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How Can Something So Good Be So Bad?
By lindamuralidharan on 2017-06-07 18:55:31
Every time I see another news article about the murder of two conscientious people on a train in Oregon, I come close to
gagging. The name of the alleged perpetrator is usually right there in clear print, "Jeremy Joseph Christian". In the name of
"Christ", the supposed peace keeper of all time, we kill over and over again. So..who are "we"? In the name of God and
Country? Don't we send personnel and drones and bombs to kill people around the world? People who...have not attacked
us the way the Japanese did at Pearl Harbor? We kill way more people of "them" than the criminals among them have killed
"us". [caption id="attachment_9981" align="alignleft" width="300"]
England[/caption] I am maintaining that we are all culpable in some way unless we are trying very hard to prevent much of
this killing and the preventable crimes that dot the landscape the world over. However, I am also zeroing in on the role
religion plays. That may be Islam where some people take the practice of that religion to criminal levels....violent jihad,
honor killings and the like. That may be the myriad of people I know....particularly in this church thick society where I now
live.....who think their children will be good people and unquestioning believers when they give them Biblical names. I
have a friend whose 4 boys are Jacob, Josiah, Joshua, and Jordan. When I first moved here ( Hawaii) I thought so many
men and children named "Jordan" represented the popularity of Michael Jordan. Well....a few might be but the majority
derive from some family member in some generation referencing the River Jordan. Ha! ha! Jokes on me. Meanwhile the
families often indulge in domestic violence, the preaching of value in beating children, excessive alcohol or even illegal
drug consumption, and jails here and on the mainland have quite a selection of inmates named Jesus or Mathew or
Mohamed or Joshua and so forth. Of course, all Christians in any state cannot be said to engage directly in such anti-social
behaviors but it is commonplace. And possibly the majority of Christians throughout the US and in all states blindly accept
the value of our giant military and automatically assume that if American military men and women are fighting, it is
patriotic to support them and not question whom they are killing and why. And which among us is questioning the greed of
so many of our politicians and admired business icons? [caption id="attachment_9982" align="alignright" width="300"]
—rre Taj Mahal[/caption] We have the terrible imbalance at the moment of the
news and our current president (both almost equally culpable) giving a great deal of attention to the very sad deaths in
Britain recently, deaths that seem to be done in the name of Allah as some see that deity's preferences. Where is the
attention to Jeremy Joseph Christian and Robert Neumann, Jr., and Willie Corey Godbolt....just among the most recent of
American born killers that are not seen as part of a larger problem but when an Islamic jihadi kills we see that as part of a
major looming threat. Godbolt killed 8 people including a law officer and two teens in Mississippi last week. 8 is the same
as those killed in London last week. I dare anyone to tell me that the victims who died in Manchester in May at the hands
of a mad Muslim are any more dead than the people who died at the hands of the disturbed man with an extensive record of
violence who killed the 8 American citizens in Mississippi. I am calling attention to the three most recent horrors for
American civilians because the year after year toll is hard to keep track of personally. I know there are groups who have
published the tiny likelihood of any of us in the 50 states being killed by an Islamic extremist. I believe the chance of being
killed by a home grown killer whether of some faith or misplaced anger at bosses or spouses is very small but actually larger
than the former. In any case the slaughter is not acceptable to me. [caption id="attachment_9984" align="aligncenter"
Ww a
width="300"] fe + Arrest of Willi Corey Godbolt[/caption] Somehow my heart
bleeds extra long for the Mississippi dead, Living i in what seemed to be well kept middle class housing with the teens who
were attacked home playing video games and using a smart phone as reported, they were models any of us might want in
our families....kids who know how to pass the time in safe (yeah, we thought) environments and not in the habit of roaming
the streets at night looking for trouble. The dead 17 year old is more a hero than many who wear a military uniform....law
abiding but just doing ordinary jobs.....since he died using his body to shield that of a younger teen who survived. The
surviving teen lost his brother to the shooter. The parents had left these responsible young people to go to the aid of one of
the other households that had reported an attack by Godbolt. [caption id="attachment_9985" align="aligncenter"
width="254"] < John Robert Neumann, Jr.[/caption] Sometimes it stops being a matter
of too many guns popularized and made available and becomes an issue of a social disease and a public health menace. I
have not even heard any report yet of whether the folks in the three series of murders just mentioned had guns legally. All
three of the folks had a lot of law enforcement contact prior to the killings and one, Neumann, is a war "hero". He was a
veteran and honorably discharged in 1999. Well, not exactly my kind of hero. With a history of violence and other
