Under the Veil

Obsession - And an Activist's Guide

noreply@blogger.com (lubomira) — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 21:15:00 +0000

I'm always interested in what fellow Central Floridians are blogging about.

And even though you'd think that people would be less inclined to sit in front of a computer screen and type away, as there's plenty of sunshine, DisneyWorld, Beaches, Universal Studios, and other theme park attractions to go around (plus some) for everyone, there's still some folks that sit glued to their beloved 17" screens and look for meaning in this crazy world through the wonderful blue cord that snakes out from our computer and down to the wall, and into the netherworld of reality.

One such blogger is Ronald Barbour.

How did I find him, you might ask?

Well, like so many parts of conservative areas of the country, there are no short supply of what we affectionately now refer to as "right-wingers".

Personally I think it's a terrible term, and has changed drastically in connotation from when I was a young person.

But I see this type of person as one who has very passionate veiws about belief.

And I love passionate people. And I love talking about belief and faith.

I must admit his posts are more rationale than most those who seem to wholeheartedly profess hatred for the Islamic faith. Ronald seems to have made clear the differentiation between "Radical Islam" and other forms of the religion.

In his blog, he made a reference to a website selling a DVD entitled "Obsession - Radical Islam's War Against the West".

I haven't looked into it too much. I don't feel like spending the $19.95 for it. But I did see a sub-page of the website that had some really good ideas about coming out and talking about the issues that are facing our world today. It's called "An Activist's Guide"

I've reprinted it below, but the link to the website is here.

1. Become informed
2. Respond to bias when you see it
3. Be a pro-active member of your community
4. Help Others
5. Think about what’s important to you
6. Live what’s important to you

1. Become informed
Get clear on what is really happening in the world.

2. Respond to bias when you see it
When you see news stories that provide excuses for Islamist terror against American or other targets, or that reflect an anti-Western bias without showing the whole picture, organize a letter writing campaign pointing out the mistake. Groups like Honest Reporting can help provide tools for recognizing and responding to bias in the media.
Many college students have found themselves under the gun by professors and student groups who attack their ideals, Western foreign policy, and similar, without giving any attention to the other side of the story, or often misrepresenting it. In one notorious incident at Concordia University, Palestinian student leaders fomented a riot to prevent a speech by Benjamin Netanyahu from taking place. When you see these kinds of things going on, you can join with other students to effect positive change, and work to foster a true free exchange of ideas that has often been stifled by this kind of bias. Organizations that can provide information, resources and useful links: Campus Watch, Academic Bias, Students for Academic Freedom, Hasbara Fellowships, Stand with Us, and The David Project.
Point out hypocrisy when you see it. Stand up and say something. Write letters to the editor. Organize a sit-in outside offices, and invite your local TV News stations to come and watch.

3. Be a pro-active member of your community
When you see legislation that benefits radical Islamic and terror supporting regimes, and does nothing to help the populations being abused by them, help your friends and colleagues write letters to your congressional representatives, telling your elected official to oppose such legislation.
Moderate Muslims: You can create watchdog groups monitoring what is being taught and disseminated in your mosques, schools, and local and national organizations. You can work together to keep hate-propaganda out of your communities, and guarantee that the values which are important to you, are taught and upheld.
[I would add that Moderate Christians, Jews, Hindus, or any other Faith do the same]

4. Help Others

Help victims of terror and oppressive regimes.

5. Think about what’s important to you
Spend some serious time thinking about the values that are important to your community. For example: Education, Justice and Equality, and Social Responsibility. Why are they important? How do we, as a people, express them? Discuss it with your friends and colleagues at school and in the workplace. If you’re a parent or teacher, engage your kids in ways that will encourage them to think about our shared values, and some of the ways different cultures around the world express them.

6. Live what’s important to you

But the biggest defense against this threat is to stand strong, and not only think about our shared values. We should also be proud of them, and strive to bring them into our lives. We should choose to live a life of truth and meaning. Remind yourself daily that you can stand up and say there’s a right and a wrong, and that’s okay, and you’re not being intolerant or narrow-minded. One can be open-minded and still recognize that some beliefs, when expressed over and over to a captive audience, can lead to violence.

Politics - The November Election

noreply@blogger.com (lubomira) — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 01:56:00 +0000

Couldn't resist commenting on the upcoming November 7th elections here in sunny Orlando.

There's a big buzz over who's going to control the House and the Senate - the Republicans or the Democrats. Although for the life of me I don't really understand what actual impact this is going to have on my life.

I hear a lot about this Democrat vs. Republican battle, but it seems a bit silly to me. Perhaps it's my age showing, but I've been through a number of elections in my day, and no matter who's in control, there's always going to be somebody angry about the status quo, and playing the blame game on the ills of our country's course being the result of the opposing party's philosophy.

