“And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges.”
Archive for the ‘Bias’ Category
They shall be your Judges
Sunday, November 11th, 2007Built on Iraq
Saturday, September 29th, 2007“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.” Matt 7:22-25
In the Muslim world, however, he was viewed as hero. He stood up to the West in general and the
I suspect that there is a similar dichotomy regarding our own President. There are many in this country who feel that he has done an excellent job in protecting us and promoting our interests abroad. The Muslim world views him, though, in much the same way that we view Ahmadinejad – a dangerous fool.
So which house is built on the rock?
At the moment, I would say neither.
Ahmadinejad’s claims regarding the holocaust have root in the Arab rejection of
Ahmadinejad’s claim that there are no homosexuals in
We think that Ahmadinejad is fanatical because he claims
We don’t trust that Iran will use it’s nuclear power responsibly, and there is no indication that they will. However, the US is the only country who has actually used nuclear weapons. That’s what the Arab world sees.
Bush holds up violated UN resolutions as legal foundation for invading
Bush talks about democracy, freedom, and the rule of law. Arabs look at Abu Ghraib and see only the eleven who appeared in the photos being convicted with sentences ranging from community service to 10 years in jail.
Arabs also look at the massacre at Haditha where 24 Iraqi civilians were killed including children shot in the head. They hear of our outrage and shock, but they see charges being dropped against all but one of the marines involved. In this case also charges are starting to be dropped against the officers supposed to be responsible for these men.
I submit that both our country and
The consequences of inaction for us and
“And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.” Matt 7: 26-27
People of the Book
Monday, September 24th, 2007“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matt 5:44-45
This is Jesus at His most radical and challenging. It isn’t enough to love our neighbors as ourselves. We also have to love our enemies, those that actually seek to do us harm. It is clearly only God’s job to figure out who is evil and who is good. It is our job to be grateful to those we fear or hate because they are the ones who help us discover our bias and weakness. If we strive to be perfect, this is how we’re going to get there.
As far as our attitude to Muslims is concerned, we have a long way to go.
I read a disturbing letter to the editor in the Toledo Blade. It was in response to an column by a Toledo Muslim regarding the Christian myopia which seems to affect our foreign policy and re-enforce the notion that our Christian nation is really out to defeat Islam rather than just responding to attacks from bin Laden.
There is a frightening ignorance in this country of Islam. It is this ignorance which some politicians and fundamentalists have used to demonize all Muslims. It is also this ignorance which causes fear in those who distrust what they don’t know. This is just as wrong as when we try to blame illegal immigrants, African Americans, Japanese, Germans, Jews, or the Irish for all our problems.
Islam is a beautiful religion of devotion and commitment. If more Christians could get past their pride and self-righteousness, they would find this out on their own. Islam means surrender. Devout Muslims surrender their life to God in ways that Christians only imagine. The daily prayer and prostration to Jerusalem is part of this process of demonstrating obedience as well as piety. The only analogy I can come up with in Christianity is kneeling, but it is so much more than that. I can tell you with no need to check the statistics, that there are way more Muslims on their knees in prayer every day than Christians, yet there is still the sense in this country that Muslims are primitive and violent.
Much has been made of the position of women in some Muslim societies. The reality is that both the Koran and the Bible have been used to subjugate women. There are many Christian religions where women have an institutionalized subservient role. There are also modern Muslim countries where women participate in all aspects of the economy in much the same ways as they do in this country. I would submit that this is a cultural issue and not a religious one.
Detroit has a large Muslim population. Some cities and schools responding to that demand have added features to public facilities to wash hands and feet in preparation for prayer. In my mind this is no different than adding changing tables or handicapped facilities to rest rooms. It is the sort of loving response to individual needs that one would expect from a open free society. It’s also a practical solution to the challenges posed by Muslims trying to use public sinks for this purpose. Instead conservatives have latched onto this as just another example of soft-headed liberalism. The thought goes, “How can we be accommodating Muslims in this country when we are waging a war against them in the Middle East?” or “Why are we spending money to make it easier for Muslims to pray when we can’t spend money to support Christian prayer in public schools?”
