Ok. Now that I’ve had a chance to practice my deep breathing, om chanting, semi relaxation techniques for a half an hour or so, here’s some of the latest on the insanity front.
Remember last year when Terry Jones, pastor of an obscure Florida church that nobody ever heard threatened to burn a Quran and backed down? Well, a couple of weeks ago he “assisted” Wayne Sapp, pastor of another obscure Florida church that nobody ever heard of, hold a trial of the Quran. The book was found guilty and burned; inside the sanctuary.
This would barely register on the Richter scale of American religious…….sorry this is a semi family blog. Trouble is word got out, as it was probably meant to and resulted in mob violence in Afghanistan. End result? Cars and trucks burned. Shops shuttered. Death toll rising. Several dozen people arrested. Seven of the casualties worked for the UN. Four were Nepalese security troops, I’m going to assume that the Nepalese were Buddhists. The other three came from Sweden, Norway and Rumania. They could have been Protestants,could have been good universe respecting agnostics. And you know what? It doesn't matter. They put themselves in harm's way.
They probably knew what they were risking and did it anyway. They're the heroes; not those self congratulating idiots in Florida or the "freedom fighter" who look for any reason to kill.
So, a small group of self described Christians living in Florida burn a book considered holy by over a billion people. This incites a mob half a world away Afghanistan to attack and kill foreign aid workers working for the UN; none of them Americans.
The “pastor’s” reaction?
In Florida, Wayne Sapp, a pastor at the church, called the events "tragic," but said he did not regret the actions of his church.
"I in no way feel like our church is responsible for what happened,"
Yes, these are the actions and reactions of extremists or illiterate peasants. The mainline American churches can’t do squat about the idiots in Florida and the mega churches are F’ing useless. Moderate Muslims can’t seem to do much in that part of the world without risking their lives. I can’t help believing that something very fundamental got twisted centuries ago. Maybe we can salvage the best and fuse it with the best of the reclaimed old religion, build something new that challenges to live our best, not kill our best.
Right now, I think I need to go find a tree and hug it really, really hard. Too bad we don't have any really big herkin' oak trees in the neighborhood.
2 comments:
You know this "pastor" was well aware that his tiny action could/would produce ripples of effect that would be much larger than he professed he desired. Those asshats were warned once what might happen if they went ahead with a Koran burning. They knew exactly what they were doing. And the Bible they profess to honor guarantees that their actions will be judged accordingly.
Karma actually looks really good right now. Hmmm, reborn as a peasant woman in an extremely conservative, traditional province in Afghanistan or Pakistan. What sucks is that the way things are going the death toll will soon number more than the congregation of this "church."
Yes, they're guaranteed freedom of religion, in their case the freedom to be complete idiots. Yes, the rioters chose to make the insane decision to kill. I can't help wondering how sane we'd be if our country was into the third generation of civil war and anarchy.
The west fought out the worst of our religious wars back in the mid seventeenth century. They weren't any saner back then than the insanity is now.
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