We'll, I've matched up the different candidates using the Orlando Sentinel's handy dandy voter guide website.

While very interesting and presented well, I still don't understand what the big difference is between Democrats and Republicans.

That is, I think I made my decision on the different candidates based on their credentials and their stated stances on the issues, not necessarily on which party they belonged to.

And I'm not usually prone to vote for 3rd party candidates, but I must say that Max Linn guy doesn't look too bad for the Florida Governor spot.

There's a lot of reasons to consider the candidates based on the headline issues - Iraq, taxes, and the direction of our economy.

But let's consider these candidates on their humanitarian stances. How tolerant will they be to other cultures and different Faiths? Will they encourage the strength of our diversity, or will they continue to build up walls?

Judge for yourself, but it is your duty to decide!

Go to the Orlando Sentinel website, take a look at the candidates, and visit their own websites. This is our chance to make our voices heard, and make a change in our community for the better.

Ho'oponopono healing

noreply@blogger.com (lubomira) — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 20:46:00 +0000

I came across a very interesting blog post here.

It had to do with healing others by healing yourself. The story is about a therapist (Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len) in Hawaii who cured a complete ward of criminally insane patients--without ever seeing any of them.

Now let me make something perfectly clear here -- I'm not one to have any strong opinion about the fixing of the physical afflictions of the human body. Through personal experience, I have great doubts about the "all-knowing" capacity of modern doctors, no matter if they are Harvard-trained Mayo clinicians, or if they are Tibetian mystics.

I remain a steadfast skeptic. So I'm not advocating for any method of medical treatment.

But I thought it interesting in the article, from the point of view of this blog, about some of the comments Dr. Len proposed about the concept of healing.

When an interviewer asked how he effected change in his patients by merely focusing on himself, Dr. Len commented:

"I was simply healing the part of me that created them," he said.

The interviewer went on:

"I didn't understand. Dr. Len explained that total responsibility for your life means that everything in your life - simply because it is in your life--is your responsibility. In a literal sense the entire world is your creation.

Whew. This is tough to swallow. Being responsible for what I say or do is one thing. Being responsible for what everyone in my life says or does is quite another. Yet, the truth is this: if you take complete responsibility for your life, then everything you see, hear, taste, touch, or in any way experience is your responsibility because it is in your life.

This means that terrorist activity, the president, the economy--anything you experience and don't like--is up for you to heal. They don't exist, in a manner of speaking, except as projections from inside you. The problem isn't with them, it's with you, and to change them, you have to change you. "

I thought a lot about this. And although it made for some wonderful pondering on my way to and from work, I thought about this on a practical level. How much of our media we listen to is part of the problem? How much influence to we have on the media around us? What is our interacting with how we obtain news and information? On issues such as Belief and Faith, topics which can often incite people into action, and in an age where people form opinions on such topics by the multitude of information sources available, I think we should take great care as to actively engage in deciding how information is being presented to us.

No religious help for the homeless of Orlando

noreply@blogger.com (lubomira) — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 20:37:00 +0000

Recently the city of Orlando passed an ordinance prohibiting religious groups and charities to help feed the homeless in Orlando. Religious Clause blog writes about it here.

I don't know if the issue really was that the Orlando city council wanted to do something to reduce the homeless people in high tourist areas of downtown Orlando, or if religious groups were the target.

It is interesting in light of our support of practice of religion, that the government has the ability to squash their efforts in this manner.

Legally, how was this ordinance passed, in light of a seemingly majority population of highly active religious conservatives that permeate our local community?

Or perhaps it was that there was complicity from the religious groups?

I think that the local community will find a way to help the homeless, but it will most likely be away from the downtown area.

Lynne Stewart - and the MLK of the Near Future

noreply@blogger.com (lubomira) — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 19:48:00 +0000

I've been following the decision to convict Lynne Stewart, the human rights attorney accused of helping terrorists.

The anti-Stewart camp, which in my estimation encompasses the conservative Republican groups, are in a big uproar over the lenient sentencing.

I'm not a big fan of lawyers, but it seems the case is pretty clear -- people are more passionate about the fact of WHO she's defending, rather than her chosen profession.

That is, there's all sorts of lawyers that carry the torch for the underpriviledged and the "guilty". One needs only to look to Hollywood or the TV movie of the week to see the cases where lawyers are defending "heinous murderers facing the death penalty".

Whether or not your take on the political leanings of TV or Hollywood are backlashingly liberal, it does make for good ratings.

I just wonder how this case will be viewed in 10 or 20 years, much like we view the legal shenanigans that went on during the McCarthy era of the Cold War 1950's.

