"mu." it's not just for cows, anymore.

With a windshield smeared with the innards of bugs from four states, my car found a spot right outside the Kansas City Church of Scientology.  We had just journeyed to Omaha and back, and now I had coaxed the vehicle to make the stop so that I could have lunch with an old friend.

In days of old, Kansas City and St. Louis churches didn't get along.  God knows why.  There was no reason for it - there's too much ground between the groups for there to be any real competition.  Perhaps we simply recognized ourselves in the other.  Who else are you going to have a game with, other than the people that are doing the same thing you are doing?  However, as Ron says, "Competition is a trick of the weak to fetter the strong,"  and I had just traveled across enough of the state to realize that its 68,886 square miles and population of 6 million people was large enough for not just our two churches, but several others besides.

I had the opportunity to see their new building.  It's gorgeous.  Like ours, it is monumental in size and the exterior is phenomenal.

I can hear the question, "Is it better than the St. Louis building?"  I can answer that.  The question is like a Buddhist koan - a puzzle designed to make one think.  The answer is properly "mu," meaning that the answer is "Both yes and no," or, "You are asking the wrong question - look bigger."

The true answer is that, given the distance, there is no comparison possible between the two buildings.  It's a bit like an elephant comparing himself to a whale - each is suitable to its own purpose.

As we ate lunch, I was able to reflect on the fact that eventually, Kansas City and St. Louis will be the emanation points of other, more localized churches.  Eventually, our centers will be as ubiquitous as those of the Baptist or Catholic - and even then, there will be no competition - even between denominations.  There are simply too many people, too much help that is required -  we could all work for a thousand years and never be worried about "stealing" each other's parishioners.

The materialists of today present a unified front.  They attack all concepts of religion and spiritual belief, without discrimination.  They are as at home attacking a Baptist's belief in biblical authority as the are in attacking the Catholic concept of the Trinity or the Scientologist's belief in past lives.  It is our responsibility to also present a unified front.  We do not have the billions of dollars in resources that are available to the materialists.  What we do have are the better segment of the population - the awake ones, the ones that want to help their fellow man.  Between money and the living force of beings that are alive, I'll take the power of life force any day.  It remains in our hands to direct that force outward - toward attacking our real enemies and helping our true friends - rather than at each other.

I look forward to seeing our friends from Kansas City and the other churches at the Midwest conference in Chicago this weekend.  May it be the dawn of a new era for all of us.