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)

Words Are Powerful Stuff

Usually when a teacher asks a student something, he or she is almost always straightforward and to the point, but they tend to use short sentences with words that are not fancy at all.  Using this great reference, I would have to say that words are powerful stuff.  

Words are what we use to communicate with each other, ourselves and the world that surround us.  

http://www.apptyrant.com/

 
Words are not intended to be used lightly, they should be used with a huge CAUTION sign.  They can build or destroy relationships, nations, businesses, partnerships, communities of all sorts and kinds, including faith communities.  Which are communities that are intertwined with common beliefs, they share moments of worship together which include prayer, and above all they have strong feelings for one another.  Or at least, in an idealistic world that is how it is supposed to be.  These communities can have different labels: Pentecostals, Presbyterians, Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, and the list can go on.  Furthermore, they are extended to Muslims, Jews, or any other religion that come together as one. What makes these communities different is that they are united in one faith.  Each one different, but at the same time similar in so many ways.  

Some time ago I heard a minister say that he was going to become a tyrant...

Our differences separate us because we are drawn most of the time to the negative side of things. We still can look forward to building tolerant and peaceful relationships with one another if we put the work in.  The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA was a great model to follow when they condemned the shooting at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Even though they were two different communities separated by core beliefs they were able to construct a bridge of friendship and one was able to dwell with the other.   The part I liked to most of their statement was "our friends the Sikh community". 

Sometimes I just wonder why can we not just use are words to sooth instead of provoke anger and distress in others.  Some time ago I heard a minister say that he was going to become a tyrant, it was a mandate to pray at a specific hour on a specific day of the week. Probably the person really did not know what he was saying, if he had bothered in looking up how powerful the word tyrant was I am more than sure that he would have deviated from using it.   A tyrant is any person in a position of authority who exercises power oppressively or despotically, some definitions take it a little further and add with cruelty. When we pray for others we do it out of our love for them, we ask God to be merciful with that person and to help him or her in whatever is wrong.  How is it possible that in the same sentence we are using tyranny and prayer. One act cruel and the other loving!  

Talk about crazy and this would become it in no time.  For some it is like my Mom would repeat to me, "Don't  worry about that, words are taken away by the wind" or another of her favorites, "I take things depending on who says them".   She made it sound easy to just to ignore the nonsense some people say, but sometimes it's not that easy to forget.  Some words just haunt us as they linger in our thoughts for a long time.