Vision And Growth Meld

As I work on this blog I realize that my writings are not only showing my personal growth, but a beginning to a vision. It is a vision not only for myself, but for the surrounding community, the State of Maine, and mankind overall. I realize as I go that I cannot bring the vision to life by writing and keeping it to myself. I have to share the vision with those around me and draw in people with the skills and contacts to pull it off. So as I write more people will be invited to join the group. Here is more of my previous writing. Thank you for joining me in this process.

I listen to the news today and all I hear is noise. Noise about our duly elected President’s failure to be more than human. From the moment that he was nominated, his enemies have attacked President Clinton. It has taken on the furor of the witch-hunts of the 1600’s, with its own appointed witcher. What is a witcher? A witcher is a special prosecutor, who sits outside normal laws, and digs up, or fabricates evidence against the accused.

From the moment that Ken Starr took on his assignment, he has gone after the president like a pit bull, and refuses to let go. His original assignment was to see if the president had committed any crimes in the Whitewater affair. When he couldn’t find any hard evidence, he took on the Paula Jones case, which by the way was already proceeding through normal judicial channels. When that case didn’t prove fruitful, Ken Starr stooped so low that he tried to force the President to lie about a personal sexual affair. That would give him grounds to proceed with proceedings, to try the president for perjury.

It is not up to the people to dig into a person’s personal life, even if that person happens to be powerful. I don’t know if the president has had sex outside his marriage, or not, and I really do not care. For those of us who claim to be Christians, we should remember Christ’s admonition that “He who is without sin shall cast the first stone.” A persons sins are between him and his God, and if they effect another person, that person as well.

There are those who say that the President and any other public figure should be setting an example for the children of the nation. I say, that if parents do their job teaching their own children values, they will be more likely to retain the bulk of those values. As individuals, children will make decisions, we do not agree with, but if we stoop to blaming the TV, or people in public service, or even sports figures, we are not owning up to our own responsibilities.

I now go back to Ken Starr and his investigations. I say, that if he cannot find evidence that the president committed any crimes in the Whitewater case, he should close his books and go home. Send the witchers home, and stop the madness that is associated with a free and open investigation of this manner. The president cannot do his job, if he has to continuously defend himself from these allegations.

Growth Continues

The following excerpt is from my previous writing. It is still random thoughts that over time show my personal growth.

Today I am writing about the controversy over sex education in this country. As someone who was raised in a Christian home, sex wasn’t discussed at home, other than to say it was a sin, and not to do it. The Church itself taught that premarital sex was evil, and the schools taught a sterile health version of sex education. Both failed to take into consideration those teenage feelings and urges are not so easily shut off. They also failed to mention, that under the right circumstances sex could be a wonderful experience.

When the Church mentions sex, it is in such a way that you feel it is an obligation to increase the population of Gods people. By doing this, in some cases the wife feels that it is a duty on her part. This turns what should be a joyful experience into a chore for her. It also opens the door for what could be considered sanctioned spousal abuse to those husbands who use sex as a power tool.

Well, back to the subject at hand: today’s sexual education curriculum. As Christians we have a tendency to take God’s admonition for children to obey their parents and forget a few things.

1. Our children who are old enough to have sexual urges are physically adults. As adults, we need to remember this, and give them the information needed to make informed adult decisions. If we do not do this, our children will act like the little child we treat them as. They may even do exactly what we object to out of spite, or even ignorance.

2. Our children are only human, and are subject to the same failings that we are.

We must treat our children with the same respect that we require from them. If they fail we do not want to alienate them, which could force them to make decisions that they wouldn’t normally. God is the only one who can judge us, or our children’s actions.

I can hear some of you now. “Are we supposed to just tell our children that it is O.K. to have sex before marriage?” No, as Christians it is our duty to teach our faith, and moral beliefs to our children. We must trust them to make the right choices, and God to keep them safe. I also feel that it will be a sin against God, and our children to not protect them from disease, and pregnancy. The only way to make sure that our children know all the dangers, and are sure of the protection there is available to them.

This means that we should make sure that our daughters of childbearing age, (be that age 14, or even age 10) are on birth control pills. They should also make sure that their partners use condoms to protect against disease. We need to remember our sons as well. They should be made aware of their responsibility to wear condoms if they decide to have sex.

