Religions converge on Jerusalem. In Israel, it seems so many who cannot agree have agreed on their Holy of Holies.
Everyone to the East and West looks at Israel with fascination: whether with pity or zeal. And by “everyone to the east” I mean the rest of two-thirds of the population of the planet who likely does not worship as one of the “Big Three”…
Whatever your belief, are you so different? If you know with absolute certainty that you are correct in your beliefs, you may want to travel a little and see the rest of the planet that knows that they are correct in theirs.
“Agree and prosper; disagree and be punished.”
“You don’t respect my freedoms so I will punish you by taking away yours.”
“This is the way, not that, of course.”
“It is true because it is oldest.”
“It is true because it is the new answer that applies to the modern situations.”
There’s a story of an Orthodox priest who passes a Buddhist monk on the street and they greet each other cordially with a smile and a nod then continue on their way. And as they continue on, they both lift up a half-prayer on behalf of the other: “…please be with that poor lost soul.”
For you who believe Abraham sacrificed Isaac, do you realize that over one billion people will disagree with you just on that simple point. And as for the other 5 billion people who don’t even care, they read it just like many in the West read the Bhagavad Gita or the Tao Te Ching or the Tripitaka. (I’d venture to say that most Americans don’t know what these weird words even refer to.) Who is Paul? What’s an Apostle? A bush burned and was not burned up? A man came back to life after three days? A horse galloped to heaven? So, I’m going to be punished because I cut my hair?
Many of you may remember there was a Chinese exchange student killed in the Boston Marathon Bombing. Did you know that the international reaction to that included: “Oh, America is unsafe. If you go there, you’ll be killed by either a bomb or a shooting!” Seriously, the number of students coming to the United States is lower than it has been in a long time. After all, if they study abroad at an American university, they’re many times more likely to be killed on campus (or in a mall, in a theater, at a sporting event, etc) than even in some of the most “dangerous” countries. On many “Most Dangerous Countries” lists, the United States ranks fairly high.
How many times have I talked to parents of students sending their children overseas with the International Programs and they say things like: “I’m nervous about my kid going to Israel/Kenya/Cambodia/Chile/etc! There’s so much violence over there.”
So the world is becoming this horribly dangerous place in which everyone disagrees and nobody will go and see for themselves.
So, is it the chicken or the egg? Is the world just a dangerous place in which we should just stay home? Or is the world such a wild and dangerous place because we stay home in our ivory towers and bunkers of political correctness, never venturing out to try to understand our fellow man. Be okay with sleeping in the bed that you make… but instead of sitting up worrying at night about how your neighbor choses to fold his corners, why don’t you go over and introduce yourself. You might find out that you’ll have more similarities than you could have ever thought possible. At least, don’t ever judge the pious man as a fool: if you do, the title certainly belongs elsewhere.
It has nothing to do with agreeing with someone… it has everything to do with loving them.
Stay tuned…
-Noah D.
