Email in These Times...

Email in These Times


Ignorance breeds fear, fear breeds hatred, hatred breeds anger, anger breeds violence. It’s been so since the dawn of time.

Never before has humanity been so connected. We receive news from all over the world in seconds. We can talk and exchange ideas with people all across the world, with a simple keystroke. Yet, we don’t listen to each other. At no point in previous history have we had an opportunity to really change the world for the better, as we have today.

It all started with an email I received from someone that I’ve loved and respected my entire life. It was one of those “forward to all of your friends” emails that everyone gets in their inboxes. This email was regarding a “Muslim stamp” being issued by Barack Obama to commemorate “some Muslim holiday”. It goes on to say that this stamp should be boycotted. After all, the president didn’t even participate in the National Day of Prayer! Gasp! If you buy this stamp you are a bad Christian and unpatriotic!

As it is with most of these emails, facts aren’t exactly important. Anybody could “Google” Muslim Stamp and get the facts on it, if they took the time. However, that fear and hate thing takes over and it gets forwarded over and over, regardless of the truth.

Had anyone actually done this, they would find that factcheck.org, snopes.com, urbanlegends.com, hoaxslayer.com and breakthechain.org ALL debunked this email. First of all, it wasn’t Obama that issued this stamp, it was issued in 2001 by George W. Bush to reach out to American Muslims and honoring two of their sacred holidays, Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr (the day following Ramadan) and was part of a SERIES of stamps by the postal service called “Holiday Celebration Series”, celebrating the observance of all the religions of the USA. How unpatriotic! We wouldn’t want to celebrate the fact that our country was founded on religious diversity and tolerance!

The Christian aspect of it is equally disturbing. It goes on to list the attacks by terrorists on Pan Am flight 103, 9-11, etc. Yet, instead of stating terrorist attacks, it was the Muslims. Not a group of fanatic Muslims, not Al Qaida, or Hamas, or Hezbollah…but the entire religion. Glass houses, anyone? I can only assume that if the entire religion is responsible for all of these atrocities, then Christians are willing to take the sins of their fanatic groups upon themselves. Judge not, lest ye be judged.

Christianity has been used to justify a myriad of atrocities, from the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition and witch burnings, to modern day abortion clinic bombers. There’s the God fearing Timothy McVeigh who killed hundreds of innocent people and those that to this day, justify discrimination based on faith. Trust me, nobody wants to throw those stones.

I guess I must have missed the exception clause when Jesus said, “Love one another, as I have loved you.”

But, it isn’t just about this email or the thousands of others like it. It’s about hatred and in many cases it’s an irrational hatred. Ignorance and fear breed irrational hatred and so is the case here. Now understand that the definition of ignorance is much different than being stupid. As my father said as I was growing up, “ignorance is chosen, dumb is forever.” It’s not the fact that they don’t know, it’s the fact that they don’t WANT to know. There is no quest for the truth. They never ask “is this true? “ before hitting that forward button. It fits into their view, whether justified or not, and it gets spread far and wide. Ignorance begets ignorance.

If there was an honest effort to understand each other, learn the basis of other beliefs we would find that the things that we have in common far outweigh the things we differ on. But, we don’t listen, we don’t ask questions, we assume (there’s another quote from my father on that one!), we let others tell us what to think, what was said and what was intended, rather than relying on ourselves to learn the truth.

There is one fundamental truth that runs in nearly all religions…love one another…the golden rule. There IS NO EXCEPTION CLAUSE.



More on the President not participating in the “National Day of Prayer” later…