From time to time, I will quote scripture. I do not claim to entirely understand the Bible. I do not claim that God is on my side. What I do claim is that the Bible contains much of the wisdom we have inherited from our forebears. What I claim is that our discussions are more informed when we consider what the Bible has to say.
Nonetheless, I still find that hearing scripture makes some people angry. Occasionally, when I quote the Bible, I will receive a rebuke such as this.
Please understand I respect the right of all believers to take comfort in their faiths, I just loath the arrogance of those who seek to impose their beliefs on others. One of the reasons I liked the attachment to my original email is because it didn’t seek to impose any particular religious frame of reference. It is enough for us to recognize our good fortune and to express our gratitude each in our own way.
As the above quote indicates, I was responding to email. The eruption process began I received this attachment (globalvillage1.pps) (viewer can be downloaded from here). The attachment contains what I would call a fair amount of moralizing, but I did not object. I just responded with an item expressing similar views from a Christian perspective, and I only addressed a small subset (the people I knew well) of her much larger audience.
Your note brought to mind another note where I recalled seeing similar stats.
WHAT HAPPENS IN HEAVEN
I dreamt that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around. We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels.
My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, “This Is the Receiving Section. Here, allpetitions to God said in prayer are received.”
I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.
Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section.
The angel then said to me, “This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them.”
I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working hard at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth
Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the Door of a very small station To my great surprise, only one angel was Seated there, idly doing nothing. “This is the Acknowledgment Section,” My angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed “How Is it that there is no work going on here?” I asked.
“So sad,” the angel sighed. “After people receive the blessings that they asked For, very few send back acknowledgments.”
“How does one acknowledge God’s blessings?” I asked.
“Simple,” the angel answered. Just say, “Thank you, Lord.”
“What blessings should they acknowledge?” I asked.
“If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy .”
“And if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity.”
Also …..
” If you woke up this morning with more health than illness … You are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day .”
“If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation .. You are ahead of 700 million people in the world.”
“If you can attend a church without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world .”
“If your parents are still alive and still married…you are very rare .”
“If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you’re unique to all those in doubt and despair.”
Ok, what now? How can I start?
If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you as very special and you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.
Have a good day, count your blessings, and if you want, pass this along to remind everyone else how
blessed we all are.ATTN: Acknowledge Dept.: “Thank you Lord, for hiving me the ability to share this message and for
giving me so many wonderful people to share it with.”
My reply earned this wry observation from my email partner.
Interesting that “God” chooses to bless only 5 to 25% of his “creations.”
I thought that interesting so I replied. My reply is below. The observations (in blue) are from my email partner.
Interesting and a puzzle I do not understand. Does a baby understand the role of parents? As well as the parents do. To understand the mind of God, one would have to be God. And there would have to be a God with a mind.
I suspect we all receive our share of blessings, but some blessings are much more easily recognized as such. I guess for many humans death is a blessing that ends the suffering. Who is to say that blessings are not in reality burdens? Could be – the whole camel through the eye of a needle thing,
“But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” — Luke 12:48
One day the “blessed’ may look upon those who were impoverished with envy. That may be particularly so when the impoverished knew to share what little they had. Certainly a lesson worth learning and acting on.
Sometimes people do not appreciate the self-contradictions in their words. Why, so long as a religious frame of reference is avoided, is any moralizing okay? If the author was not trying to impose her point of view, what was the point? Pretty pictures?
Consider the expectations that some people have. Because it immoral not to help, some demand that taxpayers establish a welfare state. Because it is immoral not to have universal health care, some demand that taxpayers subsidize health care for the poor. Because every child has a moral right to an education, some demand that taxpayers pay for a publicly owned and operated school system. Because God is unfair, some demand that government make us equal. Can government do that? Why? What is the basis for this morality?
Because anger is something that erupts from within ourselves, we must to give considerable thought as to the cause. Why did my email partner get mad about my response? Was the mere fact that I expressed a religious view that differs from her own sufficient cause for anger or to try silence me? I do not think so. In fact, I wonder whether she is angry with me. I think she is angry with God.
Does she believe God is unfair? What does He want? Why do some suffer in want, and some have plenty? God seems mean to her, and I cannot provide a satisfactory explanation. All I can do is suggest the Book of Job.
I can also ask a couple of questions. Is secularism the only acceptable belief? If we are going to live in a multicultural society, doesn’t that mean we must accept hearing from a diversity of beliefs?
Sharing God’s Word is sharing a treasure better than silver or gold, the finest woods or cloth because it, the words, give forever and ever.
I don’t know how much you like to engage with Liberal Human Secularists when they snipe, but here are some thoughts to share.
Sharing free religious speech isn’t imposing a religion on anyone. People who love liberty understand the difference.
Denying a person free speech is imposing a restriction on free speech and the free exercise of religion. Might want to brush up on that 1st Amendment.
If you invoke the word of God, especially the name of Jesus, the blow back is exactly what the Apostle Paul predicts. It is a natural, meaning pagan, and expected response to the one, only, living God of the Jews and Christians.
Finally, fyi, Harvard University’s Divinity School has an endowed chair for Human Secularism. It is a religion. It worships the gods with lowercase “g’s” , especially the modern god of “self”.
You are absolutely right that Diversity means listening and tolerating Christian speech – if Diversity actually were an intellectually honest idea and not a Liberal form of racism and intolerance.
James, thanks for the comment. I did not know that Harvard University’s Divinity School had endowed a chair for Human Secularism. Interesting.