Response to Thomas Merton’s Letter

I have just read Thomas Merton’s letter to a young activist. Though I am far from a young activist, I found it interesting and have some responses to it. There us some good counsel here. There are however a few things that I would like to elaborate on.

Mother Earth – Protecting her

Gaia is the creative and protective goddess of mother earth. Worship of her is relatively simple – protect mother earth and keep her safe, because she is the only home that you have.

If we go back into pre-history, we find that the very earliest faiths that mankind had were nature based. We see evidence of this in the surviving beliefs of our native peoples. They regularly speak peacefully and quietly of their reverence for mother nature.

Where are we going?

The World we live in

It is not unusual for people to analyze the state of the world in their generation – and to find it in a state of troubling change. The difference today is that the change is happening faster than ever before in human history.

Israel-Palestine: Response to Robert Sibley op-ed

Click the "Read more" link below to view my response to the following opinion piece in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper.

Link: "Obama sets the stage for another war in the Middle East" by Robert Sibley

Presumably Barack Obama will return his Nobel Peace Prize now that he’s created the conditions for another Middle East war.

Religion: Reflections on Jesus

The parables, sayings and teachings of Jesus are moving and penetrating, but if it were not for the way that Jesus died we would probably not be still reading these stories today. There were many wisdom teachers wandering about the Middle East in his day. Much of his sayings and teaching can be found in other sources. He was also not unique in being a wisdom teacher with a band of followers, though the manner in which he put the old stories together and presented them was obviously forceful. He was also a healer though even in this he was not unique. Many healers plied the land, for organized medical services were rare then and people had to rely on itinerant healers when they passed by.

Syria: A witch's brew

How can we understand Syria? How far back in history should we go?

Let’s start with the Sykes-Picot agreement between the UK and France which divided up the area during the First World War in 1916. France got control of Syria, without of course any consultation with the Syrians who were then part of the crumbling Ottoman empire. Local dissatisfaction with this arrangement is still alive and emerging today.

Hafez al Assad, the father of Bashar al Assad ruled Syria for 30 years (1971-2000). In 1982 he put down civil unrest in Hama with a bloody massacre in which an estimated 20,000 people were killed.
“The 1982 massacre is regarded as the single bloodiest assault by an Arab ruler against his own people in modern times and remains a pivotal event in Syrian history” (The Guardian).

Later when another peaceful civil uprising in Deraa occurred in 2011, Bashar al Assad used the same brutal force as his father to suppress this. This was the beginning of the civil war that is now raging throughout Syria.

The Bashar al Assad regime now counts on the support of three outside powers.

Religion & Society: “Fields of Blood; Religion and the History of Violence” by Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong is a giant in the history of religion. It is hard to believe that she served for 6 years as a Catholic nun. Her many books have spanned all of the major world religions. Her latest work can help us to understand the recent rise of religiously motivated violence. This is why I read Fields of Blood; Religion and the History of Violence. I am trying to better comprehend to the rise of the Islamic State in the Middle East.

Development: Living in a world of affluence

I am incredibly privileged. I have never known hunger. If I fall ill medical services are available. I have had opportunities to study and work. I am surrounded by electronic gadgets that make my life comfortable and interesting. I can speak out freely. I can travel without hindrance... and so the list goes on and on.