Death in Aurora

1912Misha

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Friday July 20, 2012 · 2:55 PM PDT

2012/07/20 · 14:55

Politicians all over the country are trying to make hay out of the tragedy in Colorado. How cynical can we all be to use this great human tragedy for personal aggrandizement? A Congressman from Texas used this tragedy to make remarks on what he believes is an attach on Christian values. Others are using this to pressure the government to make more rules on guns. That same Congressman suggested that the solution would have been for someone in the theater to have had a gun to shoot the shooter. What? Can you imagine a dark theater with guns blazing all over. The death toll would have been so much greater. Perhaps that should have happened to show the stupidity of the idea. We have so much to learn from this experience, but gun laws are not the primary lesson to be gleaned from it. We don't realize how precious human life is. We send young men all over the world to kill and be killed. We have movies and TV shows that glorify the killing of bad guys. We make it a big deal when someone is executed. People cheered at the thought that someone without means should die because he didn't have insurance. People jeered a gay soldier. We have millions without jobs and Congress passes bills on abortion. We inherited a culture of violence from our ancestors who populated this country by wiping out indigenous peoples. Do you remember reading about Squanto, who helped save the Pilgrims? He stayed with the English, because his entire tribe had been wiped out because of European diseases. We had ancestors who deliberately gave Native Americans blankets infected with small pox. Small wonder that we think violence is a solution to problems. It is not a solution. It is a symptom of greater issues having to do with our value system. Whose life is valuable? Is George Zimmerman's life more valuable than Trayvon Martin's? We live in a culture that values some lives over others. We used the attack on 9/11 to justify the slaughter of a hundred thousand Iraqis and untold numbers of Afghanis. This is not to say that the attack on 9/11 was justified. It was not. 3000 lives were lost. These lives were precious, just as precious as the lives of the Iraqis and Afghanis. Vengeance is no answer. Violence begets violence.

We must rethink our value system; our reasons for believing that actions are justified. There is a law of unintended consequences. That law tells us that we should look deeper before we act. Do you know all of the consequences of your action? If not, then you should be wary of action.

We can take this tragic situation in Colorado to reexamine our prejudices, our values, our beliefs in the value of human life.

Understanding Conservatism

1912Misha

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Tuesday July 17, 2012 · 11:39 PM PDT

2012/07/17 · 23:39

People who call themselves conservative, as opposed to those conservationists who actually conserve, are some of the cleverest people around. After all, they can hold numerous contradictory ideas all at once. They can believe in the "sanctity of life" and support the death penalty. They can support truthfulness and lie about their opponents. They have fear of "big government" and yet are willing to allow government intrusion into other peoples' bedrooms, doctors offices and anywhere else people do things they don't like. These are the people who think that people are basically bad, that they alone know how to provide "freedom" that is slavery to their ideas and principles. We can't tax the "job creators" who don't create jobs. We can't object that 90% of the increase in wealth goes to 10% of the population. We can't say that such discrepancy in wealth is unjust. We can't say that the guy who flips burgers at McDonald's is oppressed by his lack of options. Is freedom slavery? Do facts matter? Or, can people be led to the slaughter by those who would enslave us?

Freedom of Religion

1912Misha

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Tuesday July 17, 2012 · 11:37 PM PDT

2012/07/17 · 23:37

The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion. The current crop of religious bigots that fill the airwaves and our tv screens, however, equate the word "religion" with Christianity. This idea, if allowed to grow and fester, will endanger every religious and non-religious person in the country. Narrow vision is not what will help the nation. We see the corruption that is permeating the nation's religious institutions. Catholic priests are telling their congregation in Washington State to sign petitions to put gay marriage on the ballot in November. Other pastors and religious are telling their congregations how to vote. They hold rallies in places around the country to "pray" for the country, but only to ask that God turn the country into what they think is proper. How do they know what God wants for America? What message in the gospels is there about the United States? The truth is, that religion has a very important role to play in society, but partisan politics, which in and of itself is of highly questionable value, is not the place for church action. Is not the message of the gospel one of loving one's neighbor, taking care of the poor, visiting the sick, and taking care of their own spiritual development? A saintly man once said that we should be concerned with our own deficiencies rather than the faults of others. After all, he said, we all have faults and failings enough to keep us busy. We don't have time to be concerned with the failings of others. This, is the essence of what we should take into the church. Jesus said nothing about gays or abortion. If they believe that abortion is bad, they should not have an abortion. If they believe that it's bad to be gay, then don't have same sex relationships. But their religious based beliefs are not appropriate for non-believers.

I am reminded of a passage in "Reading Lolita in Teheran" when the writer's mother objected to the laws requiring the use of the hijab (body covering scarf) by the revolutionary authorities in Iran. She had always been religious and had always followed the rules on head covering; but she had done so as an expression of her devotion to God, not because it was legally required. When religious expression is governed by law, it becomes meaningless. Rather than a sign of religious devotion and piety, it becomes an onerous form of oppression.

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