The Opus Dei

[Leonardo17]

   There is a very interesting documentary on this in DW. This organization is very similar in it’s methods, functioning and operational model to the “Cemaat” (Eng.: Fellowship) model of the Political Islamist sheikh Fettulah Gulen that is implemented mainly in Turkey but also in several EU + North American Countries and has been declared illegal in Turkey since it attempted to organize a military coup D’état in 2015.
 

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   I already explained in my previous threads (like “Who is the Pharaoh in the Muslim Holy Book?” in the section Islam) that this is not how (any) religion is supposed to work. My vision is very Lutheran on this. Meaning that religion (meaning “to bind back”) is designed to allow the individual to recreate his relationship to higher realities. All rituals, studies, religious practices + any form of priesthood or religious / spiritual authority needs to serve but that goal.
 
   See in the end of the documentary the Opus Dei is described as something that is not entirely a Mafia-type organization. But still it’s highest ranks (that do not have close ties with the actual pope but did have very close ties with earlier popes like Benedict XVI, are described as people who like to have Power, Influence and material wealth.
 
   I already expressed the Quranic view on this type of approach in my earlier thread mentioned above. The Quran openly curses that type of approach to religious matters.
 
   And 2) Things have changed a lot in modern times. It was the hippies of the 1960’s who went to places like Katmandu, India, Machu Pichu etc. And so, not everything about them was sex and drugs and rock’n’roll. In fact, they were the ones who came back with things like Yoga, Meditetion, Kama-Sutra, Ayurveda etc. Then there was this fusion of Western philosophical thinking with eastern values and practices that still survived in places like India. In fact, If you ever get to India, I think you might notice this energy in the air that is described as “The Magic of India”.
 
   Anyway, within time there has been this spiritual rebirth. People saw the uselessness of religious rituals and practices that had become completely “soulless” and empty. A religious ritual that is being robotically performed without any sense of inner journey or spiritual quest is just a social event of some sort. There is not spiritual value to that.
 
   Similarly, to people like me, doing something to gain more power / money and influence, is just that. It’s an act of political ideology, it’s not an act of spiritual quest.
 
   An this is said to be the reason because there is no spiritual hierarchy in Islam. The Prophet is said to have organized religion in an un-organized manner because it was part of his goal to avoid all politicization of his spiritual legacy.
 

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   So the documentary is very interesting. It is said that at some point, these guys controlled 50% of the Spanish judiciary system. Clearly, if we were to let them, theese guys would immediately go back to the concept of Christendom with monarchs owing loyalty to the Catholic Church and all that