Everyday on my way into work I pass a billboard that says "What this nation needs is an awakening to God". I'm sorry, I could not disagree more. What our nation needs, as well as the world as a whole, is a voice of reason. All we see on any of the news networks or in print are the stories of the extremists on either side, this is what is polarizing society as a whole, not just politically in our country, but in nations and societies around the world. There are roughly 1.5 billion Muslims in the world as well as Christians. Combined that is half of the world's population. Now for me to sit here and say that every Muslim in the world has evil intentions is rather ridiculous. We can take the Bush Administrations position with that they saved America from further attacks from Al Qaeda, but we will never know. What we do know is that there were attacks in Spain and England that Al Qaeda was responsible for. Please notice I said Al Qaeda, not Muslims. Lets say that Al Qaeda has 1 million recruits out of the 1.5 billion Muslims inhabiting this planet. If that were the case, only 0.067% of the Islamic population would be a true terror threat, I don't know about you, but I feel comfortable with those odds. But this is what we are doing with that percentage. We continue to live in fear nearly a decade after the SECOND attack on the World Trade Center, we give up our rights with the Patriot Act, we allow our fellow citizens to be groped at TSA checkpoints in airports because it is a "necessity" and we are publicly voicing our opposition to the freedom of religion. Now let's flip the script; Americans in general are viewed as unethical heathens by the extremists, like Al Qaeda. They believe we have no morals to live by, and how can we blame them with the crap running on MTV? Now, we have extremists over here just like our cohorts do in the Middle East. Look at the crazy parishioners of Westboro Baptist Church that protest funerals of dead soldiers because they feel that our country tolerates homosexuality. Look at the door to door sales people trying to sell you on their beliefs when you're at home watching daytime television. Look at Waco, Texas 18 years ago this week with David Koresh. All of these Americans went, and go, to an extreme to defend their way of life and faith. One of the great things about our country is we can agree to disagree and at times we should leave it at that. Religion and faith should be a personal and spiritual relationship that you have with whatever greater being you pray, meditate, worship or sacrifice to. We ALL have this luxury in this nation and is secured under the First Amendment to the Constitution of these United States that the government shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. You may say that our nation was founded on Christian values. Christians got their values from Judaism, so is it safe to say that we are a Jewish state? The Ten Commandments are shared by both religions and the Koran has its own set of rules to live by as well comparable to the Ten Commandments.
The point I'm trying to get to with this rant is that we are all inhabitants on this planet living in a symbiotic relationship amongst each other. We need each other's cooperation to truly live in peace and harmony. Don't let yourself get blinded by the negativity out there. There is always good around you. Show your goodness to the world, do good by your standards and as it says in Ecclesiastes 3:17 God shall judge the righteous and the wicked. So if you don't go to church or you don't have the same beliefs as your neighbors, don't let them judge you, if they're judging you, they're being hypocritical to their scripture. They are free to believe what they want, we cannot take that human right away, but if they truly believe in the scripture, they will have to atone for the judgement they just passed on.
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