or with gaining faith-based votes or with President Bush's creation of The White House Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives.

Here we are in another presidential election with two Christian candidates who happily claim belief in God. If they are so bold to bring God into their politics then they should be boldly required to define "God." Is their version of God an idolatrous construct or graven image built into their minds by Corporate Christianity or do they know that God is Three-in-One, being the Body (Father; Outer Court), Mind (Son; Inner Court) and Soul (Spirit; Holy of Holies) of Selfless Love? I strongly doubt it. When will we ever hear any Christian leader explain to the world that, regardless of religion, God is an invisible Spirit that lives and grows within all people that live and grow in the Spirit of Selfless Love over human selfishness? With or without religion, it should be common sense that the only way to everlasting peace is by companionship producing the fruits of Selfless Love. If Obama and McCain are truly believers in the God of the Bible then why are they both supporters of separatist, fearful religion and seeking votes from separatist, fearful religionists?

Being a believer in the God of the Bible is not something that is determined by one's church affiliation or partaking of religious rituals or pandering to faith-based peoples. It has nothing to do with saying "I believe in God" or "I believe in Christ" or "I am a Christian." Truest belief and confession comes not in the saying, but LIVING IT. Those who give life to the Selfless Spirit over human selfishness are the true believers—Good Samaritans—regardless of their religion, yet you will never hear a God-invoking politician explain this because, I believe, they are among the religiously blind led by the blind and, in the end, religion is a marketing tool for their political careers. How better else to get Christian votes in Christian-dominated America than by saying "I am a Christian?" Would McCain or Obama be considered for the Presidency if they were Atheist or Muslim?

George Washington had it right: "Unless we learn to live as Christ lived, we will not be a happy nation." And how did Christ live? He walked The Way of His Father's Spirit of Selfless Love. His name is "Faithful and True" (Revelation 19:11). If the substance or Spirit of God's Message was alive and well in the minds and souls of America's dominant Christian leadership then how could the massive corruption in our government remain uncorrected? Surely there is corruption we are unaware of, but what about the things we do know? When shall we ever find out exactly what happened to the one-trillion dollars that "disappeared" from our government's accounting last year? America's corporate media reported on it briefly, in passing, and we have not heard a thing about it since. Are there criminals—Christian criminals—running our mostly Christian government? We are not talking about the loss of a million dollars here, but a trillion. It is an appallingly tremendous crime against the tax-payers, yet no one in our Christian-dominated government speaks of it.

What good is being an American Christian politician if getting up every morning is not about serving The Way, Truth and Life of the fearless Spirit that guides America sincerely, truthfully, humbly and with wisdom? If Obama and McCain are such believers in God then why aren't they screaming for answers about the loss of those trillion dollars? Why aren't they demanding an immediate end to Washington lobbyists? Don't they know that lobbyist's dollars speak louder than the will of the people? When shall we hear either one of them calling for an end to the usurious, criminal enterprise of the Federal Reserve that was approved by Christian President Wilson and get us back onto the Gold Standard? When will they call for an end to Christian President Bush's White House Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives? Oh, that's right—both candidates support this Federal-Religious office when no such office should exist in the first place.

The White House keeps telling the whole world that Americans are the most charitable people on Earth, so why do we need a Federal Office to stimulate faith-based charities in America? Are we to believe that only religious people are charitable and that only religion can fix America's societal problems? Here is an idea—why doesn't our Christian-dominated Federal Government stop spending hundreds of billions killing Muslims and endangering American lives and instead put that money towards protecting the economy, health and welfare of America?

It is unconstitutional for our Federal Government to lift one religion over another, so why isn't it unconstitutional for it to lift religion over non-religion? Why didn't President Bush create the Office of Non-Faith Based and Community Initiatives instead? Can we even begin to imagine how that would have sparked outrage among America's holier-than-thou types? Fox News analyst, Bill O'Reilly, a lifelong Catholic who is more of a religious evangelist than a news analyst, labels non-religionists "Secular Progressives," totally denying that The Way of Christ is both secular and progressive. I was raised around Catholic bullies like O'Reilly. You will never hear him teach the world that Christ was drawing the masses AWAY from the selfish Temple system in Jerusalem that had made a business of God's word to wield power and control over the masses through religious separatism and fear. You will never hear him teach that truth because his life is enmeshed his own selfish Temple system—the Catholic Church. As is typical, O'Reilly honors selfish religion more than the Selfless Spirit that cares not about one's devotion to religion, but one's devotion to the Selfless Spirit.

Evidently, those of us non-religionists who refuse to enslave our minds and lives to separatist, fearful, superstitious, idolatrous, mystery-laden systems of religion are without morals. I cannot count the number of times I have heard Christians say that non-Christians cannot possibly have a foundation of morals having been raised without the Ten Commandments. These Christians do not have the first clue as to the spiritual substance of the Ten Commandments or else they would know that the Bible's Message has nothing to do with worldly religion, but everything to do with character alive in the Spirit and, furthermore, they would know that there are many non-Christians all over the world with infinitely more Spirit of Christ alive in them than many Christians.

I have been told practically all my life by Christians that I am going to hell because I am a non-Christian. Such Christians feel they have the right to point a finger at "outsiders" and judge them to hell. Why? Ask them. They will invariably answer, "Because the Bible says so." Really? Or could it be that it makes them feel good to be holier-than-thou? It has got to be a real power trip to judge oneself holier over the non-Christian two-thirds of humanity and label them "unholy," "unsaved," "hellbound," "heretic" or "Secular Progressive."

Could it be that this whole Faith Based Initiative tactic is about merging Corporate Christianity even closer with our Federal Government, moving us nearer to a theocratic system where, ideally, the unfairness of a gravely misinterpreted Bible ruled by selfish religionists in government positions will supersede the fairness of our secular Constitution? I have yet to hear one America's Christian presidential candidate teach The Way of God and Christ that would undo Federally-funded Faith Based favoritism. Instead, they use God and Christ to get votes and to hell with the Spirit of God and Christ that deconstructs their beloved lies about Christianity, Israel, Zionism, marriage, gays, abortion and faith-based nonsense. These people are incorrect and will not know correction until they shift their perception from the selfish ways of the world to The Way of the Selfless Spirit.

There is so much propaganda about how America is all about separation of Church and State. If this were so then why is there an Office of Faith Based anything? When will America's dominant Christian government tell us what happened to that "lost" trillion dollars, and get rid of the lobbying in Washington DC, and take back ownership of our currency from the Federal Reserve, and stop its Israel-idolatry, and get the hell out of the Middle East, and pour its resources and money back into protecting the welfare of American citizens?

* Readers have permission to reproduce, distribute and use this material for non-commercial purposes provided attribution is given to author John Cord and Blue Dolphin Publishing, 2008.