I’m going to be covering a lot of ground in this article, so it won’t be a short one by a long shot, but well worth the read I promise. This will be more like a ‘chapter’ than an article:)

No truer words have ever been spoken than the phrase we are hearing more and more: ‘We live in a POST TRUTH world’ today. So in this article I’m going to be drilling down as they say, on our current ‘post truth’ culture…

Among other things, I’m going to discuss my personal experience regarding the politically correct, fake ‘lip service’ from the vast majority of people (not just ‘Bible thumpers’) who like to be heard in public being ‘vocally supportive’ of those who are transgender, but if you could only hear them behind closed doors with their friends, the reality of what they say on the topic is the total OPPOSITE.

I’m also going to be spot-lighting the primary source of this degree of ‘post truth’ we are experiencing today, that being what I call the BIG THREE religions that are based on the monumental post truth, man made lies of the Bible and the Koran, those religions being of course Judaism, Christianity and Islam’.

In spot-lighting the source of those age old lies masquerading as “Gods Word” in the Bible, I will be sharing the wisdom I have been so blessed to have learned, regarding the source of where REAL healing comes from, that you were meant to create for yourself as a PART of what is ‘Divine’.

I will also be addressing comedian Bill Maher’s recent “F#%K CHILDREN” segment, during a portion of one of his more recent HBO ‘comedy’ specials. If HBO is really OK with this kind of content in one of their specials, and if in this sick, post truth culture we are living in, we are now considering such content as ‘funny’ and commonly acceptable, it very well may be too late for ANY hope of this nation finding its moral, upright and truthful compass again.

Along the way in this article, also from my personal experience, I’ll be briefly discussing the serious current need for a major overhaul of our nation’s law enforcement culture, with its deep roots of institutional bigotry and prejudice, that long ago lost its fundamental understanding that they are to SERVE ALL members of the public EQUALLY, instead of the elitist, often racist, predatory and abusive ‘good ole boy’ system they have been for many decades now.

First and very briefly, I’d like to address the current Democratic primaries and the development of Joe Biden catching up to join Bernie Sanders in a two person race now for the Democratic nomination.

Though I know the conventional wisdom has it that Bernie is too divisive and not ‘moderate enough’ to WIN against Trump in November, I don’t agree with that conventional wisdom. I voted my heart in the Super Tuesday primaries, and was definitely ‘FEELING THE BERN’!

Either way, Biden or Bernie, we’ll be fine…Either one of them will have no problem wiping the floor with Trump like the dirty, filthy, toxic and disgusting ‘mop head’ that he has proven himself to be.

Personally, if one has been paying any attention at all to what Bernie has always been committed to in his career, and what he constantly has reinforced in his campaign speeches, both in 2016 as well as this election season, it is obvious that he is the one who is most in touch with, and the one who is most passionate about helping the disenfranchised working class American on BOTH sides of the aisle.

He is the Democratic, non-racist, ETHICAL version of the current ‘per’version of our highest office, Donald Trump. If Bernie were to win the nomination, Moderates would be unhappy, but they’d get over it because deep down they know how ethical of a man he is, and how dedicated he is to “We the People”…not to mention how many hearty laughs Larry David would bring us for the next 4 to 8 years impersonating Bernie on SNL.

But as I said, in either case, Americans on both sides of the aisle (with many Republican’s planning to cross the aisle in November) will have an ethical Presidential candidate worthy of the office this time, for whom they can be proud to vote for.

Now on a deeper note, I’ve been feeling led lately to write a little more about the source of real healing and happiness, verses the common unhealthy sources of conformity that so often BLOCK that healing so many people need in their lives.

To do so, it’s going to be necessary for me to share some very personal experiences here that I don’t normally talk about, in describing some critically important things I have learned about how to have real healing in your life that you need, and as I mentioned above, that you were meant to have and create for yourself.

I will give you a big hint at the very start here, of the powerful truth I have learned: The healing you need WILL NEVER be found in the lies of the Bible or Koran based organized religion – Not from any source asking for your money – On the contrary, it requires WAKING UP FROM that false, fear based image of “God”, a ‘post truth mindset’ that creates a block to a lot of the healing you were meant to have.

Never forget, those who hold that very Bible based religious mindset are in fact the dangerous hypocritical crowd who are responsible for KNOWINGLY electing the most corrupt and dishonest individual ever, to the highest office of our land back in 2016, Donald Trump.

