Blog
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
A bill currently pending in the Ohio state legislature has resulted in statements that, if it becomes law, students would be allowed to give “wrong” answers in class should scientific findings conflict with their religious beliefs. One opponent was quoted as saying that if a student gave a biblically based answer of 6,000 years as the age of the earth, a teacher would be forced to accept it. Others have made similar charges.
TOLERANCE
As time went on and more people criticized others in my presence, I started worrying more and more about what others thought of me. After all, the persons being criticized had no idea they were sinning so dramatically. If they were blissfully clueless of their wild indiscretions, how could I know if I ever was accidentally committing some?
SCIENTOLOGY RELIGION
When I moved from a small town in upstate New York to the San Francisco Bay area at the age of 11, I found myself at the beginning of a cultural revolution. A few miles away, the hippie movement was getting started in the hills above Palo Alto. Although I was oblivious to it in the first couple of years after the move, it became obvious as time went on:
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
And now just a few short weeks later, all of us suddenly find ourselves searching for faith elsewhere than where the signs and marquees direct us. But faith needs no seats, no altar, no stained-glass windows, no doors nor even walls.
TOLERANCE
Those of my generation recall the stories we were told that got us hooked on cigarettes. One-minute commercials told women they’d “come a long way baby,” and they deserved the same rights as men. (The primary withheld right apparently being the right to die an early death.) Men were shown one-minute stories about lone cowboys, riding the range, and lighting up a Marlboro—something manly men just do. The power of story led, at least in part, to millions of men and women’s lives being cut short.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
A friend of mine who lived among the native Inuits of far Northern Canada told me that if a person in the community, through his or her behavior, attitude and refusal to change, had now become a liability to others, he would simply “disappear” for the community. People would literally no longer see, communicate or acknowledge the person in any way, shape or form, even if he was standing right there. He would literally cease to exist, as far as the community went. Then, once he got his act together, people would once again see and acknowledge him.
TOLERANCE
If you’re about my age, maybe you grew up thinking that World War III would be fought between the U.S. and the Soviets… little did you know.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
A poll found that 82% of Americans feel that it is very important for Christians to be allowed to practice freely, while only 61% reported that Muslims deserved religious freedom.
TOLERANCE
Perhaps it was reticence or a lack of confidence in my young self that John seized upon, but his reaction was instant. He jumped on my offer with the fervor of an offended politician.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
The very bottom of the money-making barrel, in my mind, would be selling drugs or people. I don’t know whether Ortega has done the former, but he has definitely had a big hand in the latter.
