I want to expand on a comment made to the 7th of
my Teilhard series (10-1-15). It
reads: “Yes, we are co-creators with
God. Not many people grasp that. We create our own reality, which gives us the
opportunity to create something different if we don’t like what we did the
first time.”
As stated, that seems to be addressing our individuality,
but beyond that Teilhard is asking us to realize we are also creating as part
of a greater whole. Our world is one
interdependent, interacting system which functions for better or worse by the
choices we collectively make. Here too
we can choose something different if we don’t like what we are faced with. Human choices determine the direction of the
world’s progress. Our exploration in
space has shown us what is hard to grasp from our individual perspectives—we
are one whole interacting system and when one part is injured or harmed the
whole suffers from the damage. Until we
realize that, we close our eyes to the damage that occurs beyond the circle of
our own interests.
During the early part of WWII, history tells us that
initially, as Hitler invaded one European country after another, we in America
adopted a policy of non-involvement . . . until Pearl Harbor was bombed, then
the entire nation rallied to a total involvement as never seen before. Men women and children were committed to
fighting the ‘scourge’ of Nazism—men joined the services, women went to work in
defense plants and school children sold defense stamps and war bonds while
pulling wagons from house to house to collect useful things for the war
effort. When America united with allied
forces that common cause led to victory—the scourge was defeated and
annihilated. That historical event
demonstrates what is possible from united effort.
There is another scourge now threatening the very core of
civilized society! The jihad movement
has thrown the Middle East into turmoil; millions of people are fleeing the
destruction, many drowning at sea trying to escape in unsafe boats after paying
their life-savings to human traffickers.
The hordes of refugees that make it to safety are met with anger and resistance
because their huge numbers strain the resources of the countries to which they
flee.
This is not a local problem, not a nation’s problem, not a
regional problem, this is a global
problem and the world must address it as such!
Our world is faced with a multi-headed monster . . . a rogue
culture that has as its goal, the annihilation of civilization; a culture which
delights in sheer destruction and seeks to eliminate freely chosen
self-government so as to install its form of enslavement. The many-headed monster shows itself under
different names but its body is jihad—reveling in terrorism and malhuman
acts. TV has shown us their treatment of
dissenters: from flying passenger planes into the twin towers, to deaths by
stoning, beheading and mass executions.
Girls are forbidden education and hundreds have been abducted and sold
as ‘wives’ into sexual slavery. Boys are
narrowly educated by rote memorization of religious treatises. Jihadists carry out killing of whole villages
of noncombatants. The looting of
artistic treasures helps support their activities and they gleefully destroy irreplaceable
ancient cultural
artifacts simply to show distain for other cultures and
values. All their actions defy
humanitarian values. Jihad is a cancer on this planet; the civilized world must unite against all forms of its expression. In this scourge,
pure evil is once again threatening civilization. It is critical that we see our planet as one
whole interacting system and give support to the beleaguered parts of this
greater whole that is our home. The sum
or our choices will determine the shape of our future.
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