Two days ago, just a few hours after I posted some reflections, I received a comment from a person Doug Indeap, a Californian lawyer, that you can read in their entirety in the comments to the referenced posting.
I truly appreciate it, as it gives opportunity to keep on reflecting about how thoughts and concepts, not political, financial or social circumstances, are the core of the battle, that every human being finds him/her/self immersed in, nowadays.
It is my least and lesser purpose to get involved in a controversial exchange. The comments show that the posted reflections did hit their intended target: to make people stop, ponder, reflect and draw their own conclusions, hopefully for the betterment of life´s living.
It is not proselytism, religious intolerance or narrowness what we should have in mind. Individual reflection about the fundamental beliefs, ingrained in the inner realm of our spirits, should be sought, first and foremost. That inner place, where no excuses are valid, and rationalizing justifications have no place to pander to our weaknesses or conveniences!
Because everything, at one time or another, will finally become reduced to the individual, facing himself and the superior entity that gave him life and purpose, structure and destiny!
It is up to every individual to place him/her/self in the specific ladder step where he/her feels as belonging. It can be the highest one, as I and many of my Christian friends have decided to stand upon, meaning by this, the firm belief in a Divine Creator our GOD, GOD with capital letters, and not any one of those little gods we create to justify ourselves or our distorted cravings.
Because there are no atheists in life! If we forsake GOD we are unavoidably forced to replace Him with any of the minuscule gods of human making. The only difference, and the only reason for it, is our reluctance or denial of the ultimate reality of being wholesome, only when submitted to the only one provider of life and purpose for it.
Trying to place ourselves as the sole rulers of us and our surrounding environment is the fooliest thing to believe. Humans are fast becoming the curse and the destroyers of the whole earth, refusing to realize that we are just a fleeting second in its living cycle, and one of the less able species to survive to our own misdeeds.
It is for everyone to decide to believe if we descend from primates or monkeys, or from an evolutionary primeval cell, or from the chaos and chance, or from aliens curiously looking as caricatures of ourselves, even if being recognized as superior minds and entities.
It is also for everyone to cling to the human limited understanding and philosophies, proudly placing them at the top of everything, as if they were the ultimate conquest of the human rationalizations.
What we usually end up with is with such a stubborn clinging to controversy for controversy´s sake, by reacting instead of acting upon the challenging statements, without digging into their content, in order to extract what of good or meaningful they could bring to our lives, illuminating our minds and our spirits.
It is a waste of time the futile searching and dissecting of the whys, the whens and the hows, if what motivates us is just to justify our pretended truth instead of seeking the imperishable one that will make us free.
Freedom is an individual act, decision, circumstance or belief. No one can impose inner and real freedom or slavery upon us. The temporal controllers of this world can control, submit, manipulate or crush our material beings by excluding or denying opportunities to develop or support ourselves. But no one will ever become our masters.
There is only one master and I have decided that He is the God I believe in. I hope everyone finds and decides who his/her master is to be, and find completion and relevance in doing so.
And this allows me to feel free, and understand, the real possibility and logic of loving those who dissent and disagree with us, staying firm at the same time, and refusing patronizing attitudes, or coercions of any potential type.
I was educated in the United States, and I learnt what I consider the most valuable lesson that could have been taught to me. The Freedom to think, to believe, to dissent and to express ourselves with freedom, daring and peace in our hearts!
And this is what all is about: belief in the purest sense of the word. And this is not religion. Religion is just an assemblage of rituals and structured control of our emotions, spirits and minds.
Because religion or religious approaches are not limited to Christianity. Muslimhood is a religion. Humanism is a religion. Greed is a religion. Atheism is a religion. Capitalism is a religion. Communism is a religion. And so everything that human beings can devise and embrace.
They may start as a belief but distort their base and foundations when used to justify ourselves, and are used to build up controlling systems and structures. Controlling ourselves and whoever we lure, attract or force into our convoluted realms.
Belief in God and everyone decides what type of GOD or little god to believe in, is the innerest personal relationship that elevates our spirit to the levels we decide or dare to escalate and reach.
Hopefully we will be able to choose what is immutable and imperishable and unchanging. And standing by and on it precludes the selfish and intolerant tendency to demerit other peoples beliefs. But this does not mean at all that we have to be complacent, accommodating and accepting what is intrinsically wrong.
