Subject Index:
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November 2011 Questions:
November 25, 2011:
Should we
deny entry into our country to immigrants?
November 18, 2011:
How can we justify killing people in wartime if we are Christians?
November 11, 2011:
How
should we honor Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans?
November 4, 2011: Why
did the tragedy at Fort Hood happen?
Answers:
November 25, 2011:
Should we deny entry into our country to
immigrants?
Immigrants are people just like you. How have you felt when you were
denied entry into a social group in school, work, or play? You felt
alienated and unwanted.
Remember that you or your ancestors were once immigrants in your
country. Even the native people in your country long ago were
immigrants.
There is a space and a place for everyone. If you establish rules for
equal treatment of all people, then immigration will no longer be an
issue. As long as you have unequal and unfair treatment of people
throughout the world, you will have immigration. If people are happy,
they will stay where they are in their community. If there is no
community and no hope for a better life, people will seek out a better
life. It’s only human.
Be patient and tolerant. Do not be selfish and rude. There are enough
resources for all the world’s inhabitants, as long as you don’t hoard
everything for yourself.
Live in harmony. You will feel better and require less things. And you
will feel better about your country. Isn’t that what you truly want? (Shamani)
(Top)
November 18, 2011:
How can we justify killing people in
wartime if we are Christians?
If one looks hard enough and long enough, one can justify any act,
whether it be kind or mean. When God gave you free will, he put forth
certain conditions. But like any child, one keeps testing the boundaries
of love and kindness.
So when you amass “children” going to war, it’s easy to push the
boundaries of wrongful thinking. The reasons for this type of thinking
are ego, greed, selfishness, misguidance (in childhood and adulthood),
money, criminal intent, anger, and frustration. Pick any of these and
you can justify any negative act. It doesn’t mean it’s right.
Killing another being can never be justified. When you do so, you kill a
part of yourself as well as the other person or being. The only thing
that survives is the soul.
Think of religious thought and modern doctrine as a mass of moldable
clay. You can pull off the clay (parts) you don’t like and live within
that framework. Then if you get others to agree to do the same, you have
your own clay model to follow. You direct the congregation within the
main framework of Christ as your saviour, but all the other pieces you
have removed or added dilute the true essence of the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit.
Christianity in its purest form is unconditional love. Just think if all
Christians lived by this tenet. Would we be having this
conversation/communication right now?
Justify what you want, but remember the ten commandments were not meant
to be choices. I encourage you to live by them, or die defending why you
broke them. It’s your choice. And a very simple choice at that. What’s
yours? (Asmuth)
(Top)
November 11, 2011:
How should we honor Iraq and Afghanistan
war veterans?
Simply by treating them with the same respect and dignity you should be
giving others. Your life path, if you chose, could have taken you to the
same battleground. For most reading this, it didn’t. You may think your
choices would never have led you to enlist in the military
establishment. But if you had a strong sense of commitment, and had been
raised in a military family, unemployed family, or poor family, the
decision would have been made for you.
In war, there is no right or wrong, no matter how the war is initially
sold to the people and countries who must fight in it. When a war is
said and done, and there are no clear “winners” (no one wins), then each
side must help those remaining war veterans to assimilate back into a
civilized peaceful society. This is the most difficult thing for
veterans and civilians alike. No one understands the other side. And so
the battle just moves to the homefront.
Honor the war veterans by treating them like regular people. Do not put
them up on a pedestal. Their stories of war and the atrocities, as well
as the achievements, need to be heard. Encourage veterans to rebuild
their lives in a positive and constructive way. If you ignore them, then
the memories of war will become nightmares, after all the “support the
troops” magnetic stickers are removed, and reality sets in.
Honor means being true to oneself and others. If you choose to honor
veterans in the traditional symbolic way, then be honest about it and do
it with honor. (Shamani)
(Top)
November 4, 2011:
Why did the tragedy at Fort Hood happen?
When you protect the infirmed and injured from themselves around a gated
military fortress like Fort Hood, then sooner or later one man will be
forced to leave, by or not by his choice.
This tragedy was indeed a tragedy. To think of an upper rank officer
discharging his firearm at his fellow colleagues is unthinkable. It
would be like a police officer shooting his fellow officers. It’s
unthinkable! The whole tragedy sent shock waves across the United States
of America.
Think of the piece of clothing you call a “hood.” It can be completely
worn over the head with no eye, nose, or mouth holes/openings, full face
open, or with one or more eye, nose, and mouth openings. Each hood
conveys a different idea of reality for the one who wears it as well as
the one perceiving it.
If this all seems strange to you, then think what it was like for the
man inside the hood—the man who hid behind the hood at Fort Hood.
It is very difficult to know what goes on inside the mind of one person,
let alone ten thousand people. War is a battle and those who fight the
wars overseas often return to fight their own personal battle at home.
So you ask, “Why did the tragedy at Fort Hood happen?” Because war has
never ended. As long as war continues, the physical and mental forts and
fortresses will have to be built and maintained both inside and outside.
And that is a tragedy that will continue to happen. Or will it? (Shamani)
(Top)
Weekly Messages for 2011:
January 2011
February 2011
March
2011 April 2011
May 2011 June 2011
July 2011
August 2011
September 2011
October 2011 November 2011
December 2011
Weekly Messages for 2010:
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010 July 2010
August 2010
September 2010
October 2010
November 2010 December 2010
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