Ending Hatred

 

One of my older friends in India had a now dead father, who was an MD and who worked around twelve hours a day. He saw many patients, but his family never got ahead financially. Why?

It was because he often gave his services away for no charge to financially poor people (including lower caste Hindu people) and paid for the medicine that the patients were to buy at the drug store when not affordable by them. In short. he took the money out of his own pocket for them.

In the action, the father’s thinking was that all things derive from God and he is just a conduit passing God’s blessings and goodness further. … My friend, the son who is an international business consultant, does the same action and gives away all of his services and consulting materials for no charge in India. … His favorite all-time song that he loves is about Jesus. It is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBnZ8bmEOTM

He loves its message and strives as well as he can to uplift ALL people and the natural world. (He and I “got on” together right away after getting to know each other due to our similarity in views, morals and intentions.) Oh, and by the by, he is an Imam and his father was a Muslim.

I’m pretty sure that he told me that he was an Imam, but it was quite some time ago and I don’t recall with 100% surety since it just doesn’t matter to me as I tend to look at a person’s character rather than a position. Put another way, I do not go goo-goo-gaa-gaa over someone because he is a famous Hollywood celebrity, a politician like a country’s president, a pope, an imam or something else vaulted by our societies.

I just don’t care about venerated positions and instead focus on “who are you?” What is your meddle?

… The government in the USA is pushing an ugly stereotype wherein anyone who is a Muslim and who causes carnage is called a “terrorist” and Christian or other terrorists, such as the Las Vegas shooter, are not so labeled. (Oh, it is brain-washing all right! All of this Muslim baiting and hating!)

Now, let’s consider: What did Jesus say about the stoning of the sinning woman? What did he say about the despised and hated Samaritan?

Jesus and the woman taken in adultery – Wikipedia

Parable of the Good Samaritan – Wikipedia

If you want to cast a stone at Muslims or any other group, then you had better be sin free, yourself, is my view. If you want to think that all of one group of people (Muslims, people with a different skin color, culture or some other differentiation) are awful, then remember the good Samaritan. (Samaritans were loathed by many Jews at the time of Jesus’s life.)

Now my friend, Y., knows that I have this eclectic ecumenical orientation going on so that I do not think of Jesus is my salvation and savior. Okay fine — he doesn’t care. He thinks that Jesus is one of his saviors. That’s fine by me, too.

Meanwhile I wish that more Christians, who I know, would get it together to act like better Christians in the ways that Y. does. He exemplifies Jesus’s message of true love, helpfulness, morality and spiritual resolve!

For the haters: Go ahead and get furious and fearful towards Muslims or any other group if you like. Have a little ongoing party all unto yourself in vehement hatred and poison of spirit. Yet, please try to remember that all are not the same IN ANY GROUP, just as all Christians, like pedophile supporter Cardinal Law and others, are not all not identical. So discernment is needed when judging ANY group of people.

I can’t say that love always wins. It doesn’t. For examples, read the war prayer:

The War Prayer – Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Prayer

“The War Prayer,” a short story or prose poem by Mark Twain, is a scathing indictment of war, and particularly of blind patriotic and religious fervor as motivations for war. The structure of the work is simple: An unnamed country goes to war, and patriotic citizens attend a church service for soldiers who have been called up.
And if people are going to walk the walk instead of just talk the (Christian or other religious) talk, they had better become more like Y. They need to imitate Christ as Y. does in his universal love and kindness, as well as desire to give uplift, to all of life.

No, love doesn’t always win. Look at this tragic Muslim child murdered on a train:

Injured-Junaid-1

The “Golden Rule” was given by Jesus of Nazareth, who used it to summarize the Torah: “Do to others what you want them to do to you.” and “This is the meaning of the law of Moses and the teaching of the prophets” (Matthew 7:12 NCV, see also Luke 6:31). Golden Rule – Wikipedia. Anyone who cares about Jesus needs to remember this dictate and put this orientation in action in his or her own life. Lip service to Jesus’s views is simply not enough!

Personally I have no idea about the way to label myself from a religious standpoint. I was raised by unusual Quakers, including in the bunch my parents. So I have been on my knees and prostrate in a mosque. I have prayed with Hindus, who do not speak English, in front of a Hindu alter and watched them to know the way to behave. I have watched the Christian Passion play several times. I have watched Swedish Christians dancing with light candelabras on their heads to celebrate the birth of Christ. I have partaken in meaningful events in Jewish temples during various celebrations. I have sung in Baptist churches. I have meditated with Buddhists. I have part of my foot in the agnostic camp and another part in the atheist camp.

So am I a Christian? Probably (depending on the rigidity of one’s definition) … and I’m also all of the rest.

 

In any case, the people who reject and detest others also should realize that they are going against their religion’s mainstay. They should also know that an Isis death sentence and a fatwa was issued against them:

Muslim imams march against terrorism in Europe | News | DW | 08.07 …

www.dw.com/en/muslim-imams-march-against-terrorism-in-europe/a-39608229

Jul 8, 2017 – Around 60 imams from several European countries are on a bus tour of cities hit by Islamic terrorism in order to condemn extremism committed in the name of religion. Their message is that Islam is a religion of peace.

They also should be aware:

70,000 Indian Muslim clerics issue fatwa against Isis, the Taliban, al …

www.independent.co.uk › News › World › Asia

Dec 10, 2015 – Nearly 70000 Indian Muslim clerics have signed a fatwa against Isis and other terror groups saying they were “not Islamic organisations”. Around 1.5 million Muslims visiting a shrine dedicated to a Sufi Islamic saint near the city of Ajmer in north western state of Rajasthan during the Urs religious festival …

I know on which side of the dividing line I stand in terms of both Christian dogma and tenets (… short on dogma and long on tenets). And to the shameful Christians or others who loathe all Muslims or any other peoples, Merry Christmas  and we wish you well in the year ahead all the same from my Muslim friend, Y., and me!

Again aimed at the haters: Instead of tearing people apart and down under, why not try some uplift for yourself instead? Why not remind yourself of beauty and universal brotherhood?

Here, anyone who hates, listen to this way forward. Hopefully, you:ll be moved:

J S Bach – “Jesu, der du meine Seele” BWV 78 (2) – YouTube

If anyone thinks that he can’t change from an ugly position, he needs proof that it can happen if enough dedication and willingness is applied. This true account definitely verifies that it is so:

The Scarlet and the Black – Wikipedia

Sally Dugman is a writer in MA, USA.

 

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