Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Texas Faith: The endless entanglement of faith and war


Most of the religious men are insecure, and want to secure their income, place and status in the society by doing what sells; making a villain out of God, who hates Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus and others. That is the real problem.
 
Texas Faith: The endless entanglement of faith and war
By Rudolph Bush | 9:10 am on August 6, 2014 | Permalink

For so many of us in the comfort of the west, it is hard to understand the generational conflicts in the Middle East, between Jew and Muslim or Sunni and Shia.

The cycle of provocation and vengeance has lost its beginning. It seemingly has no end. It is wrapped on all sides in justifications of faith.

Both violence and faith are used by evil people as a means to ascend to power. But good people too become absorbed in the tradition of blood for blood.

How can faith help break this cycle? How can each side use his or her belief in a higher power, and in their sacred scripture, to see the humanity in someone different?
 
MIKE GHOUSE, President, Foundation for Pluralism and speaker on interfaith matters, Dallas
 
The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is a humanitarian one, and it would be wrong to label it as Jewish and Muslim or between Judaism and Islam. We have to guard ourselves from labeling each other as enemies which we are not, and we shouldn’t be. Of course a few among us (Jewish or Muslim) look to the other as if ‘they’ have wronged us. No, none whatsoever.
 
The conflict should not deteriorate the delicate relationship between Jews, Christians and Muslims; instead it should bring us together to build a cohesive America, and hopefully cohesive societies across the world where no human has to live in fear of the other.
 
It is easy to blame the religion, an intangible that you cannot kill, shoot, beat, hang or bury to restore trust and justice in the society, but you restore trust in the society by holding the individual wrong doers accountable.
 
It is time for Jews, Christians and Muslims to re-look at their books and start seeing and believing in a God who is just, merciful and loving, and not a bigot who takes sides, favors one over the other, or makes deals with one set of people behind other’s back. Do we need a sneaky God like that? Hell No!
 
I have spent 20 years researching on pluralism and here is my take. The holy books are right, God’s words are right, and religions are beautiful. God loves us all, we are his creation, and his words are not the problem; it is our understanding that is messed up.
 
Most of the religious men are insecure, and want to secure their income, place and status in the society by doing what sells; making a villain out of God, who hates Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus and others. That is the real problem.
 
Making a villain out of God
 
Some of the most powerful leaders in Christianity tend to be sadistic men, and their own tailor-made-God loves killing people, and they remorselessly justify and cherish massacres of Palestinians, because God will come soon to the earth if that happens. Does Jesus want blood on his hands to come back?
 
The Powerful Jews and Muslims are no better either; they have got their scriptures completely wrong. One’s bigoted God has promised them the land robbing from the others, and the other’s bigoted God tells them not to make friends with Christians and Jews. The interpretations for the following verses need to be corrected – Exodus 23:31-32, Deuteronomy 1:8, Genesis 15:18-2 and Quran, 5:51 to prevent abusers from justifying injustices and outright hate. God is not a bigot.
 
God is just, and has created everything in harmony and balance. Our free will messes us up with our bad choices. God wills nothing but seeing his creation remain intact as he has created, and it is responsibility of good ones among us to remind the others about what God wants; harmony and respect for his creation.
 
Apologies
 
We should demand an apology from Benjamin Netanyahu, Khaled Mashaal, Barak Obama, our Senators and Congresspersons for the death of the Israeli and Palestinian civilians caused from their irresponsible justifications and actions.
 
God gave paws, fangs and horns to animals to settle their disputes, but denied the same to humans, and instead gave them a tongue to dialogue. I am afraid these men were not blessed with a tongue. They are still at the bottom of the evolution pit and are adept in using their horns, fangs and Paws to settle their disputes.
 
In conclusion, we need to fix the interpretation of our holy books, make God a good God for all, get Netanyahu and Mashaal to dialogue instead of encouraging and funding them to pound each other. Let’s look forward to building security for Israel and justice for the Palestinians; one will not happen without the other.
 
Resign
 
If these men really want peace, we need to put them together with 5 Israeli and 5 Palestinian Children with their mothers, and ask them to look at the kids and promise to them, that they the Palestinian and Israeli leaders together will deliver peace and prosperity, jobs and security to them when they grow up, and that they will not be their villains anymore. Furthermore, they would apologize to them for killing other children who would have become their friends in prosperity. If they have no intentions to deliver the results, why should people elect them?
 
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Thank you
mike
Mike Ghouse
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Mike Ghouse is a public speaker, thinker, writer and a commentator on Pluralism at work place, politics, religion, society, gender, race, culture, ethnicity, food and foreign policy. All about him is listed in several links at www.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are at www.TheGhousediary.com and 10 other blogs. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.
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