Intolerance is just so intolerable . . .

So I'm perusing the New York Times Online and I come across two articles that I find very interesting.  The first is an article about a student group in Panama City, FL that is atheist.  The article goes on to point out that the group gets along quite well with the other Christian groups in the school and there hasn't been much tension.  This article makes me feel good.  I wish I could say I would have been like that as the head of my High School's Bible Study Group but I cannot.  I was a Bible thumping Jesus humper that was as intolerant of any who questioned the faith.  I would have gone ballistic on this group with many fire and brimstone sermons (I was studying to be a minister, for those that know me now that is a bit amusing) and made a fool of myself.

As I was pondering this outcome had such a thing happened when I came across an article about this guy.  The poster boy of intolerance today.  This is the yahoo who had a trial and burned the Koran.  I haven't been following the news much lately and I had heard about the protests in Afghanistan but I had no clue it was due to this yutz in Florida.  I felt a little bit better about myself because while my "high school self" would have made a big show and mostly made myself look like an uneducated hick I wouldn't have caused an international incident.  I'm sure this guy's mother is so proud.  (Sadly, if she still is alive she probably is . . .)  But after I mellowed out in college I discovered that I should really learn about the things I'm criticizing.  This lead me to studying religion.  Since then I have studied many religions and I find all of them fascinating.  Not least of which is Islam.  To find that someone is so shortsighted to think that the Koran breeds violence is someone who has not read the Koran.  Extremists are only a very small fraction of the Muslim faith.  Thinking the Koran breeds violence and all Muslims are extremists is like saying that the Bible hates homosexuals and all Christians agree with Westboro Baptist Church.  (Don't even get me started on these guys.  I respect their rights, but I wouldn't mind if the Hell's Angels broke their protective wall and roughed them up a bit.)  I digress.  I am a Christian.  I'm proud to be one, but I also proudly display my Koran and my Torah next to my Bible.  What I find interesting though, they all seem to say the same thing.  Just saying.

I also recognize that I am being intolerant to these people.  The schmuck down in Florida and Westboro, I'm being intolerant of their beliefs.  I understand that they do what they do because they are just as angry toward their objects of derision as I am of them.  I see the hypocrisy of it all.  And it drives me bananas.  It doesn't change the fact that I think they are wrong.  It is my right to think they are wrong.  Am I going to protest one of their funerals because I believe they are wrong?  No.  Will I burn the official church Bible of the schlemiel who burned the Koran?  No.  I voice my opinion, I make my case and I hope I reach someone out there.  That is all I can do.

But it makes me feel really good that there are these school groups in Panama City that are getting along despite their own religious and philosophical beliefs.  Growing up I really took to heart the saying, "You can't really know a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes."  It is very important to me to view all sides of an argument before I make judgement.  Not to mention, as a Christian, I believe it is not my place to make judgement.  That is the Big Man's job, not mine.

Sorry to be all schmaltzy and philosophical in these past few posts.  It's what I think about.  Soon you will probably get a superficial post about the new Captain America movie.  I try and keep it fresh.                

So it has been a few months . . . .

 . . . to say the least.  I have been very busy lately.  Not the best excuse but it is all I have.  It must be something about this time of year I start thinking about mortality.  It could be because of all those I have lost in my life, for the most part, have gone in Spring.  True to form soon after I wrote I Don't Know Why I Can't Help Myself we had to say good-bye to our cat Moe.  He was handicapped and because of this he had a urinary blockage and we didn't catch it in time.  It was very difficult for us, especially me, because I knew something was wrong but I thought it wasn't as bad as it was.  I put off taking him to the vet just one day and I can't help but think it would have made the difference.  The vet said as much.  It was very hard for me to watch him go.

To continue the cheer fest about three weeks ago we had to say good-bye to our puppy Sylvia.  And I don't use the term "puppy" as in a term of endearment.  She was just a year old.  Her kidneys failed.  What made this even more difficult was the fact that she was such a good dog.  Again, I'm not saying this as bias.  While there is some as she was my dog I can honestly say she was the best dog I have ever had.  The vet was crying as she pushed in the poison because she had come to love this dog (through multiple hospitalizations Sylvia was forced to endure due to her condition).  I'm still having a hard time with it.

I know, she was just a dog.  But she was my dog.  When I would come home she would jump in my lap and climb up behind my head, and after licking the back of my head for what seemed like an hour, she would put her head on my shoulder and fall asleep while I watched TV or played a video game.  I miss that.  I miss her putting her paws up on our bed because she wanted help up.  (Then later the same day she would jump from the floor behind the couch directly to the back of the couch like it was nothing.)  And most of all I'm going to miss dancing with her.  I would pick her up and hold her while I would sway.  It was how I would get her to sleep when she was really little.  I could still do it up until the end.

Just a dog.  My dog . . . .