We just state our belief and understanding of life, and it is up to the listener, reader o bystander to accept or reject. There is no need to attack or be considered or dismissed as an attacker. That is just a diversionary tactic to evade confronting ourselves by confronting others, instead.
My reflections, meditations, comments, assertions, doubts, confrontation of what is offered as the mainstream of materialistic living, are intended for me, in the first place. If they serve or motivate others to do the same, blessed be the Lord.
We, ultimately, by own decision choose our way, hopefully for the better and not the worst, and hopefully, too, with love and righteousness, gennuiness and peace in our hearts.
We only must remember that humans are fallible and change-able and that all human endeavors are also fallible, incomplete, or at least capable of being differently interpreted or improved under the higher lights of higher understanding.
For all these reasons my dear friend there is no need to condescendingly allow me to “Feel free to enjoy my, by your so called, religion to my heart's content.
I AM ALREADY FREE BY PERSONAL CHOICE TO BE FREE, TO FEEL FREE, TO ACT FREE, TO SHARE FREE AND TO ACCEPT REBUKE OR CONDESCENSION AS A FREE. AND I HOPE YOU ARE AS FREE AS I AM. THIS IS MY PRAYER AND HOPE.
Believe me. It is not an easy thing. I have suffered, and I have endured. Things, circumstances and deeds too intimate to share, for reasons of political and social activism! And my owns did suffered and endured alongside us, my wife and I, and we are sometimes still enduring but free. May the Lord bless you as He has blessed us all along the way!
This is the reason, the justification and the strength to write and share, because people who care, as it seems you do, are the beginning of the unraveling of a better future for all, and the nucleus or the remnant in the times of crisis while it painfully victimizes so many around the world.
And I agree with you: There is no need, besides, to attack the constitutional principle of separation of church and state. The concern that raised your comments is worthy to be felt concerned about it. But it does not by all means preclude the analysis intended to better understand, define, and decide how it will affect our personal lives.
And there is no Supreme Court that can replace the supreme court of our own judgment, when rightfully and righteously confronting the ways and mores that try to control our lives.
We can be rejected by the controlling systems. We can be crushed in our livelihood. We can be punished when committed a crime, legally or real one. But we must remember that punishment start inside of us, not necessarily in the outside.
I sadly understand that society must defend itself, even if at times or most of the times the innocents and dispossessed are the prime victims of all the privileged and the schemers of this world.
What these constitutional principles allow, or should allow, is to interpret them, recognizing they are human principles decided upon by humans and consequently subject to different understandings, interpretations and even amendments as you so correctly point out when asserting that The legislative history of the First Amendment belies the narrow scope you would give it.
Narrowness must give in to higher and wholesome understanding and improvement, not just replacing one´s narrowness for another´ trying to “correct”, meaning by this to “change and adjust to our liking”, instead of analyzing and improving as there is always room for it.
We can argue and dissent but we must avoid throwing away the babies with the soiled water. And the babies are we and the soiled waters what we usually do when relying only in our human understanding and pretended supremacy over everything and everyone that surrounds us.
My only dissention in here is the assertion of belying and narrowness in scope. If we carefully analyze what was tried to be conveyed when my mentor Oren stated “We as regular citizens can call ourselves Citizens for Wholesome Values (CWV)” we should realize that the essence of the statement lies in the concept of “Wholesomeness of Values”.
We are obliged to seek and make this wholesomeness of values the most integral part of our being and living. If we do so we can make the difference without regard, because it does not matter in the end, on what sidewalk of the streets of life we are standing on or prefer to stay put for considering it the right sport for us.
More than being patriot, revolutionary, philosopher, activist, or whatever else, we must be faithful believer and follower of the higher and the rightheouster, and the juster and what brings peace and balance to our lives.
If we do so we will never have to face the inner despair of realizing how wasteful and useless and meaningless were the hard, costly and painful efforts of our misspent life when approaching the parting gates into eternity.
Eternity unknown and feared by many, but seen with hope and gratefulness by those who have realized in time that there were higher and worthier goals to achieve while we are still walking the convoluted, disorienting and ruthless paths of the present supposedly amazing human evolution and progress.
We as Christians believe that we are just passerbys who have the opportunity to do something good and lasting so our children may find well oriented signpost for their lives. It is up to everyone to decide what to do and what memories to leave to their own ones and any other needing guidance and advice to enable them to make more informed decisions of their own.