That is a good example of how we can see vast numbers of minds of people that have been ‘polluted’ and stagnated with such lies about “God”, and it is a great example to see where real healing has been BLOCKED by such an unhealthy religious conformity and ‘post truth’ group-think conditioning.

That kind of mindset and thinking, not just applied to your life but also projected by your ‘belief’ out to others who you think are ‘non-believers’ and who are ‘outside your one true faith’ – That kind of thinking actually can often have damaging physical consequences, and can be a big source of major health problems, as a result of the way such unhealthy thinking BLOCKS the real natural healing you were meant to have and create in your life.

Now, regarding some of my life story…Through an amazing, albeit severely ironic and painful life experience for me, beginning in the destructive “faith” of evangelical Christianity as a child, I am forever thankful to have been ‘SAVED FROM’ that poisonous, unhealthy Bible-based habit falsely attributed to “God,” and to have been guided in my steadfast and earnest meditations to find the source of real spiritual healing and happiness.

Growing up in that unhealthy environment, I always had a check in my spirit about the condemning, genocidal, hateful and elitist nature of the vast majority of what the Bible ‘teaches’, with its man-made dogma masquerading as ‘the love of God’.

But my Christian family force fed it to me on a level that I can’t begin to describe with words, so I accepted that bad, Bible-based destructive ‘habit’ because those I Ioved and trusted most in the world were telling me I HAD to believe it.

But even still, the check in my spirit never went away, was always there under the surface, and all through that time I was earnestly praying to be given real spiritual wisdom and the ability to bring healing to others. More and more I was seeing how those things were constantly either not present in that ‘belief system’ or directly contradicted by the hateful dogma that it teaches, ostensibly in the name of God.

When I was only 14 years old, I finally got the courage up to tell my mother that I was what we refer to these days as ‘transgender’ (in my case, biologically born a boy, but identifying more and more strongly as a girl as I grew). I explained to her that I had been riding my bike to the local library researching the topic in depth, and that I felt like I was one of those people who might need to change my gender.

Due to her very emotional, non-supportive reaction to say the least, my response in turn was to calm and assure her that I would be OK, and that we never needed to talk about it further. For years after that experience, I began praying as earnestly as anyone could pray, for it to ‘go away’, especially after she took me to see a person who had the so called ‘gift of casting out demons’.

Fortunately he told her that I didn’t have a ‘demon’ (even though I had tried my best to mess with him by rolling my eyes back in my head and doing my best loud ‘Sam Kinison’ impersonation) but that’s the level of ignorance created by ‘the church’ that is conformed to by so many, who should know better by now, and who should be joining me in exposing these man made lies in the name of “God”.

As I developed through puberty, that true female identity only grew stronger. It gradually became impossible for me to ignore, though the Bible-based belief system of Christianity I was surrounded with condemns it strongly as ‘evil’, along with those who are gay or bi-sexual.

To make a long story short, when in my mid to late twenties I finally realized that I needed to have the courage to be true to myself despite such hateful beliefs all around me, and when I told my mother that it had not ‘gone away’, and that I would need to go through the change in order to make myself right with who I was inside, I was rejected not just by her, but by everyone else in the family and the Christian church around me.

I am sharing this deeply personal story that I very rarely reveal or discuss, for those of you who, deep down inside, know you are unhappy in your life right now, and/or you have specific areas of your life in which you are desperate for healing right now, be it physical, emotional or circumstantial.

What I want you to understand is that all my prayers for real spiritual truth and wisdom GUIDED ME AWAY from the destructive, bigoted teachings of Bible-based Christianity. The rejection by those I loved so deeply, while it was more painful than I can describe here, was only the beginning of my finding the truth about what is ‘Divine’, just as I had been praying all of my life to be shown.

You see, I was WILLING to do what was necessary to find real spiritual healing, and PHYSICAL HEALING came as a result. I was willing to listen to that check in my inner Divine spirit that was reminding me of the fundamental spiritual axiom that there is NO CONDEMNATION in the meaning of love, only forgiveness!

What I have discovered, as I have sought to bring this healing and spiritual truth to others’ awareness, is that a lot of people are NOT WILLING to leave the comfort zone of their ‘unhealthy habits’ that stand in the way of the healing they need.

