The author of The Gospel of Inclusion continues to rouse organized religion as he raises controversial issues and provides enlightening answers to the deepest questions about God and faith. What is God? Where is God? Who is the one true God? Questions such as these have driven a thousand human struggles, through war, terrorism, and oppression. Humanity has responded by branching off into multiple religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam—each one pitted against the other. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In God Is Not a Christian, nor a Jew, Muslim, Hindu . . . , the provocative and acclaimed Bishop Carlton Pearson follows up on his celebrated first book, The Gospel of Inclusion , to tackle these questions and many more, exploring new ideas about God and faith and putting forth the stunning assertion that God belongs to no particular religion but is an ever-loving presence available to all. For these beliefs, Bishop Pearson lost his thriving Pentecostal ministry but was catapulted instead into a greater pulpit. His readership has grown through appearances on national television and an extensive speaking schedule. With the world in the midst of a holy war, there is no better time for the wisdom of Bishop Pearson to reach a global audience. Bishop Pearson’s many loyal fans, along with new readers, will surely welcome this provocative and eye-opening exploration of a deeper faith, one that goes far beyond any fundamentalist way of thinking, be it Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, etc. Simply put, Bishop Pearson dares to tell the truth so many others are too afraid to face. "At the heart of this remarkable book is a compassionate voice offering wisdom-guided revelations from Bishop Pearson's own inner exploration of scripture, the nature of God, and the realities of human existence." -- Michael Bernard Beckwith, author of "Spiritual Liberation Fulfilling Your Soul's Potential" Bishop Carlton Pearson (1953–2023) was an independent spiritual leader and successful Gospel recording artist. He was once an heir-apparent to Oral Roberts and a bishop in the Pentecostal Church, presiding over six hundred churches. CHAPTER ONE A CHURCH IN CRISIS In Christianity, neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point. —Friedrich Nietzsche Just who and what is God? In many circles, that is not even a permissible question, and therein lies the crisis referred to in the title of this chapter. It seems to me that what I will call (with only the slightest irony) the “spiritual-industrial complex” has asked us to abdicate our minds in order to develop our souls. According to that way of thinking, intellect and spirit cannot coexist. They annihilate each other in the same way that water and metallic sodium, when combined, combust instantly and violently. Yet this same spiritual Mason-Dixon Line is also responsible for the bitter divide between science and the world of subjectivity, enlightenment, and consciousness. It is as if we are divided into two armed camps, each defending what it sees as the more important aspect of being human. And as Jesus said and Abraham Lincoln quoted, “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” Why are we on the spiritual side of this debate so opposed to questioning? Why do we demonize intellectual curiosity, scrutiny, scientific knowledge, and rational thinking? Is it because we fear exposure of our faith as unsupportable by fact in an age when fact occupies the pedestal where God once stood? That should not matter; faith is belief in the unseen, that which cannot be proved. Yet rather than deal with a changing world and the terrible consequences of the rift between faith and reason, many religious communities sequester themselves in an alternate reality where there are no questions, and all media, art, and culture reflect these simple ideas: Fundamentalists teach that God is good, God is everywhere, Jesus died for us, to avoid hell you must accept Him as your personal Lord and Savior, and so on. Many embrace conservative political views because such views stand for turning back the clock; a refusal to embrace unsettling changes in our social fabric, our sexual mores, and our environment. What some call faith is little less than a religion of denial and delusion. In his Gospel, John is said to have written: “Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” I define light as “higher consciousness.” Light has not only come, light has always been, but people refuse to acknowledge it, because their deeds or functioning ideologies are not only evil but also awkward and disingenuous. This withdrawal from the world or reality achieves nothing except to make such faith communities at best irrelevant and at worst corrosive to the idea of bringing the worlds of faith and intellect together for the common good. How did we get here? How did a religion inspired by a man whose very purpose was t