The Koran, on the other hand, teaches tolerance and respect for all of the world’s religions. That respect includes prohibiting evangelizing those who already have committed to another religion. Those that come to Islam, have to come of their own free will. The Koran has a wonderful term for Jews and Christians. We are “People of the Book”. They have much more respect for the Bible than we do the Koran. They view us brothers and sisters because we have the same father.
Only argue with the People of the Book in the kindest way — except in the case of those of them who do wrong — saying, “We have faith in what has been sent down to us and what was sent down to you. Our God and your God are one and we submit to Him” (29:46).
The Koran also counsels against aggression of any sort. Muslims are instructed to strike only after they have been struck. Only when they are so threatened that their life may be at risk do they have the choice of being aggressive. Then they are encouraged to fight whole heartedly. When the opponent surrenders, however, Muslims are obliged to accept whatever terms are offered without negotiation, embrace their enemy, and seek as quickly as possible a return to peaceful existence.
These basic Muslim teachings have obviously been perverted by fundamentalism. So has Christianity. All of the worlds great religions grew in response to violence and found their voice in offering people an alternative to the endless cycle of revenge and retaliation. It was their intent to remove violence from society. Fundamentalism, however, seeks to distort these teachings and divides the world between believers and non-believers. This view justifies violence in the misguided cause of defending the faith.
Just as no one person speaks for all Christians, no one person speaks for all Muslims. One of the common myths is that Muslims have not condemned the excesses of extremism in their religion. Just as Christian leaders have condemned violence at abortion clinics and gay bars, muslim leaders around the world have condemned the violence directed at the United Stated by bin Laden inspired forces.
The sooner that we condemn this notion that we are engaged in a conflict between good and evil or Christianity and Islam, the sooner that we will be able to embrace the notion that the Koran and the Bible provide all of the guidance we need to solve this conflict. All we are lacking is leaders with the humility and obedience to actually follow the teachings in the books they claim to defend.
It may well be that God will restore the love between you and those of them who are now your enemies. God is All-Powerful. God is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful (60:7).
Rebuilding
Monday, September 3rd, 2007I love the old testament story of Nehemiah. It occurs during a time when Israel was occupied by Babylonians. Nehemiah was doing a good job for King Artaxerxes in Shushan. When he heard that Jerusalem was in danger of being overrun by it’s neighbors, he asked for some time off to help them rebuild their fortifications. The King agreed and gave Nehemiah some men to help him out. Nehemiah had to deal with doubt, political intrigue, and even an attempt on his life by the neighbors. What was most challenging, though, was the general skepticism of the Jews in Jerusalem who felt that the walls couldn’t be rebuilt. They were also afraid that if they tried, they would only encourage their neighbors to attack and knock it back down again. Nehemiah prayed for inspiration, saw through the lies, and was able to rebuild both the wall and the self-esteem of those who lived there.
We’re facing a similar situation today in New Orleans. President Bush recently visited New Orleans on the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Recovery there is very slow. Though it seems like we are spending huge amounts of money in the region, very little seems to be getting into the hands of those who need it most. There is plenty of blame to go around for both the levees failing as well as the response to the tragedy. Lately, however, some conservatives are starting to blame the victims for choosing to live in such a vulnerable place to begin with.
New Orleans appears to be in the same situation that Jerusalem was almost three thousand years ago. It is defeated, broken, and discouraged. The rich parts of the city and the tourist areas have largely recovered. For the poor, however, there is no work. There is no money. They have lost their homes and their hope. In this desperate atmosphere, the crime rate is soaring.
Then there are those who sit on the sidelines at a safe distance and cluck that perhaps we should just let this city die so that we can build a cleaner, safer, better-run city somewhere else. The smug racism that simmers not far underneath that position is even more disturbing than the palpable hypocrisy.
These are our brothers and sisters who suffered a terrible loss through no fault of their own. They have come to our aid in terrorist attacks, tornadoes, and floods. Our government has failed to come to their aid in their time of greatest need. What has happened instead is a stream of volunteers from churches all over the country spending their own money to demonstrate their brotherly love. They are rebuilding New Orleans house by house, but it is a painfully slow process while the people still suffer.
