A blog to give a voice to our concern about the continued erosion of our democratic processes not only within the House of Commons and within our electoral system but also throughout our society. Here you will find articles about the current problems within our parliamentary democracy, about actions both good and bad by our elected representatives, about possible solutions, opinions and debate about the state of democracy in Canada, and about our roles/responsibilities as democratic citizens. We invite your thoughtful and polite comments upon our posts and ask those who wish to post longer articles or share ideas on this subject to submit them for inclusion as a guest post.
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Sunday, December 22, 2019

Seasons Greetings

As we approach the start of the year we choose call 2020 which but represents but a small portion of the time that mankind has roamed this ball of dirt we call earth and I approach my 74th year of stumbling around on it I am in a thoughtful frame of mind. This 'holiday is predicated on the 'celebration' of the birth of one particular individual many centuries ago and many folk still remember it as such, however many do not, either subscribing to other 'religions' or not finding the need to 'worship' an entity or individual, real or imagined, past or present, in order to treat our fellow living creatures with care and respect. I am one such individual, in broad terms I am a 'christian' believing in the christian ideals but without finding the need to embrace the religious rituals that some find necessary to embrace. I find little wrong with those that do, to each their own, but I have much more respect for those that practice the christian ideals in their daily life than those who pretend to on a weekly, or just on certain holidays like the one up coming, but do not practice what they preach.

When discussing religions we cannot ignore the fact that there are dozens, if not hundreds, of organized religions across the world and indeed many of them have active subscribers here in Canada. I mean no disrespect to any of those groups religious beliefs with my words here, as I said above to each their own, HOWEVER where those religious beliefs cross over into political areas and / or abuse and suppression of those who do (or do not) not subscribe to a particular religious group or belief the I do have a problem and will speak out! I am not going to pick out any particular group where such religious bigotry has resulted in not only suppression of opposing views but 'ethic cleansing'' entrapment, human right abuse and other similar abuses but to say that the middle east seems to be a breeding ground for these sort of abuses some of which those of us in supposed 'civilized' nations fail to condem.

As I have said above whilst I subscribe to most of the christian ideals I reject the religious aspect to it and have looked for an overall description that encompasses these ideals, the nearest I have come across is “Humanist” and there are several 'organized groups across the world who promote this view. A short outline from one such group follows.
“Humanists base their moral principles on reason (which leads them to reject the idea of any supernatural agency), on shared human values and respect for others. They believe that people should work together to improve the quality of life for all and make it more equitable.”

I cant end this ramble through my mind without covering a few other ever increasing troubling world wide goings on the most alarming (but apparently the least important for our 'leaders') being climate change. Australia …. all time record temperatures of 105f (40c) and large portions ravaged by bush fires, England …... record rainfall and flooding across the south, more tornadoes across the SE U.S. ...the list goes on meanwhile our 'leaders' cannot even agree on a statement about it all at the UN Climate Action Summit mostly due to the U.S. leader who denies there is any such thing as climate change. Which brings us to the mess that is increasingly becoming a worldwide problem as one set of Senators attempt to remove the clearly unstable and out of control U.S. president from power as others simply follow the light shining out of his rear orifice. Anything can happen when a country is being run by a twit who governs via twit rant and even the evangelical right are bailing out. I am not sure that politics is for some not a 'religion' that should be treated an affliction that should be eliminated whenever possible. But then I am feeling particularly old and grumpy about now!


Thus ends your Sunday Sermon this 22nd of December 2019.

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2 comments:

Lorne said...

I can't disagree with what you have written here, Rural. Unfortunately, religion, being a human institution, is responsible for all sorts of nastiness; it seem that so much of what is organized by humans becomes a portal for corruption, control and abuse, far from the ideals promulgated in most spiritual traditions.

I look to the new year and the new decade, not with any hope for renewal; I expect we will simply see more of the same. There will, of course, always be those who fight for something better, but my sense is their zeal and idealism and thirst for justice is no match for the forces arrayed against such progress. In that, I hope I am wrong.

On a personal note, my best wishes to you and your family for the season.

Owen Gray said...

I always enjoy your "sermons," Rural. Happy Holidays to you and yours.