Wednesday then
40°F and clear outside, Wind NW 5 mph and 70% humidity makes Feels Like 37° at this 6:30 AM Wednesday morning.
Too much reading poisons the mind and the attitude? Israeli soldiers shoot three unthreatening people in the West Bank, killing the 17 year old. Not surprising, with hopped up hatred, they are acting like German Waffen SS troops cruelly and senselessly killing harmless, innocent, helpless people for the fun and satisfaction of it. Who doesn't see it wake alphabet up. Circularly, a group who are hated violently, hate violently back without end, and in Time the fact arises of having abandoned one's own humanity in the quest for survival, which is where Israel now is.
Remember MAD? When only Mutually Assured Destruction restrains foes from massively killing each other, there's a moral issue to be faced about how highly one values oneself. And in the end it comes down to the irrefutable fact that all government is always, all ways, all bad, which is the justification for a world of internationalism without borders.
Enough. In the late 70s and early 80s I visited Sydney, Australia on business several Times. Wandering one particular street on Saturdays, I was always fascinated as I walked past little groups of people gathered around a man standing on a box spouting his version of truth as some of his audience nodded heads and others heckled. I'll get off my soapbox, though during my facial surgery yesterday all I could think about was how Palestinians in Gaza are being operated on without anesthetics, while I was so comfortable.
It's kill or be killed over there, and I see it coming to America as well, as divisions are created and stirred to hatred and violence by self-centered haters; grateful for extreme old age, I have no wish to live into it, the opposite of the American Dream. IDK why we have such immigration problems, why people wish to come here.
Early morning reading: the safest country in the world is Canada, then various Northern European countries.
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A widespread perversion of Christianity preaches a selfishness that it's about forgiveness of sins and personal salvation into glorious afterlife: it is not, Christianity is about living the life of Jesus in the kingdom of God here and now, a life of love and sacrifice, where the Way of the Cross is the Way of Life. Counter to something personal and private, it is precisely what Fr Richard's column below calls Engaged Christianity.
A hero, if doing life over, the Franciscan movement in catholicism.
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations
From the Center for Action and Contemplation
Week Two: Engaging with a World on Fire
Engaged Christianity
Brian McLaren traces how he and Father Richard have been on similar journeys, charting a path for a Christian faith that is engaged with the world’s needs:
The titles of my books reveal that I was encountering something in my faith tradition that didn’t sit right with me…. I felt like I was peeling an onion. I noticed, for example, that people who spend a lot of time in church often seemed to be some of the meanest, more arrogant, and most judgmental people that I met. I noticed the same being true of me at times as well.... It seemed that Christianity had become for many people an evacuation plan (how to get your soul out of earth into heaven) rather than a transformation plan (how to help God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven).
When I was introduced to Richard Rohr in the late 90s, I realized that Richard was on a very similar path. He was many steps ahead of me and helped me to understand that there was something we were both struggling with and seeking to repair, fix, heal, correct in our inherited Western tradition…. Eventually, I came upon the important work of Thich Nhat Hanh, and I realized that Thich Nhat Hanh had been on a similar journey as Richard and me, but in his Buddhist tradition….
I think this parallel struggle, in Catholicism and in Protestantism, in Buddhism and Christianity, is the struggle to have a faith that isn’t an evacuation plan or an escape into private bliss, but a way of seeking to have a spiritual transformation in our own lives that will express itself in change and transformation in our world. We’re on a quest to find out how to have an engaged expression of deep spiritual life that makes a difference in a world on fire. [1]
Inspired by the writings of Thich Nhat Hanh and The Fourteen Precepts of Engaged Buddhism, McLaren wrote The Fourteen Precepts of Just and Generous Christianity. Here are some of the guidelines McLaren offers:
Lifelong Learning: Do not think the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, complete, and absolute truth…. Be open to the Holy Spirit and practice childlike humility….
Gentleness: Do not force others, including children, by any means whatsoever, to adopt your views, whether by authority, threat, money, propaganda, or even education….
Love: Do not maintain anger or hatred…. Make love your highest goal.
Serenity: Do not lose yourself in dispersion and in your surroundings. Dwell in the presence and peace of God to come back to what is happening in the present moment. Be in touch with what is wondrous, refreshing, and healing both inside and around you….
Nonviolence: Do not kill and do no harm, and do not stand by when others seek to do so. Find creative, just, and nonviolent ways to prevent or end conflicts and to promote and strengthen peace. [2]