5. GOD CLARIFIES NEW YORK--Responding to recent events on Earth, God, the omniscient creator-deity worshipped by billions of followers of various faiths for more than 6,000 years, angrily clarified His longtime stance against humans killing each other Monday. "Look, I don't know, maybe I haven't made myself completely clear, so for the record, here it is again," said the Lord, His divine face betraying visible emotion during a press conference near the site of the fallen Twin Towers. "Somehow, people keep coming up with the idea that I want them to kill their neighbor. Well, I don't. And to be honest, I'm really getting sick and tired of it. Get it straight. Not only do I not want anybody to kill anyone, but I specifically commanded you not to, in really simple terms that anybody ought to be able to understand." Worshipped by Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike, God said His name has been invoked countless times over the centuries as a reason to kill in what He called "an unending cycle of violence." "I don't care how holy somebody claims to be," God said. "If a person tells you it's My will that they kill someone, they're wrong. Got it? I don't care what religion you are, or who you think your enemy is, here it is one more time: No killing, in My name or anyone else's, ever again." The press conference came as a surprise to humankind, as God rarely intervenes in earthly affairs. As a matter of ongstanding policy, He has traditionally left the task of interpreting His message and divine will to clerics, rabbis, priests, imams, and Biblical scholars. Theologians and laymen alike have been given the task of pondering His ineffable mysteries, deciding for themselves what to do as a matter of faith. His decision to manifest on the material plane was motivated by the deep sense of shock, outrage, and sorrow He felt over the Sept. 11 violence carried out in His name, and over its dire potential ramifications around the globe. "I tried to put it in the simplest possible terms for you people, so you'd get it straight, because I thought it was pretty important," said God, called Yahweh and Allah respectively in the Judaic and Muslim traditions. "I guess I figured I'd left no real room for confusion after putting it in a four-word sentence with one-syllable words, on the tablets I gave to Moses. How much more clear can I get?" "But somehow, it all gets twisted around and, next thing you know, somebody's spouting off some nonsense about, 'God says I have to kill this guy, God wants me to kill that guy, it's God's will,'" God continued. "It's not God's will, all right? News flash: 'God's will' equals 'Don't murder people.'" Worse yet, many of the worst violators claim that their actions are justified by passages in the Bible, Torah, and Qur'an. "To be honest, there's some contradictory stuff in there, okay?" God said. "So I can see how it could be pretty misleading. I admit it--My bad. I did My best to inspire them, but a lot of imperfect human agents have misinterpreted My message over the millennia. Frankly, much of the material that got in there is dogmatic, doctrinal bullshit. I turn My head for a second and, suddenly, all this stuff about homosexuality gets into Leviticus, and everybody thinks it's God's will to kill gays. It absolutely drives Me up the wall." God praised the overwhelming majority of His Muslim followers as "wonderful, pious people," calling the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks rare exceptions. "This whole medieval concept of the jihad, or holy war, had all but vanished from the Muslim world in, like, the 10th century, and with good reason," God said. "There's no such thing as a holy war, only unholy ones. The vast majority of Muslims in this world reject the murderous actions of these radical extremists, just like the vast majority of Christians in America are pissed off over those two bigots on The 700 Club." Continued God, "Read the book: 'Allah is kind, Allah is beautiful, Allah is merciful.' It goes on and on that way, page after page. But, no, some assholes have to come along and revive this stupid holy-war crap just to further their own hateful agenda. So now, everybody thinks Muslims are all murderous barbarians. Thanks, Taliban: 1,000 years of pan-Islamic cultural progress down the drain." God stressed that His remarks were not directed exclusively at Islamic extremists, but rather at anyone whose ideological zealotry overrides his or her ability to comprehend the core message of all world religions. "I don't care what faith you are, everybody's been making this same mistake since the dawn of time," God said. "The Muslims massacre the Hindus, the Hindus massacre the Muslims. The Buddhists, everybody massacres the Buddhists. The Jews, don't even get me started on the hardline, right-wing, Meir Kahane-loving Israeli nationalists, man. And the Christians? You people believe in a Messiah who says, 'Turn the other cheek,' but you've been killing everybody you can get your hands on since the Crusades." Growing increasingly wrathful, God continued: "Can't you people see? What are you, morons? There are a ton of different religious traditions out there, and different cultures worship Me in different ways. But the basic message is always the same: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Shintoism... every religious belief system under the sun, they all say you're supposed to love your neighbors, folks! It's not that hard a concept to grasp." "Why would you think I'd want anything else? Humans don't need religion or God as an excuse to kill each other--you've been doing that without any help from Me since you were freaking apes!" God said. "The whole point of believing in God is to have a higher standard of behavior. How obvious can you get?" "I'm talking to all of you, here!" continued God, His voice rising to a shout. "Do you hear Me? I don't want you to kill anybody. I'm against it, across the board. How many times do I have to say it? Don't kill each other anymore--ever! I'm fucking serious!" Upon completing His outburst, God fell silent, standing quietly