There was an item on my home page today about a Dutch film that insults Islam, protests against the film, and so forth. Here we go again.
Or is it different this time?
The person who made the film did make inflammatory remarks.
On the other hand, though, to all the Muslims out there I would like to say this:
Your religion is being hijacked by extremists who are violent. There is no getting around that. You still see Christians in the light of events during the Crusades some 1,000 years ago, and frankly I admit that Christians did some horrendous things during those invasions of your lands. Surely you can understand that Westerners today, and Americans specifically, are seeing Islam in the light of terrorist attacks on innocent people. I'm not just talking about what happened on 9/12/01/. I'm talking about suicide bombers blowing up shoppers in marketplaces, suicide bombers blowing up worshippers at the mosques, Muslims raking school buses with gunfire and killing children. You can't expect us not to hate or fear your religion when we see these things being done in its name.
There are also stories of women being stoned or whipped for things like being outside the house without a male relative escorting them. We don't have such laws or such punishments in our culture, and frankly they don't make your religion look very attractive.
I would like to say first that I believe you are too easily offended about your religion. Any innocent act by someone unfamiliar with your cuture and religion can accidentally do something that offends Islam, and no offense was intended. You might be wise to consider lightening up.
Also I would like to say that if we express hatred or fear of your religion and that offends you, well, do something about it! Teach us whas true Islam is all about. If you believe your religion is loving and compassionate and peaceful, show us that by the way you live and by the way you treat strangers. Do everything in your power to oppose the extremists who are turning Islam into a religion of hatred and violence against innocent people. Don't just sit there and curse the people who don't understand; help us to understand.
We are all on this planet together, and we need to learn to understand each other. We need to live together. We need to work out our problems together, and shooting and bombing each other is not going to do that. But in order to talk together and work out our problems, we have to start by trying to understand each other.
Muslims, if you are willing to try that, so am I.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Hypocrisy? Or Hugely Bad Judgment?
It seems to happen all the time, doesn't it?
We have elected officials who campaign on family values and are cheating on their wives behind everyone's backs. We have elected officials who campaign on an anti-corruption platform and it turns out they accept as many favors as the people they have prosecuted.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer is only the most recent example. He made a name for himself as a crusader against corruption in business and government. It sounds like he was a hard-nosed, blunt, and ruthless crusader for What Is Right.
Now look at him.
What is it about public officials? Why do they make such an issue out of family values or corruption when they fail to live up to their own standards for others? Is it blatant hypocrisy? Is it arrogance? Is it simply bad judgment? Don't they realize what will happen to their families and career if they are caught? Or do they make so many enemies that someone sets out to trap them in their own weaknesses? How are we to know what really happens in these cases?
There is a great hue and cry calling for Gov. Spitzer to resign. If his effectiveness as governor is destroyed, then probably he might as well resign and rebuild his life as best he can.
Then on the other hand, is this worth the destruction of a man's career? In this age of kiss-and-tell, probably not. This is basically a personal mistake, not something that should impair his ability to function as governor of his state. It surely isn't worth impeaching him; the talk of impeachment shows how cynical and bloodthirsty this nation is today. We're like sharks circling a wounded person or animal in the sea. Anyone who ever makes any kind of mistake is fair game, and if he doesn't like being It he shouldn't be alive because anyone who is alive is vulnerable.
I note that the people who are nastiest toward Gov. Spitzer are the people who he was nasty to when he himself had the upper hand. Someone said once, "The person who hasn't committed any wrongs may cast the first stone."
Maybe we should all remember that.
That same someone also said, on another occasion, "Judge not, lest you be judged. For you will be judged the same way you judge others."
That is what is happening now to Gov. Spitzer. Next it will happen to some of the people who are calling for his impeachment. The shoe will be on the other foot again, the game will continue, and the band will keep on playing.
I want to be nasty too. The nerve of this man! He made such an issue out of corruption and then he turned out to be a human being like everyone else.
If he had used a less brutal style, he might have more friends today when he needs friends.
But what the heck. I don't have the right to cast the first stone either. I doubt that anyone does. We have the right to be upset, but let's keep partisan revenge out of it. That's one of the things that fractures our nation. Can we cool down and try to work for healing this time?
We have elected officials who campaign on family values and are cheating on their wives behind everyone's backs. We have elected officials who campaign on an anti-corruption platform and it turns out they accept as many favors as the people they have prosecuted.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer is only the most recent example. He made a name for himself as a crusader against corruption in business and government. It sounds like he was a hard-nosed, blunt, and ruthless crusader for What Is Right.
