March 4, 2014, by Richard Dancey.

Rev. Richard Dancey inaugurated a month-long Christian Community southern states speaking tour in Chapel Hill on March 4 with two nights of public talks designed to reach beyond members and friends to the wider community. Saturday night’s theme, “Strengthening the Spiritual Life of Children”, is covered in another post. In this post we will cover Friday night’s theme, “Reincarnation, Karma and Christianity,”

Rev. Dancey began with three stories illustrating the workings of karma in human life: the first concerned his brother, an academic at Virginia Tech who should have been in the building at the time of the shootings in 2007, had it not been for a misread email; the second concerned a prisoner Rev. Dancey knew from his work in a Pennsylvania penitentiary. The man is serving a life sentence for a murder committed in a half second’s mistake when he was a teenager fleeing a robbery attempt. The third concerned a woman, wrestling with her younger self’s decision to have an abortion, who met her unborn child in dreams.

All three biographical examples illustrate the role of reincarnation and karma in correcting, healing and balancing the events and deeds of a single life. To become Christ-filled human beings, Richard said, takes many lives.

If this is so, the question then arises why aren’t the concepts of reincarnation and karma more readily apparent in the Bible? One answer is that they are (e.g. in the stories of the healings, John as Elijah, etc.). Another reason is the importance for human development in not having access to the consciousness of multiple lives and instead focusing on one. The laws of reincarnation and karma answer the question of Job: How can terrible events happen if there is a god of justice and love?

Richard pointed out that outside events, for example the atomic blast at Hiroshima, or the intervention of adversary forces, can sometimes cut in on human destiny and interrupt one’s karma. However, Rudolf Steiner teaches that whatever happens in life, mistake or not, nothing is lost and everything is worked out over the course of many lives.

In Christianity, Christ is seen as the savior. What does he save? He saves the human story—karma. He saves fallen humanity by bringing in a new point of connection to human beings and the earth. The alternative was oblivion. Christ comes in total freedom and love to become human. He doesn’t clean up our mess, but lets karma unfold. Christ bring the power to “forgive them,” not to judge or condemn. Out of the greatest tragedies and darkness, He calls forth health, life, light, love.

Richard concluded with the example from George Ritchie’s book, Return from Tomorrow, of a holocaust survivor named Wild Bill Cody.  He faced unspeakable horror but saw before him two choices, hate or love – and he chose love. To accept tragedy, to say yes to our destinies, to turn hatred into love: this is what Christ brings into karma.

                                                                                                                                            (summarized by Linda Finigan)