I truly appreciate it, as it gives opportunity to keep on reflecting about how thoughts and concepts, not political, financial or social circumstances, are the core of the battle, that every human being finds him/her/self immersed in, nowadays.
It is my least and lesser purpose to get involved in a controversial exchange. The comments show that the posted reflections did hit their intended target: to make people stop, ponder, reflect and draw their own conclusions, hopefully for the betterment of life´s living.
It is not proselytism, religious intolerance or narrowness what we should have in mind. Individual reflection about the fundamental beliefs, ingrained in the inner realm of our spirits, should be sought, first and foremost. That inner place, where no excuses are valid, and rationalizing justifications have no place to pander to our weaknesses or conveniences!
Because everything, at one time or another, will finally become reduced to the individual, facing himself and the superior entity that gave him life and purpose, structure and destiny!
It is up to every individual to place him/her/self in the specific ladder step where he/her feels as belonging. It can be the highest one, as I and many of my Christian friends have decided to stand upon, meaning by this, the firm belief in a Divine Creator our GOD, GOD with capital letters, and not any one of those little gods we create to justify ourselves or our distorted cravings.
Because there are no atheists in life! If we forsake GOD we are unavoidably forced to replace Him with any of the minuscule gods of human making. The only difference, and the only reason for it, is our reluctance or denial of the ultimate reality of being wholesome, only when submitted to the only one provider of life and purpose for it.
Trying to place ourselves as the sole rulers of us and our surrounding environment is the fooliest thing to believe. Humans are fast becoming the curse and the destroyers of the whole earth, refusing to realize that we are just a fleeting second in its living cycle, and one of the less able species to survive to our own misdeeds.
It is for everyone to decide to believe if we descend from primates or monkeys, or from an evolutionary primeval cell, or from the chaos and chance, or from aliens curiously looking as caricatures of ourselves, even if being recognized as superior minds and entities.
It is also for everyone to cling to the human limited understanding and philosophies, proudly placing them at the top of everything, as if they were the ultimate conquest of the human rationalizations.
What we usually end up with is with such a stubborn clinging to controversy for controversy´s sake, by reacting instead of acting upon the challenging statements, without digging into their content, in order to extract what of good or meaningful they could bring to our lives, illuminating our minds and our spirits.
It is a waste of time the futile searching and dissecting of the whys, the whens and the hows, if what motivates us is just to justify our pretended truth instead of seeking the imperishable one that will make us free.
Freedom is an individual act, decision, circumstance or belief. No one can impose inner and real freedom or slavery upon us. The temporal controllers of this world can control, submit, manipulate or crush our material beings by excluding or denying opportunities to develop or support ourselves. But no one will ever become our masters.
There is only one master and I have decided that He is the God I believe in. I hope everyone finds and decides who his/her master is to be, and find completion and relevance in doing so.
And this allows me to feel free, and understand, the real possibility and logic of loving those who dissent and disagree with us, staying firm at the same time, and refusing patronizing attitudes, or coercions of any potential type.
I was educated in the United States, and I learnt what I consider the most valuable lesson that could have been taught to me. The Freedom to think, to believe, to dissent and to express ourselves with freedom, daring and peace in our hearts!
And this is what all is about: belief in the purest sense of the word. And this is not religion. Religion is just an assemblage of rituals and structured control of our emotions, spirits and minds.
Because religion or religious approaches are not limited to Christianity. Muslimhood is a religion. Humanism is a religion. Greed is a religion. Atheism is a religion. Capitalism is a religion. Communism is a religion. And so everything that human beings can devise and embrace.
They may start as a belief but distort their base and foundations when used to justify ourselves, and are used to build up controlling systems and structures. Controlling ourselves and whoever we lure, attract or force into our convoluted realms.
Belief in God and everyone decides what type of GOD or little god to believe in, is the innerest personal relationship that elevates our spirit to the levels we decide or dare to escalate and reach.
Hopefully we will be able to choose what is immutable and imperishable and unchanging. And standing by and on it precludes the selfish and intolerant tendency to demerit other peoples beliefs. But this does not mean at all that we have to be complacent, accommodating and accepting what is intrinsically wrong.
We just state our belief and understanding of life, and it is up to the listener, reader o bystander to accept or reject. There is no need to attack or be considered or dismissed as an attacker. That is just a diversionary tactic to evade confronting ourselves by confronting others, instead.