Now look at him.
What is it about public officials? Why do they make such an issue out of family values or corruption when they fail to live up to their own standards for others? Is it blatant hypocrisy? Is it arrogance? Is it simply bad judgment? Don't they realize what will happen to their families and career if they are caught? Or do they make so many enemies that someone sets out to trap them in their own weaknesses? How are we to know what really happens in these cases?
There is a great hue and cry calling for Gov. Spitzer to resign. If his effectiveness as governor is destroyed, then probably he might as well resign and rebuild his life as best he can.
Then on the other hand, is this worth the destruction of a man's career? In this age of kiss-and-tell, probably not. This is basically a personal mistake, not something that should impair his ability to function as governor of his state. It surely isn't worth impeaching him; the talk of impeachment shows how cynical and bloodthirsty this nation is today. We're like sharks circling a wounded person or animal in the sea. Anyone who ever makes any kind of mistake is fair game, and if he doesn't like being It he shouldn't be alive because anyone who is alive is vulnerable.
I note that the people who are nastiest toward Gov. Spitzer are the people who he was nasty to when he himself had the upper hand. Someone said once, "The person who hasn't committed any wrongs may cast the first stone."
Maybe we should all remember that.
That same someone also said, on another occasion, "Judge not, lest you be judged. For you will be judged the same way you judge others."
That is what is happening now to Gov. Spitzer. Next it will happen to some of the people who are calling for his impeachment. The shoe will be on the other foot again, the game will continue, and the band will keep on playing.
I want to be nasty too. The nerve of this man! He made such an issue out of corruption and then he turned out to be a human being like everyone else.
If he had used a less brutal style, he might have more friends today when he needs friends.
But what the heck. I don't have the right to cast the first stone either. I doubt that anyone does. We have the right to be upset, but let's keep partisan revenge out of it. That's one of the things that fractures our nation. Can we cool down and try to work for healing this time?
Thursday, March 6, 2008
It Is Too Sad To Be Funny
Am I the only person who wonders about the goings-on in the Middle East? Am I the only person who thinks that everyone over there, Islamic or Jewish, is literally in love with hatred?
Yesterday it was announced that the Palestinian peace talks were going to resume.
Why does it not surprise me that, almost immediately, someone shoots up a Jewish seminary and kills some people there? The attack had only one goal, it seems to me - to sabotage the planned peace talks. This appears to happen almost on schedule. Someone tries to revive a movement toward peace, and someone else immediately does something to derail it.
The rest of the world sits by, utterly befuddled and confused, with no idea of how to communicate, no idea of how to gain trust, no idea even of how to get us all on the same page.
And we achieve nothing toward peace, though we all think we desire peace. How is it that we desire peace but can do so little toward having it? Does anyone besides me wonder what isn't working in our world? Obviously something is not.
We shuttle back and forth, shooting guns with one hand and waving peace signs with the other hand. We scurry and bustle like ants whose hill has been run over with a lawnmower. It must be comical to a cosmic observer. (I'm not kidding. I once watched a documentary on the arms race in the Cold War and I could have laughed myself silly. We worked so hard to build weapons that would destroy our entire civilization, as though we had good sense.) We must be hilarious. Slapstick on Planet Earth!
But too much pain comes from it. (Of course, that is what most comedy and humor are based on.) Too many lives are lost. Too many other lives are irrevocably altered.
It is too tragic to be funny.
Yesterday it was announced that the Palestinian peace talks were going to resume.
Why does it not surprise me that, almost immediately, someone shoots up a Jewish seminary and kills some people there? The attack had only one goal, it seems to me - to sabotage the planned peace talks. This appears to happen almost on schedule. Someone tries to revive a movement toward peace, and someone else immediately does something to derail it.
The rest of the world sits by, utterly befuddled and confused, with no idea of how to communicate, no idea of how to gain trust, no idea even of how to get us all on the same page.
And we achieve nothing toward peace, though we all think we desire peace. How is it that we desire peace but can do so little toward having it? Does anyone besides me wonder what isn't working in our world? Obviously something is not.
We shuttle back and forth, shooting guns with one hand and waving peace signs with the other hand. We scurry and bustle like ants whose hill has been run over with a lawnmower. It must be comical to a cosmic observer. (I'm not kidding. I once watched a documentary on the arms race in the Cold War and I could have laughed myself silly. We worked so hard to build weapons that would destroy our entire civilization, as though we had good sense.) We must be hilarious. Slapstick on Planet Earth!
