Subscribe
Jobs
Cars
Real Estate
Apts
Classifieds
Shop
Whenever I drive by a construction site where thousands and even hundreds of thousands of dollars are being spent on building or remodeling a church or temple or mosque or cathedral, I find myself asking, “How many human lives balanced precariously on the threshold of death could be rescued if those same funds were used to buy food and medicine, rather than being spent on a structure for those who feel a need for public worship?”
True to my nature, I find myself seeking an answer to the moral dilemma: “Which is more spiritually correct – spending money to perhaps save some unknown lives sometime in the future or spending that same money to keep starving and/or ailing people alive today? Which is the more important “right to life”?
We humans are very social animals. We feel a need to be accepted as a part of our group, or our faith, or our clan, or our tribe. And we have this compulsion “to be right” about our beliefs, our outlooks and our opinions. We become very wary of others who think or believe differently from the way we do. However, each one of us has quite different life experiences. Yet, our life experiences are what shape our outlooks on life.
I think back to the time of Jesus (who was hated by many of the religious leaders of his day), who advised those who felt the need to worship (which at that time consisted primarily of saying ritualistic prayers) to go into a closet to pray. Too, I think of his very first beatitude, “Blessed are the poor in spirit (the non-religious), for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.” I believe Jesus was trying to tell us that our “true religion”’ is reflected not by our public worship habits or our rituals or by what we say we believe or how many times we say it. But rather, our “true religion” is reflected in the way we treat our fellow man on an everyday basis.
Then I pause and wonder, “If every parent taught every child that God’s No. 1 commandment is for us to love others – regardless of their gender or faith or nationality or race or whatever – as much as we love ourselves, what this world could be like in just another generation or two?”
E. GENE GORRELL Fremont
