CAUTION: The following may be offensive. It talks about God
and politics, but hopefully not in the same breath.
I got this from a person in my family whom I love and respect because they live
their lives in a way I think is good and honorable. I don't always agree with
them but we tolerate such disagreements in each other. I'm passing it on for
informational purposes and my own personal opinions. My opinions are in
italics.
Don't know whether you
know who Ben Stein is or not but he certainly shows a lot of wisdom in this
article that he recited on CBS. He has hosted a game show on TV and is an actor
who has been in several TV shows and movies.
Ben Stein's wisdom
The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday
Morning Commentary, Sunday, 12/18/05.
Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating
heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on
the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits
and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They
never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change
my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they
so important?
I agree with Ben and couldn't give a rat's patootie about Lohan and Cruise!
By the way, I don’t go to their movies or buy their CDs (if that’s what they
do.)
I don't know who Lindsay
Lohan is either, and I do not care at all about
Tom Cruise's wife.
Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a
subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are.
If this is what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad.
Youth,
in and of itself, is not really so bad except maybe for the inexperience.
Ignorance, which crosses all ages, races and religions, is what gets us into a
lot of trouble, a lot.
Next confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does
not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up,
bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel
discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.
I agree here too! It's good to see people practicing their religion ... if
that is what the Christmas season is all about. Passover’s fun too since it
involves a very varied and informative meal, which tells the story of the first
Passover.
It doesn't bother me a
bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I
don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a
ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers
and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at
all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near
my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine
with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.
I think it's great to see a mezuzah on a doorway of a Jewish family's home.
To me, it means they pray for everyone who passes through their doorway either
into or out of their home. Menorah's are nice at Passover too.
Do you have a mezuzah on your “beach house in Malibu”
Ben? I apologize for the sarcasm (or is
it irony?) but anyone with a bhiM (for beach house in Malibu)
is a bit beyond my ken as a commentator on the habits and celebrations of most
of the rest of us. Keep talking about Lindsay and Tom, Ben, you’re more
familiar with them though you do proclaim ignorance!
I don't
like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think
Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians.
Who's pushing Christians around these days? Our President declares himself
one and we know no one pushes him around, right?
I think
people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around,
period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an
explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution, and I
don't like it being shoved down my throat.
There's nothing in the Constitution about the United States being atheist, nor
is there anything about the United States being Jewish or Moslem or anything
else. You see, that's the point, we all get to choose our own path, even if
it's no path or a path that no one else understands, likes, agrees with, or God
forbid, really thinks is a path at all!
Or maybe
I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we
should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as
we understand Him?
Dear Ben, Worship whom you want to worship. That's the point!
I guess
that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.
Ben, we're all getting old. A cool dude once said and sang "He not busy
being born is busy dying." Getting old is not a problem. Getting stupid
is.
But
there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came
from and where the America we knew went to.
The United States never went anywhere. Times have changed and so have some
of us. And some of us have not. I'll leave you to figure out who is who and
what is what for yourself. It's your right...as a citizen of these United
States. “Oh there’s that darn Constitution again!”
In light
of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a
little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny,
it's intended to get you thinking.
Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane
Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this Happen?"
(regarding Katrina)
Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She
said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for
years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of
our government and to get out of our lives.
It is hard to believe that a person of God would attribute to God the same
faults and vices of a mere human being. God is NOT a gentleman, that’s an
insult, God is God, no matter how you say it,”Allah, Jehovah, Sat Nam, it's all
the same.” As a song I know says it. I
guess it is one of the reasons we try to anthropomorphize God and give God
human qualities, because we really don't (or don't want to) understand God.
And being the gentleman
He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How
can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we
demand He leave us alone?"
God blesses and protects ALL of us, no matter how high or how low. God loves
us equally, it is what makes God God. What separates us from God is our
conscious rejection of that love and protection in the form of sins such as
hatred and abusiveness, greed and desire, and not caring for others or the
world around us.
In light
of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I
think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her
body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools,
and we said OK.