More than anything else, New Orleans is a failure in leadership at every level.
We need a modern-day Nehemiah who will lead this country into a new vision of itself – a vision that includes a commitment from all of our citizens to sacrifice for the greater good and accept nothing but the best from ourselves and our leaders. Nehemiah was unwilling to allow Jerusalem to die because he loved the people. We need leaders who feel the same way about every person in this country, regardless of their politics, race, creed, sexuality, economic, or legal status.
Soon, Very Soon
Thursday, June 21st, 2007A couple of interesting things happened today.
In the national news President Bush vetoed a stem cell research bill again on religious grounds. I don’t want to rehash the whole embryo as human discussion, but if you are interested check out one of my earlier posts on the subject.
First, researches almost unanimously agree that stem cells offer great promise in treating diseases which today have no effective medical treatment.
Second, regardless of how you feel about an embryo, the embryos in question were NEVER going to end up becoming babies. They were going to be discarded for any number of reasons. The couple already got the baby that they wanted or decided to stop treatment. The embryo was flawed and either stopped developing or began developing abnormally. The ONLY purpose for these embryos is research. If they were not provided for research, they would be discarded.
Third, the only people who can decide to provide the embryos for research are the couples who, with the help of the fertility clinics, created them. Whether or not you agree with the law, these same couples can decide to legally terminate a pregnancy, but the researchers who would use these donated embryos for valid medical research can’t get federal funding and may in some states be prosecuted.
Finally, the American people overwhelmingly support embryonic stem cell research.
The second item was in our local newspaper. A very popular and successful choir director resigned from the local community college because a person objected to what was sung at a recent graduation ceremony. It didn’t make any difference that the music was selected by the graduating class and not the director. It also doesn’t matter that the pieces are common at many graduations. What did matter is that the President of the College felt that there was potential liability.
Both of these outrageous events suggest that world is officially upside down.
How can President Bush impose his minority personal religious views on a country while a choir director is getting sacked because a college administrator fears that the school will get sued for the choir singing “Soon and Very Soon” and “To everything there is a Season”?
Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Shouldn’t we be sacking the President and supporting the choir director? Shouldn’t we have a President that seeks to build bridges between differing religious views and chooses what best serves the most people? Shouldn’t we also have a climate of reason and tolerance where choir directors can teach kids to sing beautiful old spirituals without fear of reprisal? That’s the way that it should work. Our leaders demonstrating in their actions that what we have in common is far more powerful than any difference.
I know that someday we’ll get all of this right. It just didn’t happen to be this day. But it will be happen someday soon.
Hate Speech
Monday, May 21st, 2007“Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” I John 3:15
Some conservative Christians have recently publicly opposed legislation which extends the definition of hate crimes to include crimes committed because of the victim’s disabilities, gender, or sexual preference.
Though I’m sure it was not intended, these folks prove why there is a need for the law. The protesters feel that unfettered ability to publicly label homosexuals as sinners is more important than protecting them from hate crimes.
We’ve already decided as a society that it is unacceptable to commit crimes out of animosity because race, religion, or ethnicity. The current proposals extend that to gender, sexual orientation, or those with disabilities. Whether you view sexual orientation as a genetic (as is race or ethnicity) or a life-style choice (as is religion) doesn’t matter. Whether you view a particular sexual orientation as moral or immoral also doesn’t matter. What does matter is that some people think it acceptable to terrorize, assault, and kill gay, lesbian, and transgender people. Some of those that carry out these acts cite the Bible in the same way as those objecting to the legislation. Eric Rudolph, for example, felt he was doing God’s will when he bombed abortion clinics and a gay and lesbian nightclub. But even the motivation of those who attack isn’t really the issue.
This is the issue.
Hate is hate whether it comes wrapped in a Bible verse or swastika and should have no place in a free and democratic society. All US citizens regardless of their creed should be able to agree on that.
Unbelief
Monday, May 7th, 2007“For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.”
Romans 3:3-4
What happens if you don’t believe in God?