at the podium for several moments. Then, witnesses reported, God's shoulders began to shake, and He wept. (Thanks to Tom Atlee * The Co-Intelligence Institute http://www.co-intelligence.org ) The message from God about the Sixth Commandment made me look at the other nine. I will make a brief comment about each one. What I'm sure of is that this reflection of natural law is much of the basis for all civil law. If only we could follow these simple admonitions: 1. "I am the Lord your G-d, Who has taken you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery" ( Take something as sacred and magical. The miracle and mystery that life is has it's source in some power greater than our tiny existence. We can honor that!) 2. "You shall have no other gods but me" ( This force, this glue that holds the universe together is deserving of our awe.) 3. "You shall not take the name of your Lord in vain" (Ditto) 4. "You shall remember and keep the Sabbath day holy" (We all need a rest and some reflection!) 5. "Honor your father and mother" (Sounds good to me, they gave you life.) 6. "You shall not kill (Yep) 6. MUSINGS Some random thoughts I feel compelled to express: 1. DC - I've wondered a great deal during the past year why I'm here in the Nations's Capital, the center of political and military action. Please help me discover specifuically why. If you have a suggestion for action, or an organization that needs help, or an individual please let me know! 2. Wisdom - Einstein said that we could not solve the world's challenges with existing technology or thought. We need to find new wisdom. I have been focused on letting go and forgiveness as a way above the diatribe of endless words and spin. So far so good. 3. Wake Up Call - Life will never be the same. No longer business as usual. How have you contributed to the solution, and what can you do? 4. No one has answers - For years I believed that there must be people looking at the global situation figuring out how to resolve all the systemic ailments of Gaia. We must make up our own personal solution. 5. Beyond political - Tony Blair said it well. This is not about the "ism's." It is time to let those anachronistic labels go. If the world is filled with terror the difference of which side of the fence you are on is qualitative. Everyone's life is compromised by the presence of terror. Domestically we are spending more for prisons than education. We ignore that fact at our peril! 6. Opportunity for human flowering - The four freedoms need to become our largest export 7. Good response by administration - I'm pleasantly surprised to say I am not displeased and have faith I would like to keep 8. The Education President - A great opportunity for W to continue his agenda internationally. 9. Non Partisian - let's see if the posturing and petty bickering can be kept down as this unfolds 10. Build on the oppenness and authenticity, closer to the bone - Authentic presence has been a by-product of shock and tragedy. Let's keep it alive, as a new way of being that takes the chill out of our technological society. 11. Power of the media and entertainment industry - This could be our secret weapon. In part violent imagry contributes to the violence in the world. We have the power to reprogram the world with new thinking and new role models. Will Hollywood ever wake up.? 12. Mission better than war - The idea of being in a "War" has bothered me. Everyone has said it will be different. War has the connotation of foot-soldiers and mortal combat. Yes, it is that, but I think we will win in the long run only if we capture minds, and that will be through education, not munitions. So let's call it our mision to rid the world of terrorism, not our war. 13. Distribution, not resource - I have always believed that the major systemic difficulty with the earth's sytems were distribution, not resources. We have all that we need by way of goods, technology, education, for everyone. Even where current technology won't solve problems we have the capacity for solutions if we are freed from other battles to provide resources. So, our task is to make sure everyone get's what they need. Yep, back to the four freedoms! 14. Battle for hearts and minds - bombs won't do it. See 12. 15. Bin Laden recruiting video - He is capturing hearts by praying on desperate people and giving them a selective story and a context that is one of many possibilities. See 11 to 13. 16. Agreement for Results - I read a piece the other day suggesting that we need clear objectives and benchmarks for the campaign to be successful. I agree. I like my 10 point agreement template and suggest all citizens of the planet make an agreement with themselves about what they will do for the cause. 2. ROLES: What role will you play in a transforming planet? 3. PROMISES: What are you willing to committ to do? 4. TIME / VALUE: How long will you do it? Will the end result sustain you continuing action? 5. MEASUREMENTS OF SATISFACTION: How will you know you/we were successful? 6. CONCERNS AND FEARS: What are you worried about in terms of the vision you have? 7. RENEGOTIATION / DISSOLUTION: Can you agree to be flexible and change your thinking as we move forward? 8. CONSEQUENCES: What will happen to you and others if you break your promises of action? 9. CONFLICT RESOLUTION: How will you resolve future conflicts as they come up? 10. AGREEMENT ? Are you resolved and resolute about your personal mission? 17. Ghandi - Ghandi said the it takes two to have a huge war, and only 1 to stop it. That's how he achieved India's independence. We need to quickly focus on ending the violence and creatingt a lasting peace. 18. Act Offensively - As opposed to "destroying terrorism" we must create a world in which four freedom's flourish. Focusing on the negative will only create more of it. We need to replace it with something positive. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
We have clearly been cursed with interesting times! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Author: Getting to Resolution |
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