But, that is what one MUST do, in order to find the healing they need in their life. And I’m not just talking about religion being that destructive, unhealthy habit… I’m talking about the irresponsible and destructive behavior – and bad example for young people watching you – of recreational drug use (including marijuana) smoking cigarettes, alcohol abuse, treating sex and your body like a carnival ride, etc. etc. etc.

I lost count a long time ago of the number of people, family and friends I cared about so deeply, who have betrayed me while I was committed to them as a friend, and sought to be a source of love, healing and friendship to them.

I should point out at this juncture that while it is ‘hip’ today in 2020 to give ‘lip service’ to ‘accepting’ those who are ‘transgender’, I can tell you from personal experience that outside of certain stereotypical geographical enclaves such as San Francisco or Berkeley, the reality is still the OPPOSITE by a long shot.

People love to be heard giving ‘lip service’ in public to supporting those who are in transition with their gender.

But behind closed doors, or when they are surprised to discover that someone they had become close with is going through the change, or used to be a different sex, the reality is most often still NOT ACCEPTANCE, and most commonly continues to be rejection and betrayal of the friendship or relationship at some point not long after this fact is discovered.

I can tell you from firsthand experience that this is WIDELY the case in employment situations, with rare exception – often those exceptions being more common in the geographical enclaves such as I mentioned above.

My background is law enforcement, and I can tell you…you will have to trust me on this…I can assure you that if you needed a deputy sheriff when I was on the job, or if you were pulled over by one, you would have wanted it to be someone exactly like myself.

That isn’t bragging on my part, it is just an honest statement reflecting my commitment as an ethical public servant, dedicated to treating everyone I encountered with the same respect I would want if the shoe were on the other foot.

I wasn’t ‘too sensitive’ or a push over by a long shot, and I made frequent arrests whenever they were necessary, occasionally having to use appropriate physical force with suspects, and on one occasion almost having to use deadly force when a suspect I encountered tried to pull a fully loaded .25 caliber automatic from his pocket as I approached him on a disturbance call.

Fortunately, I was close enough when he did this to grab his hand before the .25 caliber Raven could clear his pocket, slowing him down, while simultaneously drawing my firearm.

In the split second as I did so, I told him to stop or I’d have to shoot, and as he observed my actions in response in that split second, he wisely chose to comply. Had he not done so, he wouldn’t be here today most likely, because it was that close, and I would have been able to keep his hand from coming out long enough to ensure that I survived.

Now, I tell you this story because later when I thought I had developed a close friend out here in Sacramento, who was a sergeant on a local law enforcement agency, and who was in charge of the reserve program on his agency, his reaction to this close encounter was very revealing of the over-arching wrong, unhealthy mentality by many who are currently on the job.

As I was hoping he’d understand my personal situation and the need for my having gone through the gender reassignment, and I was hoping for his support in my interest in volunteering as a reserve deputy with his agency, the stories of both of our ‘close calls’ naturally came up in discussion.

It was odd, how he wanted to tell me of how he shot and almost killed someone who had displayed a knife in their hand, but only from some distance away from him. He didn’t shoot this person because they were a very close threat coming at him…He shot them because they had a knife in their hand and didn’t immediately drop it after a couple of commands to do so.

Obviously, not being there at the time, we can’t say it was an egregious use of deadly force. The person could have eventually chose to run toward him, but the truth as he told the story to me, was that they did not.

In other words, there was clearly a question based on how he described it, whether deadly force was required when he administered it. Yet, he didn’t appear to recognize this, and appeared rather eager to tell me of this shooting of his on the job, like it was some sort of ‘right of passage’.

Add to this his reaction when I told him about my above ‘close encounter’…He was incredulous toward my restraint. He exclaimed to me, “You had the right to use deadly force on him!”.

He said this so obviously incredulously, like it somewhat bothered him that I used my judgment NOT to just shoot the person when I knew in the moment that I had the option of grabbing his hand and giving him a warning, to which the suspect then complied, avoiding the shooting.

This individual who I am describing, not long thereafter betrayed our friendship in a mind blowing manner that was shockingly dishonest, in lieu of my dedication, loyalty and friendship to him, the painful details of which I won’t describe here. And of course, along with that dishonesty, behind the scenes he made sure not to support me in my interest in becoming a volunteer reserve deputy.