infractions in civilian life. Two used guns to kill while the other used a knife. We are a violent country and have had much
work to do to live down our violent heritage from the murder of thousands of native peoples to the war against the British to
the Civil War and so on. But religion comes right along glorifying the wars that suit a particular one at a particular time. I
was raised on the song with the verses "Onward Christian soldiers, forward as to war". Yes, this was to be a symbolic war of
conversion but the imagery was of war nonetheless. [caption id="attachment_9986" align="alignleft" width="300"]
John Robert Neumann, Jr.[/caption] So....in the name of the peaceful Jesus,
people glorify his possible brutal murder, glorify the famous Crusades against people who interpreted the Bible differently,
and promote centuries of European warfare frequently against, again, folks who interpreted the Bible differently. Protestant
Christian vs. Catholic Christian wars frequent and long and bloody at times. [caption id="attachment_9987"
align="alignright" width="300"] : Jeremy Joseph Christian at a pro Trump
rally.[/caption] We can find some violence among many people practicing a great religion other than Islam or
Christianity....suddenly we find Buddhists committing terrible crimes against a different ethnic group and Hindus over time
have erupted in religio/ethnic warfare and Hindu literature in some segments glorifies violent overthrow of enemies. The
Bible is full of violence as approved by the head deity and the Koran and life of Mohamed involve battles against
nonbelievers. The Bible also has contradictory passages that recommend accepting all as the children of their one deity and
that followers of Jesus turn the other cheek. Parts of the Koran say that deity no longer wants you to convert by force but to
convert by example. Lead the good and holy Muslim life and others will want to emulate you and ask to be included in your
religion. The point I am driving at here is twofold. First, the underpinnings of religion make it really hard to shift our
society toward alternatives to war and alternatives to violence. And it can be used by white supremacist Christians to justify
killing the "other" as Jeremy Joseph Christian (of the thoroughly Christian name, please note) has done. And the narrow
minded, often criminally disturbed feel validated to kill and maim in the name of Islam which likewise has some scriptures
promoting violence and domineering male figures as their traditional prophets and leaders. (What is there in the presumed
life and teaching of Jesus that would suggest an autocratic male figure such as a pope should govern your spiritual or even
your secular life?) So much damage is done in the name of religion whether through violence or oppression (see the habits
of white missionaries and explorers vis a vis people of color), denial of human rights (see control of women's bodies) and
through production of destructive guilt and shame as a part of a person's life who often are just not perfect or in some cases
"different". Shaming and violence towards members of the LGBT community often derive from certain interpretations and
practices of the Islamic religion in some places and of Christianity in other places. And yet so many people get comfort
from turning to a god or goddess or saint or what have you when every day life presents major burdens and confusion.
Some religious benefits accrue to the distribution of goods and services to the needy and forgotten...secular motivations
abound also but I am not ignoring the religious motivation of some "good works". Even some who vote for the necessary
government programs and safety nets are motivated by their understanding of Jesus' exhortations to help the poor. [caption
id="attachment_9988" align="aligncenter" width="600"]
Buddhist House of Worship in
South Korea[/caption] Fabulous music and architecture and other artistic expression have come directly from the practice
and/or sponsorship of religious people. Something so bad can also produce a good. My mom the agnostic/atheist of an
earlier age used to say, "How can Christianity be all bad if it gave us the music of Johann Sebastian Bach?" My second
major point is to demand that President Trump and some of the news media and many politicians and pundits stop being so
politically correct. After all, President Trump has said he stands for eliminating that habit of obscuring the truth by so
called "politically correct language". Now have the courage to call out the many killings being done in the USA in the name
of hatred and Christian elitism. Whether more specifically anti-Semitic or anti LGBT or whether white supremacist
motivated or Christian supremacist motivated, more Americans and other people residing on our shores are being killed by
these major organizations (militia types and white supremacist internet networks) and trends toward hatred and bigotry and
exclusionism. Just as bad, fear of our own domestic violence is damaging whole communities. Give as much attention to
the people killed in our country because of misplaced anger, glorification of violence, mental illness, dysfunctional families,
proliferation of guns, acceptance of bigotry at the highest levels or all of the above. If you check out the link below, you will
see how the Republican neglect and dog whistle approach resulted in one man being able to combine misogyny and
Islamophobia in one insane public event. Yes, and immigrants are targeted as well. Donald Trump recently said his wall
was justified because two undocumented young men raped a female in a school campus restroom. In fact, no rape occurred.