But too much pain comes from it. (Of course, that is what most comedy and humor are based on.) Too many lives are lost. Too many other lives are irrevocably altered.
It is too tragic to be funny.
Monday, March 3, 2008
From No to Yes
After 18 months of upheaval - moving 800 miles, getting re-acquainted with my home town, and the continuing revision of my beliefs and spiritual priorities - I have finally reached a couple of milestones.
It is hard to keep going, to remain positive, when everywhere you turn there is a thundering NO! No, we aren't interested in the classes you want to offer us. No, we aren't going to hire you. No, the classes you wanted to take are cancelled because there aren't enough people in them. No, no, no, no!
Suddenly the sun comes up. The ghostly light gradually brightens into pink clouds and orange sun; light and shadow are now playing on the snow. The chorus is changing its text, now, and it is beginning to say Yes.
It almost amazes me that I have completed the first level of lay speaker training. I am not sure how I can use this, with my beliefs so far removed from official Christian doctrine. However, I have some ideas, and I have some things to say, and I think I can find ways to say them that get my point across without having to involve theological argument, which I have no background to do well in. I just talked with my pastor today about possibilities, and he sounded understanding and supportive. This opportunity is actually going to get tested.
And as I stand trembling on the brink of financial disaster, someone finally says to me, "We definitely want you to be part of our team." This job, at the moment, is a bird in the bush, not a bird in the hand, because lawyers have to finish the fine print in a contract between employer and customer before I am officially offered the job. I am hopeful that in the next week or two I will be getting ready to start working. So although the bird is still in the bush, my hand is poised over him ready to grab.
And as I continue to explore my new spirituality, I suppose that there will be more to come. There are still choices about lifestyle that are working out. But I should at least avoid the need to set up housekeeping in a box under the local bridge.
Yes. A short word. One syllable, three letters. But certainly, as the dark season of the year begins to wane and we begin to think of new life in spring, it is a welcome one.
It is hard to keep going, to remain positive, when everywhere you turn there is a thundering NO! No, we aren't interested in the classes you want to offer us. No, we aren't going to hire you. No, the classes you wanted to take are cancelled because there aren't enough people in them. No, no, no, no!
Suddenly the sun comes up. The ghostly light gradually brightens into pink clouds and orange sun; light and shadow are now playing on the snow. The chorus is changing its text, now, and it is beginning to say Yes.
It almost amazes me that I have completed the first level of lay speaker training. I am not sure how I can use this, with my beliefs so far removed from official Christian doctrine. However, I have some ideas, and I have some things to say, and I think I can find ways to say them that get my point across without having to involve theological argument, which I have no background to do well in. I just talked with my pastor today about possibilities, and he sounded understanding and supportive. This opportunity is actually going to get tested.
And as I stand trembling on the brink of financial disaster, someone finally says to me, "We definitely want you to be part of our team." This job, at the moment, is a bird in the bush, not a bird in the hand, because lawyers have to finish the fine print in a contract between employer and customer before I am officially offered the job. I am hopeful that in the next week or two I will be getting ready to start working. So although the bird is still in the bush, my hand is poised over him ready to grab.
And as I continue to explore my new spirituality, I suppose that there will be more to come. There are still choices about lifestyle that are working out. But I should at least avoid the need to set up housekeeping in a box under the local bridge.
Yes. A short word. One syllable, three letters. But certainly, as the dark season of the year begins to wane and we begin to think of new life in spring, it is a welcome one.
Calendar: January 14 and February 1
After several weeks in which I became immersed in some Conversations With God books, I am finally back. As I work through some reflections on Walsch's writings, I will probably make some comments here. Today, though, I am going through calendar pages to start cleaning them off my computer desk.
The Dalai Lama quote for January 14 contains the statement that followers of the Buddha should take his life (the Buddha's, not the Dalai Lama's) as a model.
How I wish the Christian church would say that! I believe that one major tenet of Christianity is that Jesus shows God to us. There are a number of Christianity's tenets that give me problems; this one, however, is spot on. Jesus does show God to us.
What, then, does Jesus show us about God? He shows us that God accepts everyone who honestly seeks Him; we don't see stories where Jesus turned people away because they were the wrong color, had the wrong lifestyle, or believed the wrong things. He shows us that God cares about the marginalized; Jesus was normally found among tax collectors and sinners, not in the company of respectable people. He shows us that God would heal us, teach us, help us to live better lives.
