[lit-ideas] Re: FW: Read and pass...Fwd. 'Stay the Course!' is not enough
- From: Eternitytime1@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005 01:09:46 EST
Hi,
Of course, don't blame only Christians, for it's the End of Days...from many
faiths.
I'm reading The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple
Mount. (by Gershom Gorenberg) It is totally fascinating.
So, many points of view...and I looked at the "emergent Christian community"
blogs, too. They are discussing how people DID talk about such things after
9/11--trying to find meaning, etc. and wondering why so few on the blog
world are not doing so--for most of them are doing what many folk are: telling
each other where to send $$ for aid. (and ALL the main and not-so-main
churches are doing that...btw. Let's not lump everyone all together...please.)
Musing,
Marlena in Missouri
From Calcutta: The Telegraph
Issue Date: Friday, December 31, 2004
To God, an age-old question
London, Dec. 30 (Reuters): It is one of the oldest, most profound questions,
posed by some of the most learned minds of every faith throughout the course
of human history.
It was put eloquently this week by an old woman in a devastated village in
southern Indiaâ??s Tamil Nadu. â??Why did you do this to us, God?â?? she
wailed. â??
What did we do to upset you?â??
Perhaps no event in living memory has confronted the worldâ??s great religions
with such a basic test of faith as this weekâ??s tsunami, which
indiscriminately slaughtered Indonesian Muslims, Indians of all faiths, Thai
and Sri Lankan
Buddhists and tourists who were Christians and Jews.
In temples, mosques, churches and synagogues across the globe, clerics are
being called upon to explain: How could a benevolent God visit such horror on
ordinary people?
Traditionalists of diverse faiths described the destruction as part of godâ??s
plan, proof of his power and punishment for human sins.
â??This is an expression of Godâ??s great ire with the world,â?? Israeli chief
rabbi Shlomo Amar said.
Pandit Harikrishna Shastri, a priest of New Delhiâ??s Birla temple said the
disaster was caused by a â??huge amount of pent-up man-made evil on earthâ??
and
driven by the positions of the planets.
Azizan Abdul Razak, a Muslim cleric and vice president of Malaysiaâ??s Islamic
opposition party, Parti Islam se-Malaysia, said the disaster was a reminder
from god that â??he created the world and can destroy the worldâ??.
Many faiths believe disasters foretell the end of time or the coming of a
Messiah. Some Christians expect chaos and destruction as foretold in the
Bibleâ??
s final book, Revelations. Maria, a 32-year-old Jehovahâ??s Witness in Cyprus
who believes that the apocalypse is coming said people who once slammed the
door in her face were stopping to listen.
â??It is a sign of the last days,â?? she said.
But for others, such calamities can prompt a repudiation of faith.
Secularist Martin Kettle wrote in Britainâ??s Guardian newspaper that the
tsunamis
should force people to â??ask if the God can exist that can do such things?â??
â?? or
if there is no God, just nature.
â??This poses no problem for the scientific belief system. Here, it says, was
a mindless natural event which destroyed Muslim and Hindu alike,â?? he wrote.
â??
A non-scientific belief system, especially one that is based on any kind of
notion of a divine order, has some explaining to do, however.â??
It is a question that clergy have to deal with nearly every day, not just at
times of great catastrophe but when providing consolation for the daily
sorrows of life, said US Rabbi Daniel Isaak, of Congregation Neveh Shalom, in
Portland, Oregon. â??It is really difficult to believe in a God that not only
creates a tsunami that kills 50 or 60 thousand people, but that puts birth
defects in children,â?? he said.
In one modern view, he said, God does not interfere in the affairs of his
creation. â??This is not something that God has done. The world has certain
imperfections built into the natural order, and we have to live with them. The
issue isnâ??t â??Why did God do this to us?â?? but â??How do we human beings
care for
one another?â?? â??
(http://www.telegraphindia.com/1041231/asp/others/print.html#top)
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