The initial reports involved some kind of misunderstanding, and I do not recall whether or not the young men were
undocumented but it did become clear they committed no crime. Remember confirmation bias? If there is false or simply
skewed or mistaken reporting of any kind that feeds into the belief of some that people of color are inferior to white people
or more likely to use illegal drugs or more likely to be violent, the believers will jump on the misinformation or limited
information as actual proof of what some believe in the first place. The habit of double checking facts or one's own
assumptions is not common to most people and our schools are not very good at encouraging such a practice (I think some
current schools are getting better at this which may partly explain while millennials in general are a little less judgmental or
bigoted than previous generations). It is thus the responsibility of leaders like a president of the USA to use the bully pulpit
to call out the armed militias...whether anti=government or white supremacist or what have you and tell them that we are
one nation and that nobody deserves to be vilified because they belong to a different group from you. Leaders need to say
and show that opportunities exist for better education and housing and employment for anybody and that some still needed
affirmative action programs can co-exist with broad based access to the positive functions of society. At the same time, we
men and women in the street of any belief system will need to lobby and demonstrate long and hard to get some rich and
some privileged folks to let loose of their grip on economic opportunities and prosocial developments such as universal
health care. It's called "the power of the people" and we need to assert it so that the oligarchs of lobbying firms, Congress,
insurance companies and the like cannot continue taking greater and greater profits out of the economy while those of us
who work in their factories and offices and retail businesses struggle in food and economic and health care insecurity. Right
now the failure of leadership and the active verbal attacks on immigrants and ethnic groups other than white folks and
women and LGBT people trickle down and are received by the unstable and ill intentioned as official sanctions by society
and perhaps by government to act out violent acts of bigotry and also nasty proto violent acts like placing hanging nooses or
Nazi symbols in public places to dis and alarm people who otherwise have every right to go about their daily business
feeling secure and appreciated by the society they live in. Yes, it is politically incorrect to say that many ex military people,
many American citizens, are involved in antisocial groups from which sometimes come mass murder. The person who shot
family members was not specifically known to be part of any ideology but the point here is we do not do enough to stop
killings of any kind, whether domestic violence or efforts by the likes of Dylan Roof to start a race war (shades of Charles
Manson). Talk, talk, talk. But what to do. Each person can start by raising these issues among friends and neighbors. Each
could choose to call a legislator, the president, or other public official. Each could write a letter to the editor or post more on
social media. I just got into an exchange of views on Facebook where a friend posted the meme that because the person in
question (anonymous, I believe) was spanked as a kid she grew up to be somebody who shows respect. Actually, there is
some research that shows that observing or receiving violence in childhood results in a likelihood the child as an adult will
practice violence. Of course all this begs the questions of what the definition of respect is and what kind of violence we
speak of. Meanwhile, of course, I know many people (including my own offspring) who were not spanked as children and
who today are able to respect social norms and their friends and co-workers. Even as teenagers their shenanigans were not
seriously anti-social. The point is, if you see or read something that promotes physical violence or degrading comments
about groups of people, say something. How do you approach your own children? Have you checked out some of the
recommended ways to talk to and discipline kids in clear and pro-social ways? Have you checked how your local schools
introduce concepts such as acceptance and respect for others? Having worked with so many people with criminal or mental
health issues, I know too many folks confuse fear with respect. If you have to do what the alpha male or female wants out
of fear, that is not respect. That is fear based obedience! Respect, on the other hand, says every human has the right to be
on this planet and have his or her own views. I do not have to like the person to understand this. And respect for the human
part of the person does not mean we have to accept ugly, antisocial behavior. It's kind of a lame way of putting it, and yet I
know it is an understandable concept: "Hate the sin but love the sinner." Just be careful your idea of sin is not limited to
your particular cult or denomination and is, rather, a universal concept such as "thievery is wrong".