Why doesn't the church teach us these things about God? And about how Jesus shows us these things about God? Why do we keep hearing about sin and salvation, about how Jesus is the only way to God, about the threat of hell if we fail to believe that Jesus was the biological son of God?
Those aren't the things Jesus told us about. Those aren't the things Jesus showed in his life.
If we can follow Jesus' teachings and example, loving and helping others, maintaining an intimate relationship with God as he did, we are truly Christians, aren't we? Isn't that what a follower of Jesus would do?
Moving on to another month, the page for February 1 says this: "When I consider the lack of cooperation in human society, I can only conclude that it stems from ignorance of our interdependent nature."
I would add to that, "Nor do we understand the natural world and our relationship to it."
The reason I want to say that is to spell it out: We are part of the natural world. This planet is part of the natural universe, and every living thing on it is part of the natural world. That includes us human beings.
And we had better learn, quickly, that we are interdependent with the rest of the natural world. We are not separate from nature; we cannot dominate it as though it were something external from us. We have dominated it for so long that we are now destroying our environment. Let's be up front about that. Our soil is disappearing, our soil (such as we have left) and air and water are all polluted, our food supply is polluted with chemicals, and every time we turn around there is another warning or news story about something that threatens us. We also have overpopulated the earth; the only reason we aren't standing elbow-to-elbow throughout all the continents is that we, in the absence of natural predators, prey on each other through war (which with today's technology offers more sources of pollution).
There is a theory held by some that the planet has decided we are vermin and must be gotten rid of. That is scary! Is it true? There isn't any way to really know. But we sure have found some awfully weird diseases in the past several years.
Gloom and doom? I hope not. But we need to wake up, stop arguing about non-issues and roll up our shirtsleeves.
A good beginning would be to heed the Dalai Lama's words. We are interdependent. What happens in Iraq affects something that happens in Alaska. What happens in Chicago can affect people in Chile. Let's understand that and become serious about healing our environment.
The Dalai Lama quote for January 14 contains the statement that followers of the Buddha should take his life (the Buddha's, not the Dalai Lama's) as a model.
How I wish the Christian church would say that! I believe that one major tenet of Christianity is that Jesus shows God to us. There are a number of Christianity's tenets that give me problems; this one, however, is spot on. Jesus does show God to us.
What, then, does Jesus show us about God? He shows us that God accepts everyone who honestly seeks Him; we don't see stories where Jesus turned people away because they were the wrong color, had the wrong lifestyle, or believed the wrong things. He shows us that God cares about the marginalized; Jesus was normally found among tax collectors and sinners, not in the company of respectable people. He shows us that God would heal us, teach us, help us to live better lives.
Why doesn't the church teach us these things about God? And about how Jesus shows us these things about God? Why do we keep hearing about sin and salvation, about how Jesus is the only way to God, about the threat of hell if we fail to believe that Jesus was the biological son of God?
Those aren't the things Jesus told us about. Those aren't the things Jesus showed in his life.
If we can follow Jesus' teachings and example, loving and helping others, maintaining an intimate relationship with God as he did, we are truly Christians, aren't we? Isn't that what a follower of Jesus would do?
Moving on to another month, the page for February 1 says this: "When I consider the lack of cooperation in human society, I can only conclude that it stems from ignorance of our interdependent nature."
I would add to that, "Nor do we understand the natural world and our relationship to it."
The reason I want to say that is to spell it out: We are part of the natural world. This planet is part of the natural universe, and every living thing on it is part of the natural world. That includes us human beings.
And we had better learn, quickly, that we are interdependent with the rest of the natural world. We are not separate from nature; we cannot dominate it as though it were something external from us. We have dominated it for so long that we are now destroying our environment. Let's be up front about that. Our soil is disappearing, our soil (such as we have left) and air and water are all polluted, our food supply is polluted with chemicals, and every time we turn around there is another warning or news story about something that threatens us. We also have overpopulated the earth; the only reason we aren't standing elbow-to-elbow throughout all the continents is that we, in the absence of natural predators, prey on each other through war (which with today's technology offers more sources of pollution).
There is a theory held by some that the planet has decided we are vermin and must be gotten rid of. That is scary! Is it true? There isn't any way to really know. But we sure have found some awfully weird diseases in the past several years.
Gloom and doom? I hope not. But we need to wake up, stop arguing about non-issues and roll up our shirtsleeves.
A good beginning would be to heed the Dalai Lama's words. We are interdependent. What happens in Iraq affects something that happens in Alaska. What happens in Chicago can affect people in Chile. Let's understand that and become serious about healing our environment.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)