In this country, you end up on the receiving end of a lot of abuse. According to a University of Minnesota study, atheists are America’s least trusted group. Atheists rank below Muslims, recent immigrants, homosexuals and other groups as “sharing their vision of American society.” Americans are also least willing to let their children marry atheists. One participant in the survey summarized it well when he said, “atheists are one of the last groups remaining that it’s still socially acceptable to hate.”
I saw this played out in the responses to an opinion piece published by a local atheist. All of the responses except one were negative. The only one that even hinted at coming to the defense of the original author, responded to one of the critics more directly than actually defending the original article.
Christians aren’t alone in their knee-jerk reactions to atheists. Muslims threatened violence last year when a Danish magazine published a series of editorial cartoons they found offensive. Yet it is this very reaction that supports the atheist claim that those who believe in God are deluded hypocrites.
I am concerned that many Christians appear to be lazy spiritual thinkers. Many prefer dogma and “like-minded” congregations to controversy. They seem more willing to accept direction and ignore contradiction rather than ask hard questions. The result is a world that divides very neatly into believers and non-believers. Non-believers are viewed as threats to harmony rather than opportunities to hear from a different point of view. Instead of curious and respectful dialogs, unproductive self-serving monologs are the norm.
That’s why we see published claims that try to blame everything from increased violence in schools, to hard times in the auto industry, to foreign policy failures on increased secularism. This is the same sort of sloppy thinking that Hitler took advantage of during the rise of the Third Reich. Yes, they claimed to be Christians too. Rather than atheists, however, they chose Jews as the scapegoat.
When you boil it all down, it ends up being a plea for simple solutions. The thought is, if everyone shared my beliefs, we would be a more spiritual and moral nation. The reality is that we wouldn’t be better. You don’t have to spend much time in history books to prove this. When we had state sponsored religions in the colonies, we legally persecuted Wiccans, Quakers, and Catholics. When only white men had the vote, we conducted a genocidal war against native Americans and created a set of laws which institutionalized slavery. When we all moved to the suburbs and built new schools for our kids, African Americans couldn’t go to those schools. Tell me again why returning to these times of shared values is a good thing?
The real strength of this country is that we DON’T all share the same beliefs and can still figure out how to work together. The real strength is that you don’t have to believe in God, be white, speak English, or live in the suburbs in order to be a good citizen or a good neighbor.
At the end of the day, it isn’t whether we have God on our money or prayer in our schools. The Nazi’s had “God with us” on their uniforms, for goodness sake. The contribution of Christians to the future success of this country will depend on having God in our hearts. If God is in your heart, you will strive to see others as God sees them, with infinite love and inexhaustible patience. He did give us the opportunity to choose because He wanted us to enter His embrace under our own free will. If we want others to respect our choices, we are obligated to respect theirs. Those that reject Him will learn soon enough whether or not they have made a wise choice. God doesn’t need our help sorting that out for Him.
Faith works?
Monday, March 26th, 2007“Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?”
James 2:19-20
Last week Pete Stark, Congressman from the Bay Area in California, discovered that he was the highest ranking government official and only congressman to admit that he doesn’t believe in God. Stark’s announcement was the result of activities by a coalition of atheist and humanist groups that offered a reward to those who could identify individuals in government who don’t believe in God.
Rep. Stark’s announcement was generally well received, though there were the requisite bleats from a few conservative religious groups including the Christian Seniors Association.
What’s more interesting than this announcement though, is a Gallup poll last month which reported that 53% of those surveyed would refuse to vote for an atheist regardless of their qualifications. Only 11% of this same group would refuse to vote for a woman. Even the aged (42%) and homosexuals (43%) don’t generate as many negative votes as atheists. The other two categories tested (curiously) were Mormons (24%) and those who have had multiple marriages (30%). I’m sure someone at Gallup must have realized the irony there.
This isn’t anything new either. A Pew research poll in 2002 found that 47% of Americans felt that religious beliefs were a prerequisite to being a good person.
I guess it shouldn’t be surprising, given this bias, that the number of atheists isn’t well known. Best estimates put it between 3% and 12% of the US population.