The days of forbidding our children to do anything, and blindly ignoring what is before our eyes are past. The rate of child pregnancies and sexually transmitted disease has increased to the point that we cannot ignore it any longer. If we blame this trend on the schools, or even society as a whole, we are not taking responsibility for what happens to the next generation at all. That is the easy way out.

You ask me, “Why should the schools teach our children about sex?” One reason is the fact that some parents refuse to see the possibility of their children might have sex, even when told not to. Another reason is the fact that there are people who do not care what their children do. So who does this leave to teach the children? This leaves us with just the school system to do this. In some cases there are parents who require the schools to do this job for them out of laziness, or out of the fear of the subject.

The Start of Growth

The following is an excerpt from writings that started in the late 1980's. This was a time of disillusionment after witnessing what I considered injustice in the Church's I had been involved in.

These writings are my way of showing the world that I care, and I hope they might make a difference against all the injustices of the world.

I sit here watching the world go by. In Bosnia, Serbs kill Croats and Muslims, who go around killing each other; all in the name of God. In Ireland it is two Christian groups doing the killing, the Protestants and the Catholics.

Here in the United States we have groups like the Branch Davidians who were willing to die, or even let their children be molested for one man who claims to talk God. Jews fight Jews over the fact that Israel plans a peace agreement with the PLO who are an Islamic Arab people.

There are White supremacist groups which consider themselves Christians, who beat and kill anyone who do not agree with them, or are of a different ethnic group.

As for me, being a Christian, I am appalled. Christ preached love and redemption, not hate and killing. Even among the Churches there is hate and bitterness just because there is no agreement on what the Bible says. People have a tendency to take bits and pieces, and put them together in a way to suit their own beliefs.

When the Churches spend their money to help the less fortunate, instead of building bigger and better Churches they will be on the way to what Christ wanted. We do not need to condemn people for what they wear to Church, or how much they can afford to tithe. We should look their souls. By saying we must look to their souls I don't mean preaching hellfire and brimstone. I believe that the hope of Christ’s message is what should be what is sent to the world. When other people can tolerate the differences in belief and race then the world will be a better place.

After September 11^th, 2001 I am compelled to come back to the subject of tolerance. As I sit here reading my last article on this subject I realized that I sound as judgmental as the people I am writing about. I am sorry for that. I have my own faults that I struggle with from day to day. After the death of so many I have been forced to look at my own life and see my lack of faith in God, and my weaknesses. Some of this writing comes from shying away from things happening in my own life, and trying to help the whole world, even though I felt helpless when it comes to the people who I love the most. I am sorry for that, and will try harder.

I am not a scholar of other faiths, but I do know that Christians, Moslem's, and the Jewish people all claim to worship the same God. We all like to claim the ultimate authority on what God wants for the world, and our people, but forget that God also teaches love and tolerance for others. The laws passed down to us from God are for each person to decide to obey or not, he will be the judge. Individuals should not interpret them and force their interpretation on others not of their faith.

The people with power, who fear the differences between individual faiths, races, or even those who think different than them prey on the weaknesses of the poor, uneducated, and oppressed to try to force others to their way of thought, or just hurt those that are different. There is no thought of right or wrong in these people, they just lash out at the world. By people with power, I mean the leaders of the individual churches, and communities, as well as world leaders. They all have an impact on those who feel powerless.

Where am I going with this? I am not certain yet. I know that we have to realize that the people involved in the current acts of terrorism are from countries that have large groups of people who feel that the American people are imposing our way of life on their society. Like the Christians the people of the Muslim faith have certain guidelines and even laws to live by. Our way of life, with its freedoms allows people to choose not to obey the laws of their faith. This is even made possible when the governments are more secular. This threatens the fundamentalist leaders’ control of the people, and causes them to lash out at those they fear.

The American way of life is not for everyone. It can open the door for self-destructive behavior, allowing people to use drugs, abuse alcohol and allows open expression of sexual behavior, which can cause an epidemic of sexually transmitted disease; this behavior can rot a society from the inside out. In America we are still trying to find ways to combat this without removing the freedoms that sponsor creativity, and technological advances in our society.

With freedom comes the responsibility to realize that our actions affect those around us. This includes our neighbors around the world with different lifestyles.

Well back to the original subject of tolerance. If the leaders of the Christian churches, can get together with those of other faiths and discuss what is the most common denominator of our faiths we may be able to tear down the barriers that cause the fear and hate.