The
Legacy of GOD: I just returned from our morning walk. The wind is from the north west and the
clouds have separated enough to expose patches of clear blue sky. The morning
sun, skipping across the puffy balls of cotton laces each with a brilliant halo.
As I stand by the shore, with my arms stretched into the sky I am overwhelmed
with the love of GOD's creation. What a gift it is to share in the abundance of
life on this precious jewel of a planet. What a blessing it is to have the
intelligence to care for it. What an awesome responsibility it is to be a member
of the only species that has the power to destroy it.
Like many who have gained a personal understanding about life on earth that
is fundamental to their being, I would love to share my "knowing" with
my fellow humans. Family, friends, even complete strangers, could benefit from
the perspective that my study of creation has given me. I want to stand on a
mountaintop and shout it out to the world! Until I remember the cages of
Münster.
The
Legacy of MAN: In 1534, when
a group of Anabaptists took control of the city of Münster they wanted to help
god institute a completely new order by making their religious practices
obligatory, private property was abolished and polygamy was instituted based on
the precedents in the Old Testament. After some success in enforcing their rule
they were besieged and overthrown by Catholic forces and the leaders were
tortured to death and their corpses hung in cages against the stain glass of the
church for all to see.
The corpses are long gone but the cages remain as a grisly reminder that what
one religion, organization, group or individual believes to be self evident is
not necessarily self evident for others. We must always seek the fine balance between
sharing our own understanding and respecting the understanding of others, even
if we feel that it is misguided, ignorant, or just plain wrong. As we impose our
values, political or religious beliefs on others without giving them a chance to
discover, or live within, their own framework of understanding, we step onto the
slippery slope to tyranny.
No matter how hard it may be to see those around us, even those we love as
family, desecrate all that is sacred to us, we must restrain our influence to
that of living by example and sharing our personal experience and refrain from
brow beating each other into submission. If we don't, then sooner or later some
of us will end up rotting in cages, suspended from the arches of stain windows
in churches, or nailed to the crosses of insecurity and fear.
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