Sorry Ben, but you are not thinking at all, you’re ranting for the TV
cameras. Terrorism is not O'Hare's fault; neither is it the fault of the
judge who barred prayer in school (no matter what kind of prayer it was ...
Christian, Catholic, Protestant, Unitarian, Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh,
Ba'hai, Sufi, and on and on and on); terrorism is not even the Nazi's fault for
slaughtering so many Jews that as a people they have vowed "Never
again"; it is not even the fault of the stupid Empire-building Brits and
their knuckle dragging colonial policies which hacked up the Middle East and
Africa and India leaving behind the seeds of interracial, intertribal and
interreligious warfare. (Other European countries were guilty as well only not
on such a grand scale because they got started later.) Terrorism is our own
lack of justice and sharing of this world in a way that we all can live in
dignity with each other. Some of us would rather be not only richer but inexplicably
richer; Some of us would rather hog a larger share of the resources available
for our own comfort (I'm not criticizing the U.S. specifically here though we
do share the largest burden. See for instance a ski resort set up indoors in a
certain oil rich Arab emirate—thirty degrees inside, 120 degrees outside.)
As for the school shootings, Ben I suggest you hark back to the good old days
when we teased and taunted those who were different, even though they were only
a little different. It was enough to call them names and isolate them. Luckily,
kids in our day had no access to guns, just sticks, stones and random meanness
with which to strike back at their tormentors.
Then
someone said you better not read the Bible in school the Bible says
thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as
yourself. And we said OK.
Never heard anyone say it was OK to do all these things (sins) but I do see
lots more violence on tv and in the movies. I wonder what that accomplishes ...
oh yeah, profits.
Then Dr.
Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they
misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we
might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We
said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.
We agreed with Art Linkletter too didn't we, Ben, even though his son's
death was similarly tragic. Did anyone blame Art for what his son did to
himself? Don’t knock the Doc. He helped a lot of new
parents after the war in Europe to deal compassionately with the baby boom.
Now we're asking
ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they
don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill
strangers, their classmates, and themselves.
Why, I ask, aren't parents educating their kids about religion and their
belief (or disbelief) in a God. Why do they want the schools to do that? Are
they too lazy to do it? Is their faith so weak they cannot inform their
children about it? If you don't want your children to kill anyone, tell them
its wrong, live that law like you mean it, criticize those whom you think are
doing it and tell your children exactly what is wrong. They'll believe you, you
are their parents.
Probably,
if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it
out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE
SOW."
Dear Ben: Please don't drag the Bible into your political diatribes. Or, do
you think all those bombs and bullets we are sowing in Iraq will come back to
bite us one day? Or have they already?
Funny how simple it is
for people to trash God and then wonder why the
world's going to hell.
Sorry to say, Ben you really can't "trash God" because that is why
God is God. God's untrashable. All we can do is squeak like black birds
fighting over road kill. God, thank God, is above all that. God just loves.
Funny how
we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the
Bible says.
I'm afraid we question the Bible too, and the Koran and the Vedas, and the
Upanishads, and the Diamond Sutra, and Jap-ji, ... it's our human nature to
question the words of God simply because we are all too human. And if we don't
question them, then some of us will twist them to suit our own misguided
intentions and opinions. If you “GOOGLE” Fred Phelps or Hamas you’ll see what I
mean.
Funny how
you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like
wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people
think twice about sharing.
Nope, wrong, lots of inspiring stuff gets through. In fact I think I get
more inspiring stuff than the other kind, really. Must be the folks I hang
with. Thank God!
Funny how
lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through
cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and
workplace.
Hey Ben, you wanna discuss God? E mail me at kpurkakhalsa@kc.rr.com I'd be
happy to have a conversation about my beliefs and hear yours, honest!
Are you
laughing?
Yes, God wants me to laugh each day in addition to a little sweat from some
hard work!
Funny how
when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on
your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what
they will think of you for sending it.
Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us
than what God thinks of us.
God loves me, Period, end of story. I trust that and that God will forgive
me all my transgressions, many though they may be!
Karta Purkh Khalsa
