{"id":379,"date":"2010-02-22T21:32:57","date_gmt":"2010-02-22T21:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/prayerplainandsimple\/2010\/02\/the-karma-of-jesus-interview-vi-with-alex-ness-1.html"},"modified":"2010-02-22T21:32:57","modified_gmt":"2010-02-22T21:32:57","slug":"the-karma-of-jesus-interview-vi-with-alex-ness-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2010\/02\/the-karma-of-jesus-interview-vi-with-alex-ness-1.html","title":{"rendered":"“The Karma of Jesus” Interview vi with Alex Ness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex Ness <\/font><\/b><\/a>is a writer, poet, and social critic. Recently Alex interviewed me about my book, <\/font><\/span><\/b>The Karma of Jesus<\/font><\/b><\/a>. Here are some excerpts: <\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

AN: Can a Christian believe in Karma too?<\/font><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

MH: I think Christians have to believe in the verdict that Karma levels against us: we screw up and we have to pay for the price. We don’t however believe that the universe is merely mechanistic. We believe that a person, not a machine lies behind things. So yes, I as a Christian do accept that all actions have consequences and I’m responsible for all of mine. But it’s God, a person, who hold me to that standard and can, by choice, intervene in his own established process. This, we believe is where Jesus comes in. If Jesus lived perfectly, he also loved perfectly. Such perfect love came with a perfect desire to share that love and to share the outcomes of his perfect life. In the language of today’s New Age culture Jesus had “perfect Karma.” His perfect love would lead him to want to give this away for the sake of others. So when Jesus died on the cross he became the “toxic waste dump of the universe.” He takes all the horrible consequences of our choices and gives us his purity in exchange. Jesus gets my punishment; I get his goodness, peace and joy. His grace trumps my Karma. <\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alex Ness is a writer, poet, and social critic. Recently Alex interviewed me about my book, The Karma of Jesus. Here are some excerpts: AN: Can a Christian believe in Karma too? MH: I think Christians have to believe in the verdict that Karma levels against us: we screw up and we have to pay…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-karma-of-jesus"],"yoast_head":"\n"The Karma of Jesus" Interview vi with Alex Ness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2010\/02\/the-karma-of-jesus-interview-vi-with-alex-ness-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""The Karma of Jesus" Interview vi with Alex Ness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Alex Ness is a writer, poet, and social critic. Recently Alex interviewed me about my book, The Karma of Jesus. Here are some excerpts: AN: Can a Christian believe in Karma too? MH: I think Christians have to believe in the verdict that Karma levels against us: we screw up and we have to pay…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2010\/02\/the-karma-of-jesus-interview-vi-with-alex-ness-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prayer, Plain and Simple\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-02-22T21:32:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Herringshaw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"The Karma of Jesus\" Interview vi with Alex Ness","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2010\/02\/the-karma-of-jesus-interview-vi-with-alex-ness-1.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"The Karma of Jesus\" Interview vi with Alex Ness","og_description":"Alex Ness is a writer, poet, and social critic. Recently Alex interviewed me about my book, The Karma of Jesus. Here are some excerpts: AN: Can a Christian believe in Karma too? MH: I think Christians have to believe in the verdict that Karma levels against us: we screw up and we have to pay…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2010\/02\/the-karma-of-jesus-interview-vi-with-alex-ness-1.html","og_site_name":"Prayer, Plain and Simple","article_published_time":"2010-02-22T21:32:57+00:00","author":"Mark Herringshaw","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2010\/02\/the-karma-of-jesus-interview-vi-with-alex-ness-1.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2010\/02\/the-karma-of-jesus-interview-vi-with-alex-ness-1.html","name":"\"The Karma of Jesus\" Interview vi with Alex Ness","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-02-22T21:32:57+00:00","dateModified":"2010-02-22T21:32:57+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/e51fa8f80737818cd4c3350772b30948"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2010\/02\/the-karma-of-jesus-interview-vi-with-alex-ness-1.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2010\/02\/the-karma-of-jesus-interview-vi-with-alex-ness-1.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2010\/02\/the-karma-of-jesus-interview-vi-with-alex-ness-1.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"“The Karma of Jesus” Interview vi with Alex Ness"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/","name":"Prayer, Plain and Simple","description":"Prayer, Daily Prayer, Simple Prayers, Quick Prayers, Prayer Requests","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/e51fa8f80737818cd4c3350772b30948","name":"Mark Herringshaw","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b8e\/b8e027f03bf8fd532b692d0c68d2744ex96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b8e\/b8e027f03bf8fd532b692d0c68d2744ex96.jpg","caption":"Mark Herringshaw"},"description":"Mark Herringshaw is writer, speaker, spiritual life coach and pastor at North Heights Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the author of \"Six Prayers God Always Answers: Results May Vary,\" and \"Nine Ways God Always Speaks: Only Available in Certain States,\" both co-written with Jennifer Schuchmann. His third book is \"The Karma of Jesus.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mark is a native of Santa Cruz, California. He has studied at Azusa Pacific University, The Academy of Performing Arts, Cambridge, Ontario, and Luther Seminary. He holds a Ph.D. from Regent University. Mark and his wife Jill have four children. His true passion is walking with people in the exciting adventure of communicating with God.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/author\/mherringshaw"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}