I have gazed up into the beautiful, massive cathedrals in Europe, touched by their history and their amazing gothic and Romanesque architecture. I have felt stirred by the centuries of people who have come to offer their allegiance to the only image of God that they knew--having not thought to question the religious stories and dogma. And I have been struck by the fact that hardly anyone actually worships in these cathedrals anymore, a fact that Mitt Romney despairs about.
Today in his Texas based speech the Presidential candidate said: "I have visited many of the magnificent cathedrals in Europe. They are so inspired ... so grand ... so empty," he said. "So many of the cathedrals now stand as the postcard backdrop to societies just too busy or too 'enlightened' to venture inside and kneel in prayer."
It has not occurred to Mr. Romney that in the spiritual evolution of human beings, many in modern day generations have moved beyond the mythic religions of old. It has not occurred to Mr. Romney that we can be very spiritual without buying the Christology mythos. That we can pray, expressing our deepest human longings, gratitudes, and wonder, without praying to a decider God. Today many thoughtful people ponder different conceptions of the power in this universe, the power and forces that support life and at times strike life dead. Many people have put aside the anthropomorphic, ego filled controlling bitchy God, for a more complex and mysterious wonder about it all.
No Mr. Romney, it is not about being too busy...it's about having a different life experience and perception than you. And that's ok, we don't have to agree, as long as you don't become President and make this country a theocracy--taking us back to the middle ages.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Washington State Pharmacy ruling
The Washington State Pharmacy Board made a ruling a few months ago, that a pharmacist could refuse to fill a prescription if it offended his/her religious convicitions, providing another pharmacist on site could fill it. This most often involves prescriptions for birth control, emergency contraception, and AIDS medicines.
Last month a federal district judge issued a temporary injunction against the ruling following litigation brought by a small number of pharmacists who objected to the rule based on the right of religious refusal. Many of us in the faith communities of our state believe that to be a bad decision, and will be speaking out against the injunction. If you become a pharmacist, your profession is all about following carefully doctors' orders. You have no right to usurp those orders with your need to control other people's values and behaviors. Not in my mind, anyway. We'll see how this goes...the hearings that led up the Pharmacy Board's ruling clearly showed that the majority of citizens expected pharmacists to do their job and not try to play God, or M.D.iety, or whatever they are trying to play--autocrat, dictator...this is exactly why we must support a spiritually liberal religion so that the institutions of spiritually liberal religion can be strong and vital, and have a voice to counter those who would make this country a theocracy.
But I don't have any strong feelings about this....watch for my name on a newspaper ad full of names of interfaith clergy speaking out for the rights of people to get their prescriptions filled, for God's sake!
Last month a federal district judge issued a temporary injunction against the ruling following litigation brought by a small number of pharmacists who objected to the rule based on the right of religious refusal. Many of us in the faith communities of our state believe that to be a bad decision, and will be speaking out against the injunction. If you become a pharmacist, your profession is all about following carefully doctors' orders. You have no right to usurp those orders with your need to control other people's values and behaviors. Not in my mind, anyway. We'll see how this goes...the hearings that led up the Pharmacy Board's ruling clearly showed that the majority of citizens expected pharmacists to do their job and not try to play God, or M.D.iety, or whatever they are trying to play--autocrat, dictator...this is exactly why we must support a spiritually liberal religion so that the institutions of spiritually liberal religion can be strong and vital, and have a voice to counter those who would make this country a theocracy.
But I don't have any strong feelings about this....watch for my name on a newspaper ad full of names of interfaith clergy speaking out for the rights of people to get their prescriptions filled, for God's sake!
Chimps Are Champs!
Today Japanese researchers reported that the commonly held belief that humans are smarter than other animals may not be true. Actually, I haven't thought it was true for a long time. There are many kinds of "smart" and humans are lower on many of them. Most animals and other life forms take only what they need to survive. Most animals do not kill except to breed and eat and keep enough territory to live. What do we do? We kill because others don't agree with our mythic stories, and the rules we have created from them. We kill and invade other countries for our selfish economic needs, or I should say, the economic needs of the people who benefit from the military industrial complex...people like our Vice President and his Haliburton buddies. But I digress....
Tesuro Matsuzawa of Kyoto University has been studying the mental abilites of chimps. Five year old chimps competed with college students in a task of seeing and memorizing numbers flashed on a screen. The conclusion, as the time of the flashing of the numbers decreased to four-tenths or two-tenths of a second, the chimp was the champ. The chimp was better at taking in the whole pattern of numbers at a glance.
Humans may be better at language, but we are also arrogant. So many animals are high in intelligence--emotional intelligence, community building intelligence, cross species intelligence. It is time for us to leave our tribal consciousness and consider the needs of the other species, to consider how our dumbness is affecting their survival, and to consider what we can learn from them. How about it?
Tesuro Matsuzawa of Kyoto University has been studying the mental abilites of chimps. Five year old chimps competed with college students in a task of seeing and memorizing numbers flashed on a screen. The conclusion, as the time of the flashing of the numbers decreased to four-tenths or two-tenths of a second, the chimp was the champ. The chimp was better at taking in the whole pattern of numbers at a glance.
Humans may be better at language, but we are also arrogant. So many animals are high in intelligence--emotional intelligence, community building intelligence, cross species intelligence. It is time for us to leave our tribal consciousness and consider the needs of the other species, to consider how our dumbness is affecting their survival, and to consider what we can learn from them. How about it?
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