What bothers me about all of this is that professed faith in God is clearly no guarantee of trustworthyness. On the other hand, we can pretty much guarantee that public atheists have integrity. Why else would they open themselves to the bias (overt or covert) that their beliefs clearly invite?
From the numbers, it is also clear that there are many more dishonest professed believers in God than there are atheists. So why is it that so many people are willing to trust those who say they believe in God but don’t act that way and distrust those who don’t believe in God and are honestly willing to say so?
If you read the Bible, you don’t have to get much further than Genesis to discover that it says all people are made in God’s image and likeness. Those who profess to follow the Bible’s teaching can’t easily ignore this truth and still call themselves faithful (though clearly many try). The Bible didn’t say that only those who believe in God are made in His image and likeness. It said everyone. A person’s beliefs aren’t what distinguish them. It is what they do with those beliefs – their works that we should pay more attention to when we are trying to decide who we should trust. If nothing else, the past almost seven years have proven that, at least in government, professed faith is no guarantee of integrity.
Salvation Work Out
Thursday, March 8th, 2007“If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.” Lev 20:13
This is one of a couple of quotes in the Bible that are frequently used to support the view that homosexuality is one of the worst sins imaginable. The problem is that this concept of revulsion and condemnation doesn’t make sense in the larger context of the Bible. Even the sometimes harsh and violent Old Testament, when read from the perspective of the New Testament, is a story of infinite Love overcoming hate. It is the story of eternal Life overcoming death. It is the story of sin forgiven and sickness healed. It is a the story of a promise which the New Testament fulfills.
Homosexuality, however, continues to be a controversial topic in public thought. Ann Coulter used the F word to get back on the front pages. Spring Arbor College just fired a popular professor because he came out as a transvestite. Largo, Florida just fired a successful city manager because he announced his plan to have a sex change operation. In this last incident, Pastor Ron Saunders of Largo’s Lighthouse Baptist Church said, “If Jesus was here tonight, I can guarantee you he’d want him terminated. Make no mistake about it.” I thought I would take up Rev. Saunders challenge and actually study the Bible to discover if there was anything there that the good pastor could use to support his claim.
The gospels chronicle Jesus’ mission to give us a better understanding of what the Old Testament really means. His time was not so different from ours. The ruling class of Jesus’ time also used their view of the Bible to exert political control. His ideas of universal goodness, redemption, salvation, healing, and love forever changed the world. But, contrary to Rev. Saunder’s assertion, Jesus appeared to completely ignore homosexuality. I couldn’t find anything in the gospels that even came close. That in itself should be instructive, but I did some more research I thought you would find interesting.
Here’s what I found.
Abomination is a very strong word in our dictionary. It doesn’t appear in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, or any of the amendments. It does appear in the Bible (KJV) 166 times. It appears in Leviticus 19 times. Here are some of the other “abominable” things listed in Leviticus – improperly consuming animal sacrifices, eating carrion, shellfish, birds of prey, scavengers, or snakes; or having intercourse with a woman during her menstrual cycle. Few of these practices reach the standard of “abominable” in our understanding, so perhaps this is a translation problem. In addition, though not specifically “abominable”, here are some other “sinful” activities in Leviticus – harvesting corners of a field, eating fruit from a young tree, cross-breeding livestock, sowing a field with mixed seed, cutting your hair, tattoos, disabled attending church, charging interest on a loan, collecting firewood on Saturday, and wearing clothes made from a blend of textile materials.
Clearly our modern sense of sinful practices has evolved from Old Testament time. In part that’s because our use of words has evolved over time too. For example, a better term for the Old Testatment’s “abomination” in today’s English is “ritually improper”, “inappropriate”, or “distasteful”. What Moses was really prohibiting in Leviticus was Jewish adoption of practices in bordering cultures. Though Moses thought many of these things should be punished by death, he didn’t particularly single out homosexuality as any worse than anything else. What there is primarily condemns the ritualistic pagan temple sex, rape, and prostitution of neighboring cultures. In the larger context of the Bible, prohibited heterosexual practices (like prostitution, rape, slavery, child abuse, and various versions of incest) are the dominant theme.
