Tlazocamatli: Thank you, "Gracias"

Recently my daughter was a key player in the organization of a march that would be held in Tucson, Arizona about immigration laws and how they are affecting a wide range of people who are part of the Tucson community.  In the early morning before the march began Allison (her pastor) came over to reassure and pray for her.  She asked our good Lord to bless, protect and guide her throughout the day.

Modern day Nahua

Yet not only did she receive the most needed spiritual intervention from one that shared her own faith, but also received it from an unexpected  member of the community. The local Nahua spiritual leader!  He came over to the premises of the Southside  Presbyterian Church,   where everyone was gathered,  to ask his deities to guide and protect those who would be participating in the march.  She told me how they had called upon the Universe and showered her with incense that would help her win the war.  They painted her face as if she was one of their own warrior women and for one brief second she felt part of these amazing people, even when she is far away from being so.  Even though she is Hispanic, she was basically born in a pop culture society, she is an American citizen by birth right, she is  Christian and so many other things separate her from the Nahua.  But they do have something in common,  they struggle together to fight against a system that hurts and condemns immigrants to living conditions that should bring shame to a country that was born from immigrants.  Bottom line, Tlaoamatli (which means thank you) for wanting to protect the well-being of one of my own.  I have no words that can express how grateful I am for your gesture.  If only,  I could also extend my own hand to be able to protect your people from injustice I would do so.  Yet, the only thing I can do is pray for you and write about your struggles and suffering, which I am more than willing to do.

The Nahua taught us a lesson with their openness and candor that we as Christians are not willing to reciprocate.  Why isn't it possible for all people to come together crossing the bridges that separate us and moving forward in creating a better world. Our country is full of churches, temples, synagogues, and so many other buildings where people gather to worship their own deities, but we are so far away from spirituality and good.

Maybe we do need to call the power of nature from the four corners of our Earth and ask our dear Lord to help us get over ourselves and then and only then will we  be able to appreciate our diversity and rejoice as we build a better today, so tomorrow the Nahua , Christian, Islamic or Jew children (just to mention a few)  enjoy a better place to live.  By doing this we are all contributing in creating a little piece of heaven here in this troubled Earth that we call home.

Standing Up To The Pack

Anyone that has read my blog knows I'm a strong believer of the power of the word.  It's great to be able to reach people and listen to their reactions through diverse channels.  This blog is about faith and how we come to cope with it in many different ways and manners.  The downfall of any given denomination is its weakness to listen to those who speak in the diverse world in which we live today.

 If we had to learn out of something in my own denomination it would certainly be out of the open debate when non-celibate homosexuals and lesbians were good to go to be ordained as ministers after obviously the due process of our presbyteries and local congregations.  Many presbyteries had to overcome the debates and conversations of many of its members and ministers and then come together and share a meal and a conversation without the hatred that many could of had internalized when there are others that didn't agree with them.

How do we overcome personal differences?   Which are the best ways to overcome these differences?  Differences sometimes are ignited when we simply don't agree with another persons point or points of view.  But, how do we react to these differences? A simple way is to listen and see if we can get some good out of them.   For me it's easy to relate to this as a teacher because  a teacher is in charge of a group of people during the day at specific hours and during some days of the week, (they are not 24/7 students) and some of my colleagues thought they owned their students.

Taking it a step further,  some of them would think that they were the ones calling the shots and that nobody  in that classroom better say anything about it.  I would differ because I thought that education was a process where not only students would learn, but the teacher as well.  Not all my students agreed with whatever I said and I had to give them the opportunity to express how they felt about it.  Never in my mind would I commit the stupidity of undermining their opinions or what they felt needed to be said.

Some of my colleagues would pack up like hungry wolves if they felt threatened by any student.  It's funny like animals can teach us a few things about human nature.  Some time ago,  I read a very interesting article about wolves.  Many think that wolves are about anger, ferocity, aggressiveness, but the bottom line for their hierarchy or as we humans would put it, is order.

Wolves behave in  a certain social order and the command is shifted from various types of wolves beginning in the alpha and finishing in the omega wolf.   The worst part is that the omega wolf is the weakest and the one no one cares about in the pack.  Many times he is bullied by other members of his pack and at the end will end up receiving the full blown aggression in the wolf world.   What is it with wolves anyway, is it that their just plain angry all the time or that it's tough for them to show affection?  That comes to my mind as I write this post because recently I've had a very hard time coping with how things are being dealt with within my denomination.

Sadly,  as the teacher is in charge of the classroom,  also "any" given minister in in charge of his or her flock.  What makes me ponder about the role we play as members of any given congregation, are we the omega wolves?  Bullied and mistreated by other members or the hierarchy of our denomination?  Why can't the omega wolf stand up to its pack?  Probably if they did,  they would end of battered and murdered by other members of their pack.  Not only do we kill in flesh, but we are more than capable to kill in spirit.

Some reflect on why Christianity is not the majorities religion any more and I think the answer is clear, we have drifted away from the message of  love (absolute and within no doubt kind of love)  that our Lord taught us and we have given in on our own hatred to those members of the pack that dear to state some truths, or at least their own views on things without having to whisper it through the thin walls of any building that calls itself a temple.

If any good can come out of this reflection,  it would be the understanding that God loves me and everybody else who chooses to believe in him no matter what.  He loves us with all our differences and similarities and shows no boundaries as to where He wants us to be.  God doesn't want us to accept everything said and done as perfect or as an ABSOLUTE truth, because  Jesus didn't do it himself when he lived upon the face of the Earth a couple of thousand years ago and their is no theology that can prove otherwise. For Pete's sake,  why do anyone of us have to? 

(Great article to check out: http://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/wolf-pack-mentality.htm)