I have written on occasion before, about the very unhealthy culture of law enforcement that we as citizens need to become more acutely aware of, and that we need to change from a grass roots level.

I discovered early on as I entered law enforcement after serving 6 years in the U.S. Air Force Security Police, that this unhealthy culture was very prevalent, and despite ‘lip service’ by police administrators to the contrary, it remains a very prevalent, elitist, “Good Ole’ Boy” culture to this day.

If you enter law enforcement with the ethics and the ethos of equality for ALL citizens, and with the desire to truly protect and serve all citizens with those ethics, you are a major THREAT to that “Good Ole’ Boy” system.

So those individuals with that right ethical, equality oriented mindset, who the public NEEDS to be on the job, are made to understand EARLY ON that if they want to keep their job, they either look the other way or conform to the “Good Ole’ Boy” system, or they are ‘black balled’ and pushed out.

Are there good cops and deputies serving in law enforcement?…By the definition of ‘good cop’ that question usually implies, the answer is of course YES.

But the truth is, those individuals are with rare exception, most often very guilty of a huge level of conformity on the job, and guilty at the very least of looking the other way in the face of a culture of abuse of power, rather than speaking up and risking their jobs. My question for you would be, does that describe a ‘good cop or a good deputy’?

In a nutshell, this is why we have seen so many cases of police abuse of power and abuse of deadly force, seeming to increase over recent years, but with the vast majority of such abuse of power NEVER being seen by the public on a routine basis.

I witnessed this truth firsthand when I was on the job, before I was pushed out due to both a strong degree of hate and disdain toward my having changed my gender, along with the ironic recognition that my ethics were a threat to their abusive culture, to which I would not conform, nor from which I would ‘look the other way’ without speaking up.

We are long overdue for critical changes that need to be made in the culture of law enforcement on behalf of equality for ALL of our diverse citizens, and I would invite you to check out the articles I wrote specifically on this topic not long ago, which you can find on my blog page at conniebryan.com.

My point is that most people, in making necessary healing changes in their lives, will not have to encounter the degree of pain and rejection from others, that those of us who needed to undergo gender reassignment will experience.

So, if WE can handle such change in order to be right and true with who we are…If WE can follow our Divine inner guidance to make necessary healing changes, despite such ongoing rejection to this day by the vast majority, well then YOU TOO can find the courage to make the changes you need to make, even though they may bring initial discomfort in breaking those unhealthy habits, and even though they may involve breaking away from the conformity with those around you.

So I’d like to share with you what I call the 3 H’s of happiness…

They are: “HEALTHY HEALING HABITS”

They are not: “RELIGIOUS CONFORMING RITUALS”

Do you recognize and see the difference?

When you are associated with a dogmatic, elitist, patriarchal belief such as Christianity and Catholicism, or Islam, or even Judaism to some extent (depending on the synagogue and level of orthodoxy) you are putting up major roadblocks to a lot of the healing you need in your life, and to your ability to amplify and project that healing to others.

It is a very unhealthy, unproductive and ignorant environment in every way, especially spiritually speaking.

So as long as you insist on CONFORMING to such unhealthy ‘beliefs’, you are only engaging in a conforming RITUAL, not a healthy spiritual habit. And those fear based, unhealthy thoughts create an unhealthy physical reality in the process.

Real spiritual healing requires getting your THINKING healed first, because always remember this: Thought creates the physical.

Thought is what we are…Thought is our creative consciousness, and healing comes from clearing out the ‘wrong damaging thinking’ and replacing it with the ‘right healing thinking’.

Those man-made conforming Catholic or Baptist or Presbyterian or Church of Christ or Mormon or Jehovah’s Witness (etc) rituals you routinely engage in are the OPPOSITE of ‘HEALTHY HEALING HABITS’.

Why? Well I’m going to tell you why…The reason they are the opposite is because they are teaching you the OPPOSITE of the true meaning of what “God” is.

So, until you open your heart and your eyes to the universal REAL meaning of the nature of what is “Divine”, you have major road blocks created by that unhealthy conformity and unhealthy thinking, keeping you from the miraculous healing you were meant to have and create.

What is the true meaning of what “God” is? It is simply that you yourself, right now in the physical, are a unique PART OF what “God” is. You are a Divine aspect, a Divine PART OF the “Creator”.

