Rev. Celeste's guest is Rev. Brian Akers. Rev. Brian has been involved in the New Thought Movement since 1992. Born and raised in California, Rev. Brian was raised by his single father. Growing up socio-economically near the bottom of the scale, and being a white male, he found the benefit of using his confrontational nature to approach things he cares about.
When Brian moved to Baltimore, it was around the time of the murder of Freddie Gray. This radicalized Brian to get involved with racial equity issues. He got involved with BUILD (Baltimoreans United In Leadership Development)(buildiaf.org) and crashed a Finance Committee meeting to get to meet with the City Council and the Sheriff Department around this issue. Realizing that he was raised in a hotbed of White supremacy, Brian began to look at the advantages he had and became aware of his remorse of his Whiteness.
He referenced prideful White folks who don't want to feel guilt or shame for racism. Brian took the time to become anti-racist (Being Antiracist | National Museum of African American History and Culture (si.edu)) and consciously remorseful, realizing the privilege he enjoys in his life. He invites others to discover their Whiteness but not to be thrust into a shame-filled guilt-ridden experience, but to be consciously remorseful. It's irrational not to explore the natural remorse.
Rev. Brian works with PATH (PATH IAF – People Acting Together in Howard), to cultivate power and drive policy. He works with Community Resources and Services in Howard County to do coat drives and count the number of homeless people. He also works Columbia Community Care (columbiacare.live) who helps to feed children at the schools. He likes to work with people who are directly addressing the community. He lobbies to organize things like affordable housing, and to get tax breaks for people on leased land. He seeks to drive policy to address a local need.
Rev. Brian has created a denomination called Oneness New Thought (onenessnt.org)). He loves the theology of Religious Science, but he wanted to create a religion of choice - not to be the only religion or the best religion or the right religion, but to have a specific religious approach to Religious Science principles. It's both a religion and a system for spiritual living. This denomination has four pillars: core principles, divine virtues, concepts of creation and immortality and specific spiritual practices . It has a supportive structure with accountability. He wanted and needed a place that was a community for himself that is built with both accessible articulation of what they believe and allows people to practice the faith in their own way. Their spiritual practices are prayer, reflection, meditation, envisioning, study, community and generosity.
He seeks conscious collaboration has studied conscious capitalism (2020 Home - Conscious Capitalism), built on generosity and having a higher purpose. He also works with the Howard County Association of Realtors (HCAR.org) and the Laurel Multiservice Center.
They also discuss capitalism and socialism. We are being taken care of my our Creator. We see tangible evidence of this through humanity.
Find out more about the purveyor of badassery - a cannabis positive, sex positive, martial artist, at itsreallyreal.com and Facebook.
Oneness New Thought has online services on Sundays at 12 pm ET.
Listen to Rev. Celeste's poem, One