My reflections, meditations, comments, assertions, doubts, confrontation of what is offered as the mainstream of materialistic living, are intended for me, in the first place. If they serve or motivate others to do the same, blessed be the Lord.
We, ultimately, by own decision choose our way, hopefully for the better and not the worst, and hopefully, too, with love and righteousness, gennuiness and peace in our hearts.
We only must remember that humans are fallible and change-able and that all human endeavors are also fallible, incomplete, or at least capable of being differently interpreted or improved under the higher lights of higher understanding.
For all these reasons my dear friend there is no need to condescendingly allow me to “Feel free to enjoy my, by your so called, religion to my heart's content.
I AM ALREADY FREE BY PERSONAL CHOICE TO BE FREE, TO FEEL FREE, TO ACT FREE, TO SHARE FREE AND TO ACCEPT REBUKE OR CONDESCENSION AS A FREE. AND I HOPE YOU ARE AS FREE AS I AM. THIS IS MY PRAYER AND HOPE.
Believe me. It is not an easy thing. I have suffered, and I have endured. Things, circumstances and deeds too intimate to share, for reasons of political and social activism! And my owns did suffered and endured alongside us, my wife and I, and we are sometimes still enduring but free. May the Lord bless you as He has blessed us all along the way!
This is the reason, the justification and the strength to write and share, because people who care, as it seems you do, are the beginning of the unraveling of a better future for all, and the nucleus or the remnant in the times of crisis while it painfully victimizes so many around the world.
And I agree with you: There is no need, besides, to attack the constitutional principle of separation of church and state. The concern that raised your comments is worthy to be felt concerned about it. But it does not by all means preclude the analysis intended to better understand, define, and decide how it will affect our personal lives.
And there is no Supreme Court that can replace the supreme court of our own judgment, when rightfully and righteously confronting the ways and mores that try to control our lives.
We can be rejected by the controlling systems. We can be crushed in our livelihood. We can be punished when committed a crime, legally or real one. But we must remember that punishment start inside of us, not necessarily in the outside.
I sadly understand that society must defend itself, even if at times or most of the times the innocents and dispossessed are the prime victims of all the privileged and the schemers of this world.
What these constitutional principles allow, or should allow, is to interpret them, recognizing they are human principles decided upon by humans and consequently subject to different understandings, interpretations and even amendments as you so correctly point out when asserting that The legislative history of the First Amendment belies the narrow scope you would give it.
Narrowness must give in to higher and wholesome understanding and improvement, not just replacing one´s narrowness for another´ trying to “correct”, meaning by this to “change and adjust to our liking”, instead of analyzing and improving as there is always room for it.
We can argue and dissent but we must avoid throwing away the babies with the soiled water. And the babies are we and the soiled waters what we usually do when relying only in our human understanding and pretended supremacy over everything and everyone that surrounds us.
My only dissention in here is the assertion of belying and narrowness in scope. If we carefully analyze what was tried to be conveyed when my mentor Oren stated “We as regular citizens can call ourselves Citizens for Wholesome Values (CWV)” we should realize that the essence of the statement lies in the concept of “Wholesomeness of Values”.
We are obliged to seek and make this wholesomeness of values the most integral part of our being and living. If we do so we can make the difference without regard, because it does not matter in the end, on what sidewalk of the streets of life we are standing on or prefer to stay put for considering it the right sport for us.
More than being patriot, revolutionary, philosopher, activist, or whatever else, we must be faithful believer and follower of the higher and the rightheouster, and the juster and what brings peace and balance to our lives.
If we do so we will never have to face the inner despair of realizing how wasteful and useless and meaningless were the hard, costly and painful efforts of our misspent life when approaching the parting gates into eternity.
Eternity unknown and feared by many, but seen with hope and gratefulness by those who have realized in time that there were higher and worthier goals to achieve while we are still walking the convoluted, disorienting and ruthless paths of the present supposedly amazing human evolution and progress.
We as Christians believe that we are just passerbys who have the opportunity to do something good and lasting so our children may find well oriented signpost for their lives. It is up to everyone to decide what to do and what memories to leave to their own ones and any other needing guidance and advice to enable them to make more informed decisions of their own.
Keep on reading to enjoy the awesome history lesson f
rom an unknown to me American
in relation to her country of birth or adoption,
which for all purpose is the same.
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