Bumper sticker philosophy

This is a great example of bumper sticker philosophy. It is easy to say, "Yep, ain't that the truth." And, me as a middle class white male, I would say it mostly applies to me. The doors of opportunity were easy for me to open. I had a lot of help and support as a youth which gave me the skills, confidence and background to 'succeed'. There is no reason for me not to do for myself.

Now go to "the other side of the tracks" where all "those people" are getting welfare. Just picture one child. Picture him going to school and coming home to an empty house because there is only a mom and she is somewhere else. Who knows where. Who helps him with his homework? Who says, "I believe in you and doing this work will open doors for you."? Who watches him make mistakes and helps him learn from them? No one. He comes home and watches TV, plays video games or hangs out with kids in the same situation. These kids aren't going to get together and help each other with homework. He becomes an adult with no opportunities, no hope and no sense of duty to the greater good. He has a few kids with different women and takes no role in their life and the cycle goes on.

Personal responsibility is a learned behavior. Self preservation is an instinctive behavior but is not the same as responsibility. We have a system that is broken and throwing these people to the wolves to fend for themselves is insane. These are the communities we should be throwing money into and breaking the cycle. 
Imagine a school system with a 10 student to 1 teacher ratio. Imagine a teacher that is not worried about his/her own bills because they are paid so well they can do what they love, teach. They help teach the personal responsibility, they help create the hope. Imaging a police force that says I am here for you. I'm not here to punish you at every misstep but to serve and protect you." Imagine churches opening doors right in that community and saying, "We are all in this together. Let us help you build a strong, caring community. Child, we know your mom is not home but we have an outstanding after-school program. Your education is important. We believe in you. We will love and protect you."

Imagine that child growing up. He will have learned personal responsibility and when he has a kid he will more likely be involved than not. His child will have more opportunities than his father and the cycle continues but in a better direction. This seems like a better way of ending welfare than saying, "Pick yourself up by your bootstraps" to someone who never was taught how.

Siddhartha and the Gorilla

I was talking to two of my teenage son's the other day and they asked me what I actually believe. My answer, "Not much."  I went on to try to explain why that's a good thing but I felt my answer fell short.  The point I tried to make wasn't coming across.  There are plenty of people who don't have beliefs because they haven't bothered thinking about them.  That's not my case but the words needed to explain that to my sons were failing me that day. 

Thankfully, help was on the way.  I read  Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha many years ago and recently got an audio copy to listen to on my commute to work. Brilliant book. I listened to the whole thing twice and the last CD four times.

More on Siddhartha in a little bit.  First, I would like you to watch the short video and try to do what it says.  It's pretty simple.  You just have to count how many times the team in white passes the ball. See if you can get it right.

Did you get the right number?  And are you one of the fifty percent the missed the gorilla?

Now back to Siddhartha.  The following is an expert from it towards the end of the book where Siddhartha is talking to a long lost friend, Govinda.

 *****

"It's true, I'm old," spoke Govinda, "but I haven't stopped searching. Never I'll stop searching, this seems to be my destiny. You too, so it seems to me, have been searching. Would you like to tell me something, oh honourable one?"

Quoth Siddhartha: "What should I possibly have to tell you, oh venerable one? Perhaps that you're searching far too much? That in all that searching, you don't find the time for finding?" 

"How come?" asked Govinda.

 "When someone is searching," said Siddhartha, "then it might easily happen that the only thing his eyes still see is that what he searches for, that he is unable to find anything, to let anything enter his mind, because he always thinks of nothing but the object of his search, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed by the goal. Searching means: having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal. You, oh venerable one, are perhaps indeed a searcher, because, striving for your goal, there are many things you don't see, which are directly in front of your eyes."

 *****

I think Hermann Hesse summed up the gorilla experiment perfectly.  

If a person is looking for something they can miss the beauty right in front of them.  If someone has a static and ridged belief system the truth can be held in the book they are reading or the person they are talking to but they will miss it if ideas and concepts don't fit what they are seeking.  

Our beliefs are the container in which our truth is held.  The shape of our beliefs and the size of our beliefs limits or filters truth. We cannot escape that but be can change the shape and size of the container to accommodate a greater Truth.

Recently I heard an old saying twice within a few days.  I hadn't heard it in a long time but as I was getting ready to write this blog the saying conveniently made itself available for me.   "If you're a hammer every problem is a nail."  The meaning is clear.  It's saying you need to open yourself up to look at problems in more than one way.  We're lucky to have a tool box full of extraordinary tools to solve problems and to deepen our understand of the mysteries of life.  These tools have many names, Christianity,  Hinduism, Buddhism,  Republican, Democrat, Atheist, spirituality, skeptic, Socialist, Communist,  naturalist, environmentalist, and on and on.   None of these tools can answer all questions and solve all problems alone.  If a person picks one as their hammer everything is a nail.  If someone seeks the truth solely through one belief system they miss the Truth.  Finding Truth can only be done with a full toolbox.