The Bible and the ‘church’ have done mind blowing damage over the last approximately 2000 years with the sick, patriarchal, man-made power play of crafting monumental lies describing God as the opposite: A male first and foremost, with women being subservient, and an external entity at that, who is SEPARATE from you, who lives somewhere in outer space watching you, just waiting to condemn you, or worse yet to punish you by condemning your children because of YOUR mistakes (plenty of scriptures in the Bible reflect these sick man made teachings)

We can’t continue to ignore these lies masquerading as “God’s Word”, both in the Christian, Islamic and Jewish faith, abusing our children by teaching these so called ‘holy scriptures’, even if they may be ‘watered down’ in non-evangelical congregations, to our kids when they are little. It has to stop.

As I said at the start of this article, I am forever thankful to have received the guidance away from those lies to find real spiritual wisdom and healing, despite the painful process that it was due to my need for a gender change.

I am thankful that I have learned that I am a beautiful, SINLESS AND HOLY PART of what “God” is. And as you awaken to this truth in your life, what you will find as you live these healthy healing habits every day in your thoughts and actions, is that you will naturally begin finding the happiness and healing that YOU WERE MEANT TO CREATE FOR YOURSELF, as a part of what “God” is.

It isn’t something that comes from an exterior judgmental MAN in the sky, only IF he so chooses to arbitrarily give it to you, while many others in your belief system who also need that healing, and who are also asking for it, are DENIED it by him!

I have since realized that when I was genuinely asking to be given real spiritual wisdom and the ability to bring healing to my life and others, I was communicating with MY OWN HIGHER SELF.

Here in this dimension, the ‘check’ I was feeling even as a child in my spirit, while being taught such unhealthy destructive, conformist rituals, was MY OWN DIVINE ASPECT OF GOD…The same aspect of God that YOU are, that is trying to reach you and wake you up right now with these words I am writing, and that many of you will initially want to reject, because you would prefer what you think is the ‘security’ of remaining a part of the ‘Bible or Koran conformity’ you have been associated with for so long.

Or, in some cases you will want to reject these words as I said earlier, because you would prefer remaining in the comfort zone of doing your ‘recreational drugs'(what a stupid, ignorant concept: drugs for ‘recreation’ and we support it for TAX DOLLARS!) or smoking your destructive cigarettes, or abusing alcohol with your like minded, so called ‘friends’, etc. etc…All while not caring at all bout the bad, destructive example it sets for young people who, while they may not listen to everything that you try to tell them, they WATCH and SEE everything you do like a hawk.

One last anecdote as I close…I was watching one of comedian Bill Maher’s more recent standup specials in which he began to rave angrily at those who occasionally email him, also telling him the above, that his constant mantra of wanting to legalize drugs and his celebration of the use of marijuana to get high is a very bad influence on young people who are idolizing him or are greatly influenced by him…

I was shocked to hear Bill then exclaim very angrily and adamantly, “F#%K CHILDREN!!”

After which he ranted and raved about how much he could care less about children, or being a role model to children. This wasn’t a punch line, it was an angry rant for a minute or two, reflecting the ‘cult’ of destructive ignorance on the political Left that I have often wrote about as being just as destructive as that ‘cult’ of destructive ignorance we routinely see on the Right with evangelical Trump supporter types and the like.

This was an HBO special, and I am tempted to write to HBO to ask them why they would ever want to associate themselves with someone who would so adamantly say anything remote close to “F#%K CHILDREN!!”…

It would be egregious enough if they didn’t clearly mean it, and used it as a setup to show that it wasn’t sincere, that would be bad enough…But in this case, in this HBO special, Bill Maher made it clear he really meant it.

One of our biggest purposes here in this physical dimension of our spiritual existence as a PART of what “God” is, is to BE the love and healing of God that others need.

And a HUGE part of that HOLY responsibility is to set the right, healthy life example for young people, not based on religious morals, but based on common sense COMMUNITY MORALS and The Golden Rule.

Connie Bryan

(Connie Bryan is a writer in Sacramento, CA. She is also the host and producer of “The Connie Bryan Show” airing in 14 cable access markets nationwide including Washington D.C. Check out all of Connie’s material on her website and blog at www.conniebryan.com, and on her Youtube channel at Youtube/conniebryan.)