9/11

This blog may get a little too personal for some of you. You are now forewarned.





As we approach 9/11 there is news from Florida about this putz who wants to celebrate by buying and burning copies of the Koran. (Yeah, I know, there's a more proper spelling these days, but I also still prefer Peking to Beijing.) The logic is, as follows... the nut cases who flew the planes into the buildings were followers of Islam, therefore, all followers of Islam are evil and we need to burn their Holy Book.


Mmmmmkay. Makes sense, right? Sure, except that there are numerous sects or denominations of Islam just like there are numerous sects of Christians. Let's take the logic just a little bit further. Fred Phelps and his flock at the Westboro Baptist Church scream at us that "God Hates Fags", therefore, all Christian Churches think that "God Hates Fags" and that we should burn all Christian books and seek to defile all Christian places of worship.


Maybe we should be refine our definitions just a little bit because ALL Christians include Eastern and Western Christian traditions. Westboro is part of the Western tradition, therefore, we should leave the Eastern traditions alone. Especially the Greek Orthodox - their Food Festivals are to die for!


Let's refine a bit further. The so-called Reverend Phelps has declared himself as a Baptist, therefore, we should aim our anger at Baptists. Right? Let's put them to the torch! I think that that minister in Florida who is sponsoring that book burning is a Baptist and there's the Baptist minister here in the Dallas area who made remarks in the past couple of weeks which could have been seen as just as much a peril to our troops in Afghanistan as the Florida book burner.


Even just refining our focus just to Baptists would be painting with too broad a brush. Should I, or anyone else for that matter, hold all Baptists responsible for the sins of a relative few? Were any of us to do so, we would also be condemning the majority of decent and upright men and women who have built Hospitals (including the one which has taken care of the Lovely Miss Carol in the past year), have generously given of their time and talents to assist victims of disaster both here and abroad, and who by their words and actions live their religious convictions.


The same should be said of Moslems. We should not paint them with too broad a brush due to the actions of a fanatic few. Doing so just might make enemies of those we can call friends. Yes, there are those who profess Islam who build hospitals, assist victims of disaster and live what they believe.


While I was at work on Labor Day, I caught sight in the corner of my eye a friend who lost his brother in the collapse of the WTC on 9/11. In the nearly 9 years since, I have not heard one word from this friend concerning a desire for revenge for the wrong done him. If anyone has the right to expect revenge, he does, yet he does not. He just goes on with his life, as have we all when we are trespassed against. Painful at times, indeed, but what good would be revenge in the first place?


I seem to remember reading somewhere a piece which essentially said that revenge in any form debases the person extracting that revenge more than it debases the person responsible for the original sin. Perhaps it was a different way of positing Jesus' remark about turning the other cheek...

Perhaps that preacher in Florida should read the book he intends to burn, then pray for his 'enemy'. Kill 'em with kindness... that'll confuse 'em for sure!





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