responding to a internet circular

Sometimes circulars sent over the internet get my goat.  They annoy and stir me up.  This one was sent and was forwarded to me so often I reckon a resonse was needed.  So here it the missive (italics)  and my resonse to it.

Some Thoughts On This Circular.

I have included my comments on points mentioned in the e-mail forwarded to me recently.  It is my hope you find it informative.  The original email is in italics to distinguish it from my own thoughts. 

In light of the many perversions and jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke, it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

It did get me thinking.  It made me think how self righteous many religious people are.   It is often their attitudes and actions that cause others to question the existence of God in the first place.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this happen?" (regarding the attacks on Sept. 11).

The question implies that only when suffering happens to me does it have a deep spiritual significance.  Millions can be slaughtered in Rwanda in a matter of days, thousands in Bosnia, the daily starvation of thousands world wide have not caused such heart searching questioning.  Is it only when the victims look like us and sound like us and live in the same country they count? Why blame God in the first place?  Humanity permits such injustices through greed, selfishness, prejudices and sheer indifference.  God does not want these things to happen and blaming them on His inaction is a way of avoiding our own responsibilities.

Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.

I too am convinced that God is deeply saddened by the corrosion of ungodliness that has eaten into the vitals of human society.  However religion bears a heavy responsibility.  Religious prejudice has been at the root of so many divisions and suffering in society that many have concluded that in order to bring unity religion must take a back seat.  True Religion unites the hearts and brings God’s message of love to all but many have used religion to further their own aims and ambitions, or are tainted with hypocrisy and pride.   Little wonder then that the spiritual hunger that each individual feels has been left unfed and been replaced with suspicion and wariness.

And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

God never backs out; He is always there.  He is compassionate and loving and His blessings surround all of us whatever our colour, creed, nationality or even mentality.  If He is wise enough to give us not what we ask but what we need, is it conceivable He would choose to desert us.

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.

Am I the only one offended by this implicit hint that because this person didn’t want prayers at school she met her just deserts in some way?  Any person’s death diminishes me.  When a 70-year-old lady has been the victim of a violent crime I refuse to derive some perverse satisfaction that, given what she said, she had this coming.  To site it as an explanation for terrorism, school shootings is being so unfair to someone who did not deserve to die, never mind be blamed for society’s degeneration.  

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school ... the Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Investigate all the major world religions and these messages are at their heart.  It is not a shortage of the message.  It is a lack of its implementation that is at fault.  That is not the responsibility of the school but of those primary educators of our children – the parents.  If our children do not obey those rules we cannot blame schools, our neighbours, our teachers, our politicians - only ourselves.  The buck stops here.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Here is a quote from Dr Spock “There are basic values that are universal: love of family, honesty, respect of other people, and a sense of idealism that inspires people to strive for greatness. I think that the Golden Rule - treating other people with the same respect you expect for yourself - is the basis of every religious or spiritual value system the world has ever known.”  

I don’t find much to disagree with here do you?

I don’t think any professional recommends physical punishment of children.  It does damage them in ways that are profound.  To suggest that it is somehow okay is as wrong as suggesting sexual abuse is normal. 

As to the suggested suicide of Dr Spock’s son, how cruel and vindictive to give this as evidence that spanking is a wholesome deed.  It is not, and your use of this educator’s immense personal loss does in no way increase my respect for you.  I should, however, point out that neither of Dr Spock’s sons actually committed suicide.  This false rumour has been circulated for many years and quite deliberately used as ammunition against Dr Spock.  To set the record straight, it was his twenty two year old grandson who tragically committed suicide, but then again who is ever interested in truth when we can make things so much more interesting when we make them up to suit our arguments.

Then someone said teachers and principals better not discipline our children when they misbehave. The school administrators said no faculty member in this school better touch a student when they misbehave because we don't want any bad publicity, and we surely don't want to be sued (there's a big difference between disciplining, touching, beating, smacking, humiliating, kicking, etc.). And we said OK.

Teachers and principals are strong believers in discipline and do not need to beat or abuse to maintain it.  They do need parents who teach their children self-respect and self discipline and the major difficulties educators experience now are invariably with those children who are the victims of physical and mental abuse.  Having to deal with these victims is a constant lesson in how much inner damage is done when children are subjected to the treatment you imply would do them good.

Then someone said, let's let our daughters have abortions if they want, and they won't even have to tell their parents. And we said OK.