We have seekers and we have explorers.  Explores set out to find what there is to find but seekers have their eyes set on a target and everything else is irrelevant or an obstacle.  So now I can tell my sons I am an explorer and I don't want my beliefs to stop me from finding. 

Inherit The Wind

My wife and I went and saw the play Inherit the Wind a little while ago.  A friend of ours who we have both done many plays with was in it.  It was an outstanding show which fictionalizes the Scopes Monkey trial.  Our friend played Matthew Harrison Brady, the three time presidential candidate and adamant prosecutor of the teacher who broke the Tennessee law by teaching Darwin's theory of evolution. 

As I was watching the play I wanted to know more about the real life characters and story, so I pulled it up on my Android.  Isn't it great we live in a time where knowledge is instantly available?  What I learned surprised me.  The character, Matthew Harrison Brady, a deeply religious, famous high power lawyer, who so personally took issue with evolution being taught in a public school that he himself took the part of prosecutor, was portraying the real life William Jennings Bryan. Wikipedia says Bryan was a "dominant force in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party."  So, what was a left wing Democratic Christian ideology is nowadays a conservative right wing Republican Christian ideology?  This shocked me.  How did ideologies move so far?  I had heard before that the Democratic party used to be the party the Christian would go to but now it is the Republicans.  This got me thinking more about that shift.

I have never understood the alignment of Christianity with the Republicans.  While growing up it was explained to me that Republicans were the pro-business party and the Democrats were the pro-people party, protecting us from big business. Yes, I know those are simplistic categorizations but that basic teaching from my youth still plays a role in defining the parties.  But even with a broader look at the parties, what platforms align better with Christian values? James 1:27 says "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."  That sounds a lot like helping the poor and needy, a pro-people party's values.

Granted, our social welfare system is a mess and I believe it enables some people to live lives off of a system without returning anything to that system.  It needs to be rethought and revised but at the same time, it does help many people who need the help.  I have had friends and family who have been on food stamps and other programs to get them through rough times and now they are working again, paying taxes and supporting the system that supported them in a time of need.  What a blessing that was for them.  I quit teaching because it didn't pay enough (that is a whole nother topic) and went back to college and my wife went back to college at the same time.  We got Pell grants and low interest student loans.  And now I have a much higher salary and can give even more to the system that helped me take a positive step forward. What a blessing that was for me and my family. So the system can be used by the people that truly need it but it can be abused by some that don't.  Sounds as humanly flawed as any system we have ever come up with.

When I ask Christians aligned with the Republican party why they support it, inevitably the first answer is abortion.  I think abortion is a terrible thing also, and let's just make a blanket statement that abortion is something we should avoid and move to the next most popular answer I have heard from Christian Republicans: morality.  Stop right there!  Whose morality are we going to legislate?   There are some white areas, murder, stealing, but it gets very grey very fast. If we are going to legislate morality then we can get to the point that burqas are required.  That is a moral issue in many people's views so it is as valid to legislate that as it is to legislate on same sex marriage.  But let's move to the third issues that the Christians I have spoken to give to align to the Republican party.  Well, the list ends there.  Many can't even give reasons other than emotional ones. "The Democrats are destroying the country." Refer back to reasons one and two for the how on that.  This devalues the Republican party to a one issue party or a marginal two issue party.   Personally, I like much of the Republican platform, I just don't like the Republicans.  I like much of the Democratic platform, too and the Democrats are marginally more tolerable than the Republicans.  Personally, I usually vote third party because of the senselessness of the main two parties.

The title of the play mentioned at the start comes from Proverbs 11:28. "He that troubles his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart."  As I see it, we have many calling themselves Republicans who are inheriting the wind.  This presidential election is straining my understanding of human's ability to reason.  The Democrats have Obama, United Church of Christ (aka: Christian) and Biden, Catholic (aka: Christian).  The Republicans have Romney, a Mormon.  I have plenty of friends and family who fall into the right wing conservative Christian category and up until recently, if you asked if Mormons were Christians the answer would have been an adamant  "Hell no!"  Now we have Paul Ryan, his VP running mate, who is a Catholic (aka: Christian) but a strong follower of Ayn Rand.  Ayn Rand, an atheist, is know for a philosophy directly contrary to any Christian teaching.  Take the sermon on the mount, turn it 180 degrees and you have Ayn Rands teachings.  Yet this is who Paul Ryan sites as his main influence.  More disturbing is that the conservative Christians are still on board with the Republicans and still calling Democrats immoral.  The party helping the poor, orphans, widows, environment is the the immoral party and the party enabling the rich, driving a destructive energy policy for corporate gain, restricting personal rights is the moral party.  Friends, we are inheriting the wind.

