“People kill and are killed because they cling too tightly to their own beliefs and ideologies. When we believe that ours is the only faith that contains the truth, violence and suffering will surely be the result.” - Thich Nhat Hahn.
Photo by Till Westermayer
People who are moderate, tolerant, and level-headed don’t get a lot of press anymore. There must have been a time when tolerance was news-worthy, otherwise individuals such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. would have never had an effect on the world. Tolerance just doesn’t turn heads like intolerance does. It’s too unassuming. It doesn’t sell.
Lies - blacker lies then the ashen heart of the abyss. It isn’t the movement towards tolerance that has lost it’s momentum, it’s the people who champion that cause. The people who wanted to change the world have all become too moderate. It’s like we’ve all become so tolerant that we are now tolerant of intolerance. Why?
I can’t even look you in the eye and tell you that I haven’t fallen into the same lull of complacency. My life has recently dealt me some difficult cards; I’ve used that as an excuse to not pursue my dreams for sometime now. I feel afraid, powerless, and a little sad of my own lack of enthusiasm. I want to change the world so much…
That’s my big dream, by the way; to change the world. When I look to religion, I see so much potential for wisdom and good, yet I’m repulsed by how it is used to promote foolishness and evil. In politics, religion has become so important that American votes are practically calculated by denomination. Religious extremist are wrestling with schools to promote intelligent design and abstinence only sex education instead of true science and honest sexual education. I’m just tired of seeing these bigots being given so much credit.
We need to start calling them on it. We need to become intolerant of intolerance and be a little extreme ourselves. That’s part of what I’m doing with this blog. It’s about taking religion out of the hands of the few and placing back into hands of every man and woman. This isn’t one God against another - its about people taking back what is rightfully their own.
The religion that belongs to an institution only serves that institution. I strongly believe that it’s time we pushed back against those monolithic structures and show that they are not as invincible as once thought. But I am no great leader. Honestly, I don’t know where to start, so I’m starting right here, on this little corner of the internet. Little me, trying to make the world a better place. This leaves me with one question…
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