Monday, August 21, 2006

extremists

Brilliant post on CatBlog - Sunday thoughts
The problem is not Christianity.
The problem is Fundamentalism.

It doesn't matter what religious (or political, or philosophical) belief you hold - if you claim that your belief is The Only Truth and that all those who disagree are not just Wrong, but Evil... then you are part of the problem.

It doesn't matter if you are on the Right or the Left, if you are Christian, Moslem, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, Pagan, Scientific Materialist Atheist or something you made up for yourself... if your belief is True and all others False, then you are part of the problem.

If you can genuinely talk with those who believe differently to you and compare notes on the Universe - and actually listen to and learn from the points on which you differ - then you are not part of the problem.

If you are willing to change your beliefs on the basis of life experience or finding wisdom from the minds of others, then you are not part of the problem.

If you hold compassion for all people, regardless of how much they do not resemble you, you are not part of the problem.

Yes, that includes compassion for the Fundamentalists.

For all that their attitudes scare and horrify us, they are humans too - with the same potential for change and growth. It is hard to reach them through the armour of their hardened belief and their fear and hatred of the Different - but that should never stop us trying.

To see them as a single Enemy is to fall into the same trap they are in.
I couldn't have put it better. Hooray for the rainbow of possibilities and the multiplicity of truths!

4 comments:

Sophia said...

It's good, but it doesn't take into account those people who believe that theirs is the One and Only Truth but are still willing to listen to other people with respect. They do exist, I met one. I think the main points are RESPECT and TOLERANCE; after all, we are all dogmatic about something! (E.g. I am opposed to racism, dogmatically so in that I am close-minded to any counter-argumenting of the racists)

Yewtree said...

Good point, but I think the difference is, that you are (quite rightly) dogmatically opposed to racism (and so am I), but it is possible to feel sorry for racists because they live in such narrow and tiny minds.

I think that Christianity as a system is the wrong religion for me, but I support the right of other people to believe in it (as long as they don't try to impose it on others).

Yewtree said...

my view is that western religions ARE imposing their doctrines on others through putting into an unnatural precedence over natural self-organization of community...

Hi Emile, yes I agree, but the organisational structures of the western religions are largely fundamentalist according to Cat's definition; they do not admit of other visions or an accommodating host-space. However, mystics (who often try to exist within the religious paradigm of their culture, however painful it may be for them) have always been aware that something was missing from the world-view of the major religions, and moved beyond that paradigm to one that is closer to what you are saying above. (I'm thinking of the Sufis, Jakob Boehme, Hildegard of Bingen, etc.)

Yewtree said...

Isn't all this the classic liberal dilemma - we all want to live and let live, but what are you supposed to think about people who don't want to live and let live?

Perhaps Starhawk had the right idea in The Fifth Sacred Thing: "There is a place set for you at our table."