If your daughter is having an abortion you should not need to be told about it, surely.  You would have educated, prepared and informed her about her body, you would have kept the channels of communication open so that when she was in difficulties you would be the first, not the last person she would turn to.  Instead of being angry that there are others in whom she can confide, be ashamed that it could not be you.  It is a crime that the unborn and innocent should have to pay for our failings.

Then some wise school board member said, since boys will be boys and they're going to do it anyway, let's give our sons all the condoms they want so they can have all the fun they desire, and we won't have to tell their parents they got them at school. And we said OK.

Our society bombards us with its message of self-gratification as the only goal of life.  It pedals its preoccupation with sex freely and has cultivated an insatiable interest that it then makes immense amounts of money out of.  Then we wring our hands and complain that the fruits of such  campaigns are so abundant.  We plant the field and then when the crop is cultivated we blame the gardener whose job it is to harvest the field.  Wise educators realize this (they see the rotten harvest close up) and raise their voices continually to protest, but are drowned out by the ignorant and those who benefit from ignorance.

Then some of our top elected officials said it doesn't matter what we do in private as long as we do our jobs. Agreeing with them, we said it doesn't matter to me what anyone, including the President, does in private as long as I have a job and the economy is good.

As long as they have a job and money and use the most of the world’s resources it appears to be ok.  It is also ok to refuse to ban land mines, to practice the death penalty, to reject a World Court, to refuse to work with the rest of the world in improving our environment.  The list goes on and on.  We seem to be more interested in knowing each other’s defects than being informed about the serious problems facing the world. Hence our preoccupation with what people are doing in private rather than on what the world needs at present.

Then someone said let's print magazines with pictures of nude women and call it wholesome, down-to-earth appreciation for the beauty of the female body. And we said OK.

And then someone else took that appreciation a step further and published pictures of nude children and then further again by making them available on the Internet. And we said OK, they're entitled to free speech.

We have created an industry to feed an appetite that we also created.  We make money from such endeavours.  Ask any businessman which are the best professions to be in and they will tell you.  Any business that feeds an addiction is a sure thing, whether that is cigarettes, alcohol, gambling, sex, food etc.  What makes a population weaker and more dependent? Addiction.  What keeps your customer coming back for more?  Addiction.  What makes a population of sane educated people gullible, weak and easy to exploit?  Addiction.

Then the entertainment industry said, let's make TV shows and movies that promote profanity, violence, and illicit sex. Let's record music that encourages rape, drugs, murder, suicide, and satanic themes. And we said it's just entertainment, it has no adverse effect, nobody takes it seriously anyway, so go right ahead.

Having created the addiction all the system needs to do is feed the beast.  All of the above serve to do this.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

We do indeed.  We make an armament industry second to none in the world.  We sell such produce to the world, to nations corrupt and good, to people good and bad.  Then when wars break out (including the ones we start – which are terrific for sales), people are slaughtered.  And when our own children are shot we suddenly develop a conscience?  

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.

Many people trust God, not trash Him.  Many do not believe what is in the newspapers; many have a great deal of hope for the future. And what they need is deeds not words.  When religious people practice what they preach, when they are humble and not judgmental, when they inspire faith in God -  not division - then they will be able to make a real contribution to a better world.

Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Because nowadays people look to the motive behind every deed.  They ask: did this person send this to cheer me up or to lecture me?  Did they think through their argument or have they seen and judged everything from their own narrow viewpoint?  If anything offensive is used, or someone sacrificed to put across their views, that may well negate any message.  If I sense you too are trying to sell me something, I feel used and a little abused.

Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

No, because what the world needs now is change.  When I hear you blame teachers, Dr Spock, the Internet or poor Madeline O’Hare, etc, I hear the futility of the blame game and that is no laughing matter.  For as long as we can all blame what happens around us on others then we become the real joke.  God doesn’t want us to find the problem; He wants us to be part of the solution.  Each one of us, when we look inside ourselves, can find enough problems to solve for a lifetime.  But each one of us is also the hope of the world and I believe you and I can choose to make a difference. 

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they WILL think of you for sending it. Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in!
 

I’m glad you forwarded me this email because it forced me to respond.  If every injustice serves to goad one to action, if every falsehood prompts investigation for truth, then it serves a good purpose.  The independent investigation of truth is a noble pursuit and one path we should all tread.   The minefields of misinformation and distortion of fact must be avoided at all costs if we are to reach our goals.