Grief in Ft. Hood Stltoday.com

Once again we are left with this question “Why”  in the face of the tragedy in Ft. Hood Texas. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/nation/story/DD83C5587765EED386257666001A410B?OpenDocument
No matter what led to this heinous act;  psychosis, extreme anger or ideological differences, there is no justification for taking innocent lives.  The fact that the perpetrator was a physician and a psychiatrist makes this  even more incomprehensible; but I think we never know what goes through these murderers’ minds. How they justify their acts, is only understandable to them.  Our military personnel were killed in their own home by one of their own. 

 The fact that the perpetrator is a Muslim should not be a reflection on Islam. Islam does not condone these crimes.There are more than 4000 Muslims in the military serving our country with pride. The Muslim community of Greater St. Louis and all the national Muslim organizations have condemned this horrific act.

I do not want to speculate about the…

Again, again, and again!

When does it stop?

Never, never, and never!

Unless you stop it.

   Soldiers and horses entered Mt. Yun-ju. The master (Yun-ju) sat upright and    motionless.

   The commander,  without bowing, sat facing him and asked, “When does the world    attain peace?”

   The master said, “Waiting for the commander’s mind to become satisfied.”

   The commander then bowed and made him his teacher.

So long as everyone thinks “that’s none of my business,” it never stops. It is the karma of thinking so and acting so. Isn’t it karma of the people here?

   Men of great power, why can’t you lift your legs?

Even though great, one cannot lift even one’s own legs. Why? Because: one is bound by karma.

   Men of great strength, you row so hard! But, your boat is moored.

However hard one may try, one cannot advance. Why? Because: one is bound by ego.

   Seeing a fire…

photo courtesy of Fred's wife Saundra

My friend Fred died last Friday evening.   We had gone to high school together and gotten reacquainted through Facebook.  I always enjoyed reading Fred’s updates; he was funny, had wide-ranging interests, and was a family man in the best sense of the phrase.   He was a cyclist, runner, competitive triathlete, a husband and the father of two children.   On the last night of his life he went out for a run and died of cardiac arrest, at 43 years of age.

In the face of death I feel like a child.  I cannot understand it.   It is huge, and confusing and awful.  Over the course of the last week my mind has returned again and again to the suddenness of Fred’s death.   I imagine he thought that night would be like any night.  His wife thought he would come home from his run, like…

Salt Lake City Tabernacle, photo courtesy of utahhdr.com

Civil Religion is an attempt—a successful one, in my short experience—to foster mutual understanding among members of disparate religious (and nonreligious!) traditions.  The advantages of the blog format are its convenience and its transparency: readers can easily access posts,  participate in the comments, and readily search, recover and distribute the content.  These are good things, mostly.  But because blogs expose participants to a potentially hostile public gaze, there can be a reluctance on the part of bloggers to engage in the kind of mutually self-disclosing dialogue that leads to real understanding. If one fears that reflective self-criticism will be exploited by bad-faith opportunists, one is less likely to engage in open discussion. I know I’ve felt a bit of that in my short tenure as a participant here, though, happily, that fear has been largely unrealized.

That’s why I was interested to read about…

Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand

With the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (which fellow blogger Sharon Autenrieth wrote about here) coming up on November 9th, I thought it would be a good time to let people know about an amazingly moving book that you can receive absolutely free from The Voice of the Martyrs, a non-profit organization founded by Richard Wurmbrand that aids the persecuted church around the world.

The book is Wurmbrand’s Tortured for Christ. It is a personal account of the persecution he faced as a result of preaching the gospel of Christ in Communist Romania.

(Not too long ago I wrote about Wurmbrand and the book on my blog, echad. Rather than reprinting that here, If you’re so inclined you can read that post here.)

For more about Wurmbrand, or to sign up online to receive your free copy of Tortured for Christ, you can visit www.TorturedforChrist.com.

(For what…

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continues to speak out against the proposed U.N. resolution on religious defamation believing it would limit freedom of speech.  Meanwhile, many advocates of religious liberty have expressed concerns that the Obama administration has not sent strong enough signals on its commitment to religious freedom, particularly to countries like China which have a history of human rights abuses.   But while the debates continue and advocacy groups seek policy solutions, the persecution of people of faith continues, in dozens of countries including India, North Korea and Iran.

The International Day of…

Archbishop Raymond Burke outside the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica before the 2005 Final Four. Photo by Huy Richard Mach, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

It’s always interesting when the national media “finds” a story that local hacks have been covering for years. That’s not exactly what’s happening with the American press’s recent discovery of St. Louis emeritus Archbishop Raymond Burke - after all, the archbishop began making headlines before he was even installed here in 2004 - but it’s close.

Since his move to Rome to lead the Vatican’s version of the Supreme Court, Burke’s profile has heightened. Over the last 18 months, he’s made some public statements - mostly either to gatherings of Catholics, or the the Catholic press - that have caused momentary stirs in both the Catholic and political worlds.

Amy Sullivan has written a piece for Time, called “A Tale of Two Priests,” comparing Burke to Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley, though the story is really about Burke. Sullivan’s thesis is that Burke…

In the archives of a medieval monastery.

This monastery has been open since the 13th century. It is just above the cave where Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, wrote his famous “Spiritual Exercises.” Ignatius used to sit outside the door of this monastery and listen to the prayers of the nuns as they sang their evening office. Their prayers are still quite inspiring, as I can attest.

On the right is a photo of some books in the monastery archives. Top left is a bundle of contracts the monastery entered into in the year 1344. Every contract they have ever signed is still preserved on these shelves. The sense of history is deep, as is…

Fred Phelps

(For a quick primer on the infamous pastor you can check out his Wikipedia page here.)

Phelps was in town with members of his Westboro Baptist Church to protest at Hazelwood Central High School because of its Gay/Straight Alliance club.

It should be noted that Westboro Baptist church — much like the book burning Amazing Grace Baptist Church — is an independent Baptist church that bears little to no resemblance to a typical Baptist church and is not affiliated with any of the major Baptist associations or conventions.

But I don’t want to talk about Fred Phelps or his Topeka, Kansas based church.

I want to talk about the counter protest that took place with the intent of disarming Phelps’ nausea-inducing message of hate with a message of love.

Organized by Ed Reggi, the counter protest consisted of upwards of 60-70 people, about 10 times as many…

Have you been enjoying the bright beautiful full moon? Western people see a man’s face in the moon, while Eastern people see a hare pounding rice cake. Why? In the East we learn the story of the hare in the moon as children, and we associate it, in the form of bright round rice cakes, with celebrations such as new year’s day. The presence of the hare comes from an ancient Buddhist story from India.

In an early incarnation, the future Buddha was born as a hare, and he freely gave his life out of compassion for a stranger in need. This story was beautifully told in a poem by the 19th-century Zen monk and poet Ryokan. I read his poem to the morning meditation group at our center recently, on the day of the full moon, and I’d like to share my translation of it with you now.

“The Hare in…