NO
TEDDY BEAR'S PICNIC
DEC 4th 2007
Mrs Gibbons, the
English teacher arrested and jailed in Khartoum for allowing her class
of 7 year olds to name a Teddy Bear after a popular class member who
happened to be called Mohammad (a not uncommon name, shared by the
founder of Islam), was pardoned by Sudan's
President Omar al-Bashir after talks with two British Muslim peers and
released into their custody - not, you will note, the custody of the UK
government, whose protection under international law is written into
her passport, a document accepted by the Sudanese state.
It is touching that leaders of the UK Muslim Community went to Khartoum
to effect this release, which must come as a timely reminder to all
members of our Muslim community including its leaders just why it is
they have come to live here rather than in their various homelands. It
is time however to get some reciprocity into the relationship.
Christian fundamentalists have also got to get their knickers
untwisted. At least they do not put support for co-religionists above
the law of the country they live in and expect protection from, but it
is surely time for us to get our religon compatible with modern science
as a beginning to making different faiths compatible with international
law.
According to a supposedly independent educationalist (I take as an
example Dr Fred Kellog, Emory and Henry College), only Jesus Christ is
worshipped as divine. Muslims do not consider either Mohammad or Jesus
to be more than men. As an enthusiastic Christian, I do not believe
Jesus considered himself to be more than a man either. All readings of
the New Testament make it clear he did not. He was fulfilling the role
of Messaiah and in so doing enlightening his fellow men and women about
the nature and status of mankind and of what they called God. He
explained they had to update it. Naturally, some understood what he was
saying and doing better than others, both at the time and later. [Note:
a reader has questioned me on this, in that it seems I question the
divinity of Christ. I think I expressed it poorly. He was preaching the
Conditional Divinity of Humanity. Jesus always referred to himself, as
related in all the Gospels as "The Son of Man". He insisted that those
who followed him could become like him, and that they could work his
work after he had gone. He proclaimed he was the Way, the Life and the
Truth. So indeed he was more than the men of then and to this day who
can say he or she has been able to follow? Some have been judged Saints
by others. To me it is clear Jesus knew who he was and what he was
doing. A proper understanding of The Lord's Prayer will yield some
revelations that taken in conjunction with the rest of the Gospels will
lead in my view to further enlightenment. It is very concise.]
So the Muslim view is correct. We could well still refer to Jesus
Christ as 'the only son of God' as nobody else has yet attained that
status though some may have got near. Handsome is as handsome does,
folks. This in no way diminishes Jesus or Christianity in the slightest
degree. It explains clearly that life in this universe, wherever it
arises and reaches what we call 'humanity', can aspire to understand
and serve and share the Nature that creates and sustains it.
[
Jesus was telling about the future for humanity for those who can go
beyond homo sapiens to homo spiritualis. That does not mean the science
of homo sapiens should be overthrown any more than Newton's Laws of
Motion are demolished by Einstein. But a study of biology and
anthropolgy points to the fact that spreading and sharing philosophy
and theological insight and interbreeding so that through a combination
of nurture and nature all homo sapiens descendants will become homo
spiriualis is not going to be easy. It would be an exception to past
evolutionary processes. OK, lets do it ;- ) ]
But for a look at the status quo in our somewhat confused, emergent
state as seen by Fred Kellogg, here is the link::
http://www.ehcweb.ehc.edu/faculty/fkellogg/211u3.htm
Religious
emotions and experiences can admittedly be a positive force when it
comes to inspiring individuals and giving hope and belief in the
future, and in many cases a sustaining force in times of terrible
suffering. But I was struck by the rational but point-missing opinion
of a lady who after trying out the Alpha course (Christianity for those
bored by church but confused by life) said she was not convinced by the
account of the crucifixion. "How could Jesus be God if he cried out 'My
God, My God, why have you forsaken me'?" That is a good question, but
there is a very clear answer. Jesus was a man who understood Nature,
including Human Nature, perfectly; and he was expecting to die, not
hang around in agony longer than he wished. His resurrection was a
subjective experience of his followers, and that is recounted very
clearly as such in many instances later. Note: all individual human
experiences are subjective, even when shared. That is not to say there
is no objective reality, but that takes a lot of viewing... over a lot
of time....
nnnn