I did not understand Jesus until I studied other religions.
I did not understand the "I am" sayings of Jesus until I studied Hinduism.
I did not understand the nature parables of Jesus until I studied Taoism.
I did not understand "the Kingdom of God" until I studied Judaism.
I did not understand spiritual poverty until I studied Buddhism.
I did not understand truth as something that sets us free until I studied atheism.
It is strange to say but, for me, it is true. I did not understand Jesus
until I could see beyond traditional Christianity.
What does it mean to say there can be no morality without an idea of God? Does that notion not imply there can be no morality without rewards and punishments? And does it not also unconsciously imply we that we are being good not because we love God, but because we seek rewards or fear punishment? How can such “stick and carrot” religion lead us anywhere but to silliness or fear?
If we would seek the sacred, it cannot be in the form of a mental image of God. Any such image says more about ourselves than about reality. Religious symbols like “God” can be helpful in counterbalancing the illusion of a self that stands over and against the universe, but the “truth” of any such symbol is found in the larger life it calls us to.
Our home is found not in religion, but always in the real. If we would seek to know reality, we must love the true simply because it is true, the beautiful simply because it is beautiful, and the good simply because it is good. Religion is always a bridge of sand that we must quickly cross. Woe be it to those who have no bridge into our larger life, and woe be it to those who build their house upon that bridge.
I do not concede that health care, feeding the poor and caring for our planet are one side of a political spectrum. I do not agree that I am being partisan to advocate for these universal causes. Polluting the earth, getting rich off war, and letting poor children languish, are not acts that can be called “conservative” or “liberal.” They are crimes against humanity, and have no place on the political spectrum of any decent society.
Causes that benefit the common good are not partisan, they are the duty of us all.
“We hold the moral obligation of providing for old age, helpless infancy, and poverty is far superior to that of supplying the invented wants of courtly extravagance.”
-Thomas Paine
Elizabeth Warren gave a wonderful response to the government shut down and the vulnerable people it will hurt most. Then she had a few words for the Republican attempt to tie negotiations to cutting women’s reproductive health care. I kind of figured she wasn’t one to mess with.
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/elizabeth_warren_on_the_government_being_held_ransom_over_birth_control_vid
The longer I live, the more convinced I am that capitalism is a kind of madness. What other disease could convince a nation that after stealing a continent of raw materials from its original inhabitants, and then using slave labor to build a nation, would then claim that their wealth was a result of their own pioneer spirit? What other insanity would underpay workers and then lecture them on the virtues of hard work? What other madness would pilfer the goods of other nations, reducing some of them to sweat shop labor, and then see the poverty of those nations as proof of the superiority of their own?
Fund Texas Women is a new group supplying transportation and lodging for women who have lost reproductive care because of Texas’ new law expected to close all but a handful of abortion providers in Texas.
The group has a Facebook page and a webpage (fundtexaswomen.org) that can already take donations.
Faith Voices for Choice is another new group that will work on behalf reproductive justice in the coming years. We met at the offices of Texas Freedom Network who will help co-ordinate our efforts. Also there was the national Executive Director of Catholics for Choice. The group seems very eager to help Fund Texas Women.
As soon as Faith Voices for Choice can take in members I will provide that link.
I am still am hoping we can do some fundraising for the Fund Texas Women group so no one gets left in the lurch. Perhaps people can suggest times and places to meet to get our efforts off the ground. The Fund Texas Women people are available to meet at house gatherings and such.
In what sense are we a democracy if even our own elected officials do not know what our government is doing?
Wednesday Senator Patrick Leahy, chair of the Judiciary Committee said in a hearing that he learns more about NSA spying programs in newspapers than in classified briefings. Were it not for the Edward Snowden leaks I wonder if he would even know that. Officials from within NSA assure us that the program is not being misused, but it was discovered recently that there have been cases of NSA agents spying on former lovers. It does not take much imagination to see that domestic spying will destroy democracy more surely, even if more slowly, than the external threats NSA is protecting us from.
I don’t want to take the word of someone that I didn’t elect that the republic is still intact. One can make a logical case that there is information that cannot be shared with the pubic, but there is no such case for why we cannot know the process by which that information gathering is made accountable to our elected leaders.
Women are not allowed to drive a car in Saudi Arabia. They can drive a bicycle or scooter, but only if they are doing so for recreational purposes.
There is a campaign this month asking Saudi women to defy that law by driving a car. Sheikh Saleh al-Lohaidan is a Saudi cleric who claims that women should not be allowed to drive because driving could damage their ovaries.
Are you thinking what I’m thinking? This guy would be a great Republican candidate for the Texas Legislature! Like them, he believes in mixing religion and politics. Like them, he doesn’t let a little thing like science get in the way of a good belief system. Like them, he’s not sexist, he’s just concerned with women’s health.
So after Republicans have closed down clinics to protect women’s ovaries from imaginary dangers, why stop there? Let’s protect their ovaries from the imaginary dangers of driving as well.
Vote Sheikh al-Hohaidan for the Texas Legislature. Isn’t women’s health worth it?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24323934
“Obamacare” is a nickname given by critics to the “Affordable Care Act” (ACA). They are the same thing, but some people hate anything with Obama’s name on it, so polls show that most Americans prefer the ACA over Obamacare. What I particularly like in these interviews are the studied looks on people who have no idea what they are talking about.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/01/jimmy-kimmel-obamacare-prank_n_4022424.html