Desmond Tutu – 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner has shared a few thoughts. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we all thought like this man?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/desmond-tutu/god-is-not-a-christian_b_869947.html
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Desmond Tutu – 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner has shared a few thoughts. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we all thought like this man?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/desmond-tutu/god-is-not-a-christian_b_869947.html
Filed under Diversity, Radical Rightwing groups, Religion
PrairiePopulistsAndProgressives.net 
This is such a good article! Thanks for finding it and thanks for sharing it, Indy! I’ll bet the book is well worth reading!
Right off the bat he makes two points that put you on the proper path to understanding —
“My first point seems overwhelmingly simple: that the accidents of birth and geography determine to a very large extent to what faith we belong. The chances are very great that if you were born in Pakistan you are a Muslim, or a Hindu if you happened to be born in India, or a Shintoist if it is Japan, and a Christian if you were born in Italy. I don’t know what significant fact can be drawn from this — perhaps that we should not succumb too easily to the temptation to exclusiveness and dogmatic claims to a monopoly of the truth of our particular faith. You could so easily have been an adherent of the faith that you are now denigrating, but for the fact that you were born here rather than there.
My second point is this: not to insult the adherents of other faiths by suggesting, as sometimes has happened, that for instance when you are a Christian the adherents of other faiths are really Christians without knowing it. We must acknowledge them for who they are in all their integrity, with their conscientiously held beliefs; we must welcome them and respect them as who they are and walk reverently on what is their holy ground, taking off our shoes, metaphorically and literally. We must hold to our particular and peculiar beliefs tenaciously, not pretending that all religions are the same, for they are patently not the same. We must be ready to learn from one another, not claiming that we alone possess all truth and that somehow we have a corner on God.”
Yes, Indy, ours would be a better world if we all thought like Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Today I had an email from someone we all know. I think the email was encouraging me to hate people who are different than me. It accused me of not understanding those less fortunate than myself. And my decisions with regard to this blog and the conduct that is acceptable were questioned. It encouraged me to realize that a person’s ‘political stance’ made them something less or more. Our blog was called a joke due to lack of readership and that attributed to our lack of ‘fight.’ I guess both myself and this blog have to improve before we are acceptable. So you see, people divide into ‘sides’ about all sorts of subjects less complicated and far less serious than religion. I suppose everyone thinks the ‘side’ they choose to be on is the only true one, and anyone on another side has less understanding than they do. Is the next step to denigrate the other side and then grow to hate them?
Now I admit I am more comfortable today than at some points of my life. I admit my less comfortable times didn’t come today so I have no experience of what it would be like where the person who sent the email is at this moment in time. Add that we’re two different people; thus even if we were to share an exact situation our perceptions, and our responses probably wouldn’t be the same. Because of that our outcomes could likely be different. It’s also possible my outcome would be right for me, but wrong for someone / anyone else.
The world really is one place, but living on this world are millions of individuals who all have worth and deserve respect whether they’re like us or not. We could make a long list of potential differences, but the lesson should be until we accept them all, endeavor to learn from them all, there will also be people who think us less worthy, less deserving of respect simply because we differ from them. Kind of a perpetual circle that impacts our own individual world, the one where we live, and makes it better, or not, depending on our own thoughts and actions, not those of anyone else.
I raised my kids on one simple thought – if you don’t like your life the way it is, then do something to change it.
I understand there are people who seem to thrive on being divisive and stirring the hatred pot. But that does not mean the rest of us have to wallow in that existence.
I posted this specific topic because I wanted to make a point about this world is really just one big world.
The fact that I was lucky enough to be born in the US and have been given the opportunities that I have enjoyed had nothing to do with me – it was pure luck.
But that does not mean that someone born on the other side of the world cannot have just as good a life as I have.
While I have my own confessed biases towards certain religions – I have never gone out and protested at any of these churchers – nor would I. And my experiences with the religions that I do have trouble with is based on my own personal experience – so I have the right to speak against them – in that context.
But these people are free to believe anyway they want and I respect their right to do that. But when these people are trying to impose their religion on me through my government – then that makes it my business and I will speak up against it – and loudly.
I keep going back to this current trend in our society – that US and THEM attitude. That approach will get us nowhere very fast . And it will keep us on the perpetual circle of getting nowhere very fast.
So, why not just get off the vicious circle and try a new approach?
What could it hurt? And it might just help…
Like I told my kids – you don’t like your life like it is – then you change it.
To be truly accepting don’t we have to accept the actions people take (or don’t take) are all different? One person may endeavor to change his/her life while another rides the wave of whatever happens?
And to be truly accepting of everyone is difficult – as when we are asked to forgive in the hardest of situations
But doesn’t the Bible command us to forgive?
What I see as accepting and being tolerant, there are Evangelicals (just group) that sees tolerance and acceptance of other faiths as being blasphemous.
Well – I don’t see it that way. BTW – the Evangelicals are also the people that see compromise as a dirty word. Again, I do not see it that way.
Maybe it all comes down to our life and how we conduct it is our business, but we shouldn’t put our noses into another person’s life? Maybe the line can only be crossed if someone else is being hurt?
That’s where I cross the line – especially if it is children being hurt. Which is one of my biggest gripes against the Catholic Church.
For all their pro-life stances, I just do not understand how their church leaders could have covered up child molesters for all those years.
that , and the fact that a married man can annul his marriage to his first wife of 30 years to marry his trophy wife – adn there are 4 kids from the first marriage.
That one I will NEVER understand..
Wow – actions speak louder than words….
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sami-awad/love-your-enemy-really_b_868194.html
Ladies, I enjoyed the Desmond Tutu article and the Sami Awad video clip. If only more people would open their hearts and listen with the intention of trying to understand those people, ideas and issues they don’t understand, this would be a much more peaceful decade. It befuddles my mind that there is so much hate and distrust coming from some and so much love and understanding coming from others. I keep hoping for that eternal struggle between good and evil to finally be resolved. It seems frustrating at times, but just emboldens me at other times to stand up more often, to speak up more, and to keep reaching to the other side of the aisle to find what we have in common so we can end this polarizing spiral.