Though this is progress, it still doesn’t answer the pastor’s question of what Jesus thought. Fortunately, Jesus himself is helpful here. Rather than list what we shouldn’t do (as the Old Testament did), Jesus gave us clear guidance on what we should do, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God” (Matt 6:33). He also had guidance for those who aspire to moral leadership. He said they must do so without the self-righteousness of the Pharisees whom Jesus said were, “blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.” (Matt 23:24)
To put this further into the context of the New Testament, the Jewish penalty for another prohibited sexual activity, adultery, was also death. When faced with how that law should be interpreted, Jesus rejected it outright. He refused to even acknowledge those who demanded He respond. Instead He suggested that those that were free of sin were welcome to pass whatever judgment they felt appropriate.
As far as “abominable” practices, Jesus mentioned only one. It was the hypocrisy, pride, and self-righteousness of the politico-religious conservatives of His day. “Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.” (Luke 16:16)
My reading of the Bible is that it is a book documenting the endless promise of the power of God’s love for all His creation. It seems antithetical to me that this book that is the basis for modern thought about tolerance and mutual respect could also systematically exclude any part of God’s creation. I don’t think that it does any more than it excludes those who have exotic diets, tattoos, cut their hair, wear polyester blends, work in a bank, or follow birth control (natural or chemical).
Is homosexuality between two consenting adults is sinful? God, not Rev. Saunders, is the only real judge. I’ve got much more important things to worry about because I know my sins and weaknesses. In my case, Jesus said do first things first – work on my own salvation before I try to pass judgment on others. That’s good advice any time of year for both liberals and conservatives. We all have a lot of work to do.
Merry Christmas Mr. Ellison
Friday, December 22nd, 2006In November, the good folks of Minnesota elected Keith Ellison to represent them in the House of Representatives. Keith was born in Detroit and educated at the University of Minnesota. He is a lawyer. He has a long history of activism and he converted to Islam while a college student. As a result, he is the first Muslim to be elected to Congress.
He has chosen, as is his right in his private swearing-in ceremony, to take his oath of office on the Koran. The Koran is the book revered by the Islamic faith in much the same way that the Bible is revered by Jews and Christians.
Here’s the problem. Representative Virgil Goode from Virginia took exception to Mr. Ellison’s private swearing in ceremony and wrote a letter to voters in his district expressing his concern. In summary the letter said that Americans need to wake up and adopt stricter immigration laws or else we will be “swamped” by Muslims who will elect more of their own kind and erode our “traditional values and beliefs”.
The irony of this instance of bigotry is that Mr. Ellison can trace his ancestry in this country back to the mid 1700’s which is about the same time that the first Goode’s showed up in Virginia.
I suspect that Mr. Goode (an irony in itself) was well aware of Mr. Ellison’s background before he sent the letter. What confirms this is his refusal to issue any form of apology or move away from his xenophobic stance. In much the same way as Strom Thurmond established himself as a defender of “traditional values” in the 50’s and 60’s, Mr. Goode sees an opportunity to create a secure political position for himself in 2007. In this regard, I don’t blame Mr. Goode for being a political opportunist. I do blame those who have voted for him if they continue to support this position.
The good news in all of this is that Mr. Ellison has taken the high road and refused to engage in the same demagoguery as Mr. Goode. Not only is Mr. Ellison the first Muslim ever elected to Congress, he is joined by two Buddhists who also are the first of their faith to be elected.
As Mr. Ellison has said, there is strength in diversity. That strength is our ability as a nation to include everyone in the decision making process. What better way to defuse the fear and hatred of our enemies than to demonstrate that our democratic process allows everyone an opportunity to participate regardless of how they think of God. It’s this idea of embracing diversity that I believe sets our political system apart and offers the promise of changing the world.
What is particularly interesting about all of this is that almost two thousand forty years ago, another new idea of God was seeking shelter and didn’t find the world very welcoming. Even in obscurity, the wisest men of the time found a way to pay their respects. The political system tried to kill the idea before it grew. They were eventually successful in killing the man, but the idea changed the world forever.