Nub Nub
I heard something on the radio this morning about a huge pan-religious turnout for a prayer meeting in I think either India or Sri Lanka. I think it was in some stadium (I just heard a bit of it on the news). Thousands of people of all religions prayed together for the relief of Tsunami victims! I don’t know why this story hasn’t been picked up in the newspapers. It should be headlined. I’m a firm believer that if the news reported stuff like this a lot more than the negative stuff, it would make a lot of people more motivated for positive change. If the news showed that individuals can make a difference, more individuals would be out there trying to make a difference (not that prayer necessarily makes a difference; it’s the idea of different religions sharing a common dream).
I have a huge beef about the re-building of the World Trade Center. ‘Yes, let’s all re-build a symbol to one of the biggest reasons for suffering in the world: globalization’. Gah! I think it’s time to start a new kind of United Nations: one based on religions. There should be some sort of pan-religious foundation with a goal to create tolerance between religions. Of all the locations in the world, why not build in on the site of a place destroyed by religious intolerance? There should be a firm commitment in the 21st century to try to find a way for different faiths (and different sects of different faiths) to work together. I know I’m an idealist, but the world could certainly use such idealism.
I read an article this weekend where Jerry Falwell was calling the National Organization of Women, the "National Organization of Witches". Does anyone have any doubt that had he been alive 400 years ago, he’d have been leading the witch-hunts and cheering for the burning thousands of women? Or for that matter, saying that slavery is an acceptable Christian practice? Most people don’t know that Jesse Helms used to host a racist radio program in the 1950s and early 60s. I think the attacks on gays that was fueled in the mid-late 70s was the result of the fact that white Christians needed a new target now that it was no longer "acceptable’ to be racist. Just look at all those Christian-run TV programs. They’re more about naming ‘enemies of God’ than anything else. Forty years ago it was people who wanted to integrate the races. Now, it’s sex, sex, sex (I swear, Christians are more obsessed about sex than we pagans are!). There’s big $$$ in all that! "Send in your money to help spread the gospel against heathens!". Where’s Tammy Faye now that we need her?
I’m in one of my "nubby nubby" moods. The rain the last couple of days has been almost biblical (well, for LA). I’ve never seen it rain so strongly and steadily - at least in the past decade or so. I made some pumpkin bread this morning, and I just took the clothes out of the dryer and put on my favorite sweatshirt. It’s all warm and toasty and clean-smelling. Mmmmm-nub-nub-nub. The garden is exploding in color too!