World Affairs
Politics & OpinionsBy Jonathan
11 months ago
A dangerous attack on the American Bill of Rights has begun to show up on right wing blogs. Some posts go so far as to advocate denying First Amendment protection to the Muslim faith. Others go further and assert, "In America we must start by banning Islam and outlawing Muslim schools and the Quran. Then we must deport or imprison those who teach and/or practice Islam." These attitudes are intolerable.
No one has the right to decide whether another American's belief system is a religion. The words of the First Amendment, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion," precludes our government from discriminating against any religions. What could be a worse discrimination against a specific belief system than to legislate that it doesn't "qualify" as a religion at all.
We have a responsibility to judge individuals by their actions, not by the books they read. For example, when the United States decided to outlaw polygamy, Mormons were simply forbidden to follow the (then current) dictates of their book. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints |
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World AffairsPolitics & OpinionsBy Jonathan
11 months ago
I occasionally quote the Buddha and the Dalai Lama, and have found that this makes some of my readers uncomfortable. With apologies both to those who are well versed in Buddhist philosophy and to those who have been taught that Buddhism is a pagan affront to Christianity, I would like to present my two-minute overview of Buddhism.
Siddhattha Gotama, known as the Buddha, lived in India about 500 BC - at the time the second temple was being constructed in Jerusalem. He was a wise teacher, and is revered, but not worshiped, by those of the Buddhist philosophy. He was born into a wealthy family, but left home as a young man to seek insight into the nature of life. At first, he denied himself all earthly goods and pleasures, nearly starving himself. Then he came to the realization that possessions and comforts were not inherently evil and that asceticism (self-denial) was not a path to enlightenment or unity with Spirit. He discovered that the block to enlightenment is ATTACHMENT to the things of this world, rather than the things themselves. This great revelation is known as the Middle Way - living in moderation, without either gluttony or denial, and without attachment.
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