(The Case for Life as a Mystical Scared Unfathomable Gift.) Part II
Leapin' Lizards and hotsmokin' Valley of Josaphat. Can you say 1984? Or is it 2012? There are Tiny Little Machines (huge inside) everywhere that record everything you do, want, buy, look at, say, write, text tweet and have.
But did you really think the government would make the decision that lipids are bad, latex is good, and begin to take charge of your children while you were still alive?
I want to explore why the recent move towards getting rid of the superstitious, dreamy, mystically stuff like religion is so important to some. but first: it's happy hour............ ok .I'm coming back here to put forth the idea of why some consider life to be Sacred.
The Case for Life as a Mystical Scared Unfathomable Gift:
Ask yourself, why the big debate over abortion? If you are 'only' 25 years old, that question evokes a COMPLETELY different set of neuron firings than if you are 50 or 70.
It is impossible to argue or discuss issues unless one is willing to listen; one wants to understand; one is not focused on persuading the other but in expanding understanding. Like, Margaret Meade was not trying to make the villagers buy a dishwasher to scald the bacteria off the plates. (Although in the case of throwing babies into volcanos, perhaps a quick diversion might be attempted...)
SO-- If one is a practicing Buddhist, or was raised a practicing Catholic, or studied many of the major and minor religions, Life is a concept of wonder to ponder respect poetecize value. [In fact, if one studies the Values associated with Life, it becomes even more complicated (part III)] But for now, Just consider Life. Meditate on Life. and here is a little film to assist embedded is the preview. The last 5 minutes of the film itself struck The Life in my very core.
"Obama’s Baffling Catholic Decision: Birth Control Trumps Religious Freedom
The administration claims its decision to force Catholic institutions to pay for insurance covering contraceptives is ‘balanced'—so why, when religious liberty was weighed against access to birth control, did freedom lose?"
So begins an editorial in The Daily Beast today addressing the issue recently shoved into the mainstream by the current U.S. administration: Shall the government interfere with the free exercise of religion?
I always thought this was an interesting topic since one's religion may ask for child sacrifice or multiple wives...
However, for a government to
specifically require a person or group to positively commit an act which the group has long considered immoral seems to go against the modern grain. I know workplaces that now allow for prayer facing towards Mecca 5 times a day. Kosher food is provided for those whose religion proscribes it (newt's smarmy lies regarding a Romney vote notwithstanding). Exemptions from many proscriptions are allowed for the Amish and the native American.
History, tradition, and common sense have played a role in exceptions.
My silly friend's "Church of the WALNUT" has a Don't Pay Taxes Rule that he will never get enforced...
But history, tradition and common sense are lately Out the Window, if you have not noticed, in a variety of areas.
Here is one fear:
Eradicating large swaths of culture, religious expression, and tradition can leave us barren as a society. Granted, we must continue to improve, groom, evolve, strive. The immoral, such a slavery, ownership of wives, abuse of children, hateful behavior toward groups, etc etc must be replaced by the moral. We move from violence towards nonviolence, from brute force to compassion, from Grudge to Forgiveness. But to try to forcefully eliminate ancient cultures' belief systems in the name of modernism is a bullying mistake at best, and a crazy grandiose power-grab which at worst is displayed throughout history in ugly violence we look back on now and examine with shaking heads.
I am reminded of a Kurt Vonnegut short story about equality, where if memory serves, the beautiful must wear bags over their heads and the fleet wear weights around their ankles, in order to eliminate individual differences... (Harrison Bergeron--1961
"THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General..."
But there is a bigger
issue/fear/sadness/factor here:
the value of life as a mystical, sacred, ineffable thing -- espoused by Buddhism, Christianity, and other traditions and religions-- is being lost in a dirty, watery, germy soup of politics, greed, powerlust, materialism and deception. I will express more about this tomorrow in PART II will link HERE
is life sacred? What if they told you you had to club baby seals?
The Daily Beast column referenced above goes on to make a few points being widely discussed in media, in excerpts here: "...It’s hard to escape the feeling that the Obama administration is trying to run America’s Catholic charities and institutions out of business. How else to explain the mean-spirited decision mandating that Catholic institutions be required to pay for health insurance that covers sterilization, contraceptives, and the “morning-after pill,” which violates their fundamental religious beliefs?
do you fight for your beliefs? write letters? boycott? Vote?
... The administration took religious liberty, a principle on which our country was founded, weighed it against access to contraception, and somehow in its bizarro math, religious freedom lost.
“The government knows that [most] employer-based insurance plans already cover these services,” Hannah Smith, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, tells me. “So it’s not about expanding contraceptive access. It’s about forcing religious-based organizations to provide this against their beliefs.” The writer, Kirsten Powers, goes on to say, "I’m not Catholic. I support contraception. But this is madness. The administration wants to remind us of their benevolence: they are giving institutions with religious objections a whole year to implement a government rule that violates the core tenets of their faith. Gee, thanks!
“In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences,” Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops told The Washington Post....
The administration has to know this, so why would it force the hand of Catholic institutions that have traditionally filled in the gaps in social services that the government failed to provide? The people who will suffer if they close their doors are the poor, refugees, the homeless, orphans, and the elderly.
Smith points out that the administration has provided exemptions for the Amish and Native American tribes, so why not an exemption for Catholic institutions?
Regardless of how the courts rule, the administration has planted its flag on the wrong side of history on this issue. The government’s disregard for the fundamental right of freedom of religion is chilling and should cause all Americans concern...
