Time To Get The Ear Trumpet Refitted

I've been delivering meals for a few months now, mostly to overtly end-of-life appellationed non-Edens like "Golden Sunset Mobile Home Park", "Trail's End Mobile Home Park" (punctuation is mine), "Happy Trails Deluxe Mobile Home Park" (liars) and so forth. The 2 1/2 hour route is a real eye opener on old age, solitude and infirmities, making me glad I've gone to such lengths to conscientiously take care of myself (cough, snort).

But it's also the first "job" I've had that people look forward to my showing up, and almost certainly the only job where I can yet be referred to as "that nice young man."

One day a couple of weeks ago, as I was mid-route, pulling Mr C's packages (low sodium, diabetic, no milk), a tall, leggy, astonishingly proportioned young woman sauntered past my truck as I was checking my inventory while loading up my arms. Her sheer white dress appeared to have been applied to her with a paint gun, and she smiled a charming smile and cordially greeted me. I responded "You have a nice day, too!" and trundled across the alleyway trying not to drop anything or drip water onto the signature sheet.

After climbing back into the 'Burb and heading 'round the corner toward my next delivery, I realized she had actually asked if I wanted to "have a date" which, now that I think of it was her way of suggesting I could Have A Nice Day, I guess. Sigh . . . .

Thus It Has Always Been

Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness; the former promotes happiness by uniting our affections, the latter promotes negativity by restraining our vices.

The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one, for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by our government which we might expect in a country without government, our calamities are heightened by reflecting on the fact that we furnish the means by which we suffer!

Government, like clothing, is a badge of lost innocence; the palaces of our government are built on the ruins of our paradise.

Tom Paine - Common Sense (paraphrased)

Losing Your/My/Our Religion

From Nic Kristof's column:

The New York Times reported recently on a Pew Research Center poll in which religious people turned out to be remarkably uninformed about religion. Almost half of Catholics didn’t understand Communion. Most Protestants didn’t know that Martin Luther started the Reformation. Almost half of Jews didn’t realize Maimonides was Jewish. And atheists were among the best informed about religion.

So let me give everybody another chance. And given the uproar about Islam, I’ll focus on extremism and fundamentalism — and, as you’ll see, there’s a larger point to this quiz. Note that some questions have more than one correct choice; answers are at the end.

1. Which holy book stipulates that a girl who does not bleed on her wedding night should be stoned to death?
a. Koran
b. Old Testament
c. (Hindu) Upanishads

2. Which holy text declares: “Let there be no compulsion in religion”?
a. Koran
b. Gospel of Matthew
c. Letter of Paul to the Romans

3. The terrorists who pioneered the suicide vest in modern times, and the use of women in terror attacks, were affiliated with which major religion?
a. Islam
b. Christianity
c. Hinduism

4. "Every child is touched by the devil as soon as he is born and this contact makes him cry. Excepted are Mary and her Son.” This verse is from:
a. Letters of Paul to the Corinthians
b. The Book of Revelation
c. An Islamic hadith, or religious tale

5. Which holy text is sympathetic to slavery?
a. Old Testament
b. New Testament
c. Koran

6. In the New Testament, Jesus’ views of homosexuality are:
a. strongly condemnatory
b. forgiving
c. never mentioned

7. Which holy text urges responding to evil with kindness, saying: “repel the evil deed with one which is better.”
a. Gospel of Luke
b. Book of Isaiah
c. Koran

8. Which religious figure preaches tolerance by suggesting that God looks after all peoples and leads them all to their promised lands?
a. Muhammad
b. Amos
c. Jesus

9. Which of these religious leaders was a polygamist?
a. Jacob
b. King David
c. Muhammad

10. What characterizes Muhammad’s behavior toward the Jews of his time?
a. He killed them.
b. He married one.
c. He praised them as a chosen people.

11. Which holy scripture urges that the "little ones" of the enemy be dashed against the stones?
a. Book of Psalms
b. Koran
c. Leviticus

12. Which holy scripture suggests beating wives who misbehave?
a. Koran
b. Letters of Paul to the Corinthians
c. Book of Judges

13. Which religious leader is quoted as commanding women to be silent during services?
a. The first Dalai Lama
b. St. Paul
c. Muhammad

Answers:
1. b. Deuteronomy 22:21.
2. a. Koran, 2:256. But other sections of the Koran do describe coercion.
3. c. Most early suicide bombings were by Tamil Hindus (some secular) in Sri Lanka and India.
4. c. Hadith. Islam teaches that Jesus was a prophet to be revered.
5. All of the above.
6. c. Other parts of the New and Old Testaments object to homosexuality, but there’s no indication of Jesus’ views.
7. c. Koran, 41:34. Jesus says much the same thing in different words.
8. b. Amos 9:7
9. all of them
10. all of these. Muhammad’s Jewish wife was seized in battle, which undermines the spirit of the gesture. By some accounts he had a second Jewish wife as well.
11. a. Psalm 137
12. a. Koran 4:34
13. b. St. Paul, both in 1 Corinthians 14 and 1 Timothy 2, but many scholars believe that neither section was actually written by Paul.

And yes, the point of this little quiz is that religion is more complicated than it sometimes seems, and that we should be wary of rushing to inflammatory conclusions about any faith, especially based on cherry-picking texts. The most crucial element is perhaps not what is in our scriptures, but what is in our hearts.