I do not pretend to be right or have all the answers.  Where you see I am wrong please calmly and rationally explain why.  I will truly listen to what you have to say.  I encourage a civil discussion on this because I am beside myself in disbelief and would like to understand the rational driving what I see as insanity. Please avoid terms that set people off and just explain your position.  If I have used terms that are offensive and may set you off please look past my ignorance and do a better job than I have of civil discourse.  I look forward to having a deeper understanding.





  

Hilltop Mansion

A friend from my early childhood became a minister when he grew up.  We got connected on Facebook and every so often I read his posts. Today he posted the whole hymn/spiritual "Mansion Over the Hilltop."   I love to hear my wife sing that song in church because it is a beautiful, catchy song.  The church sings it with a faster upbeat than other versions I've heard and standing next to my wife, one of the most talented singers I have ever heard, makes it all the better.

I like the song until I think about what it's saying.  For those that don't know the song, here it is with the repeats of the chorus removed.

---

I'm satisfied with just a cottage below, a little silver and a little gold. But in that city where the ransomed will shine, I want a gold one that's silver lined.

I've got a mansion just over the hilltop, in that bright land where we'll never grow old. And someday yonder We will never more wander, But walk on streets that are purest gold.

Tho often tempted, tormented and tested, and like the prophet, my pillow a stone. And tho I find here no permanent dwelling, I know He'll give me a mansion my own.

Don't think me poor or deserted or lonely; I'm not discouraged, I'm heaven bound. I'm just a pilgrim in search of that city; I want a mansion, a harp, and a crown.

---

The song tells us not to worry about this life because the life after is what is important.  Heaven is where our riches are and if we suffer and endure in this life, our wants for riches will be our reward.

How can a song with that message ever be sung in a Christian church?  Greed is okay in Heaven but not here?  Lusting for material possessions in this life is wrong but lusting for them in Heaven is right?

I am reading Rob Bell's Love Wins right now.   I like his perspective to say the least.   Focus on making the life you are living now right.  Make this life your Heaven.

Imagine what the world be if all the Christians in all the countries quit focusing on the reward of Heaven in an afterlife and started making this their Heaven. What if 'love your neighbor' was more than a catch phrase?  What if "WWJD" was more than a great way to sell T-shirts and wrist bands?  What if the compassion Jesus talked about was the driving force of our life instead of enduring this life until our afterlife reward is granted to us?

And, if there really is a mansion waiting for us in Heaven, I think God is more likely to bestow that blessing on the ones who spent their time in this lowly life making a positive difference than the one only doing what they have to to get a reward.

Embrace Doubt

I hear people say, "I'm spiritual but not religious."  It's one of those phrases that let's me know I most likely have little to talk about with that person.  Generally, what I've found is that phrase gives the person a way to avoid the details of religion but not sound like a heathen. It excuses them from an in-depth study of different faiths and allows them to just be a nice person that the grandfatherly, gentle, nice God looking down at them would be pleased with.

On the other hand, when someone claims to be religious, I'm not 'most likely' going to have little to talk about with them,  I'm very likely going to have little to talk about. 

In Karen Armstrong's book, Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, she says not to enter into a discussion with someone unless you are willing to truly listen to them and change what you believe if what they are saying makes sense; if it is right. I think it's safe to say that when a religious discussion starts, neither side is interested in changing their own mind based on what the other is saying.  Our lexicon even has changed to define religions as things that people will not change their mind about, such as Windows vs. Linux, Chevy vs. Ford, Republican vs. Democrat.

So, what is the path of religion? Most think it is a path to truth and certainty. I say it is simply opening your mind to the unknown and to seek answers.  It is to accept you have doubts, to accept that you don't know and it is humanly impossible to know the ultimate truth, yet to long for the truth.

When it comes to talking to religious people I always think about a scene in Crossroads (1986) where Willie Brown says to Eugene, "You got your mind made up about how everything works. How you gonna learn anything new when you KNOW everything already?"

Paul Tillich says, "Doubt isn't the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith."  I think the truly religious/spiritual people are the ones who realize they don't know the truth, embrace their doubt, actively search to answer questions and all the while push themselves to be a blessing to the people around them.  Those are the people I want to listen to.