We have received inquiries from a number of people across the country, regarding my feelings over the tragedy that took place at the World Trade Center. I have felt a great deal of sadness within me these past days, since the September 11th tragedies. My sadness goes much deeper, both intellectually and spiritually, than what is being discussed in the media. It is my nature and my make up to look at the big picture, rather than one specific event. What I perceive is a tremendous failure throughout the world of people understanding their relationship with God, as well as God's will.

To me, one of the greatest polarizations in the world has been the formation of so many different religions. So many religions believe that only they have the real answers, in that they are placed in a position of higher favorability in the eyes of God than others who do not practice their same religion. It is my belief that this is what has separated people. It has polarized people in such a manner, that through history, it has destroyed the lives of others. This has been done when they believe they are justified to do certain acts in the name of God.

You can take a snapshot at almost any given time in our world and see the incredible damage that has been done in the name of God, through different belief systems. I refer to the hatred of the extreme Muslim practitioners against Christians and Jews. The killing and destruction of the lives of thousands and thousands of people in Serbia and Croatia, in that case, the victimizers were those of the Christian faith.

This also includes the constant threat to the 2.5 million people in Israel who are trying to live in peace, surrounded by millions and millions of others who would rather see every one of them killed. The hatred between the Catholics and the Protestants in Ireland, who practice their religion in a similar manner, but one looks for Papal authority and the other to the Church of England. They even all look alike, and are from the same country and culture.

Then we go back in history. I am not totally familiar with the injustices that have been done, which I know are many, by the non-Christian religions. I do unfortunately have knowledge, with great sadness, of the tremendous atrocities that have been performed in the name of God by the Christian religion, whether it was the Inquisitions, the Crusades or the Holocaust. In some ways, religion, which is man made, has failed God's children and does a tremendous disservice to those who are desperately looking for a relationship with God and become their followers. The greatest sin a person can commit is to commit a sin in the name of God.

In January of the year 2000, the Pope and the Vatican declared there is no such place as hell. They said that hell was a figure of speech, describing a person who is living on earth and who is separated from God because of their behavior and their lack of belief. In spite of that, I do not know of one Catholic Church in our country that has modified their teachings to reflect this declaration and have stopped teaching about hell and Satan.

I have been asked many times over the last few years what religion I practice. My answer is always the same, "I have the same religion as God." When they look at me inquisitively, indeed wanting to hear what special knowledge I have in that I have selected a religion that is also the religion of God, I answer by asking them, "Do you think God is a Mennonite, Quaker or a Jehovah Witness?" Instead I share with them that God has no religion, but our connection to Him is through our spirituality.

I have a vision of God standing on top of a mountain and every one of us are trying to traverse the mountain to reach the top where we will be at one with God. But as we bet higher up the mountain, we will eventually reach the point where we will realize that we must go beyond the vehicle we are traveling in, whether that vehicle be religion, or a theological belief. And only in doing so, and realizing that God is our Father and Mother, and that every one of us are God's children, and that we are all brothers and sisters, and only then, through true spiritual understanding, can we become one with God.

I have total faith that indeed, there is a spiritual dimension and that there are those in the spiritual world who look upon us, and hopefully, sometimes even look after us. They may be spiritual advisors or angels or spirits who lived on earth previously and who are now living in the spiritual world, some common folk and some masters.

Except for an extraordinary moment in history, I do not believe that God, the creator of all of us; interferes in our daily lives. I believe that God has given his children the gift of free will. I do believe that it is possible for God to intervene in our lives on earth in such a manner that is so extraordinary, that it can change the entire world we live in. But I also believe for the most part, God allows us to make our own beds and to create our own heaven or hell, while we are living our mortal lives on earth.

There must be an understanding that there is something infinitely more powerful and sacred in having a spiritual relationship with God, I am speaking of a spiritual relationship with God which transcends any other type of relationship that Man has tried to put together through rituals and dogmatic regulations on how to have a relationship with God.

I know that religion plays an important part in many people's lives, but I have a vision in my mind of hundreds and hundreds of different churches representing different religions sitting side by side with a steeple on top of each of them. Out of each steeple comes a beautiful silver cord and each silver cord is connected at a higher level as it reaches towards the heavens, to one huge intertwined knot, which then connects to God. That is my visual perception of the role that religion should be playing in terms of our transcending into a spiritual relationship with our brothers and sisters as well as God, encompassing and embracing universal love and universal compassion among all of us.

Using a more physical rather than visual analogy, I would look upon religion as being a stepping stone such as a child has when they start their formal education. They begin in preschool, then go to kindergarten before starting first grade. The religious part represents the preschool and kindergarten teachings, and once they reach the first grade, then have our children be exposed to an expanded relationship with God and all God's children, which is spiritual as opposed to possibly being polarized and separated through man made religious training.

I have often felt that the role that I must accept is sharing this understanding with others and trying to have others join me to also be messengers in accomplishing that which I have described in this letter. But I recognize that I will possibly alienate some people in the process of doing this, if their man-made religion that they have been exposed to will have put them in a state of fear to understand beyond the tenets and the dogma which have been placed upon them. But I also know that I must do that which I know to be truth, and to help others stand in God's light, rather than in the shadows.

I am anticipating that I will step forward in these efforts within the next two years, after the filming and release of the movie that will be made of The Messengers, which I believe will begin filming this calendar year. Please understand, I know that religion plays an important role in many people's lives, but I will continue to feel as I do until the religious leaders in the world use their religious teachings to bring people together, rather than continuing the sad history of separating people.

Nick Bunick

(website is www.fourfourfour.com)