I fantasize the near future -- a Civil Rights Movement leader like Martin Luther King arises soon from the ashes of human discontent. A leader who calms not racial tensions but religious ones in America.

Who will that person be?

Christianity in a Post-Modern Age

noreply@blogger.com (lubomira) — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 02:48:00 +0000

I liked this paper entitled, "Christianity and Social Hope", by Christopher Copeland.

Should religion be completely privatized in order for it to avoid being hijacked? Can religion in today's American society be discussed openly without being assaulted by a political angle?

Or is this just a sign of the times?

Muslims in Central Florida?

noreply@blogger.com (lubomira) — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 02:42:00 +0000

Did you know that there are between 40,000 and 45,000 Muslims in the Central Florida area? There are a total of 12 mosques in this area.

A website, the Center for Peace, is dedicated to spreading the word of the peaceful nature of Muslims.

The Cross - "It's not a sign, it's a symbol!"

noreply@blogger.com (lubomira) — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 19:53:00 +0000

Is Orlando favoring one religion over the other?

I haven't tried to construct a 100 foot tall Star of David in the middle of downtown lately, or have I thought of a 150 foot tall statue of Buddha along I-4.

Nor can I put up a 175 foot tall Mickey Mouse near the SR 192 exit

(if there should be any giant symbol that should symbolize the religious trek of millions of pilgrims, certainly Walt's creation should be the most appropriate).

Mostly the reason is because of zoning laws, which restrict what kind of signs and buildings can be allowed.

But apparently it doesn't matter when it comes to the 199 foot Christian cross being installed on the west Orange County campus of the first Baptist Church of Orlando.

Read the whole article here.

Even though the structure violates zoning height restrictions by 5-1/2 times the height normally allowed for signs, The Rev. Clayton Cloer stated,"The cross is not a sign; it is a symbol. A sign identifies; a symbol expresses." Cloer said, "To compare the cross to a Wal-Mart sign or a McDonald's sign . . . is what we believe would be an incorrect comparison."

District 1 County Commissioner Teresa Jacobs opposed the cross, saying she could not reconcile it with county regulations and variance stipulations. The cross will be in her district."We cannot single out Christianity . . . without providing that opportunity to all other churches, mosques and synagogues," Jacobs said. She recommended amending the code to differentiate between signs and symbols.

Are the laws merely being bent by the roaring religious crowds at the city hall meeting? Or did they find a valid loophole?

I wonder if a 199 foot tall Muslim Crescent would have been equally approved by the city council?

InterFaith groups?

noreply@blogger.com (lubomira) — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 15:28:00 +0000

What InterFaith groups exist in Central Florida? Where can people go to discuss or promote understanding of other religions?

Faith in Central Florida

noreply@blogger.com (lubomira) — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 15:06:00 +0000

874 Churches, Synagogues, Temples, or "other".

That's the count I come to while reviewing the Central Florida Yellow Pages as to the phone numbers listed according to the different Organized religion groupings.

I found 109 different "types" of organized religious groups. The overwhelming majority were Christian (although I'm really not sure what category "Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches" falls into). The largest single group of churches was "Non-Denomenational" (13% of the total), and the 2nd largest being Baptist (7%), and 3rd being Pentecostal (also 7%). Seventh Day Adventists ranked 7th (3%), and all other specific faith groups being 3% or lower of the total. If one were to group all the fractions/subsets of "Baptist" together, it would account for 20% of the total.

I had no idea there were so many different kinds of churches in my area. Of particular curiosity to me was the "Messianic" church, where a phone listing included "Massage Therapy Health & Relaxation Center". What's up with THAT?

Here's the list of Church groups (per the Yellow Pages), and the number of listings for each group:

AME
3
AME Zion
1
Adventists
1
African Methodist Episcopal
3
AOH Church of God
1
Apostolic
19
Aseemblies of God
28
Bahai
1
Baptist
60
Baptist ABA
6
Baptist American
1
Baptist Conservative
2
Baptist Free Will
3
Baptist Fundamental
2
Baptist General
1
Baptist General Conference
1
Baptist Independent
31
Baptist Missionary
14
Baptist Reformed
1
Baptist Southern
56
bible
2
bible independent
1
brethren
2
Buddhist
2
Catholic
18
Catholic-Latin Rite
1
Catholic-Roman
5
Catholic-Ukranian
2
Charismatic
2
Christian
21
Disciples of Christ
7
Methodist Episcopal
1
Christian & Missionary Alliance
10
Christian Science
3
Church of Christ
25
Church of Christ Holiness
2
Church of Christ in Christian Union
1
Church of God
21
Church of God Anderson Indiana
2
Church of God Cleveland Tennesse
6
Church of God in Christ
5
Church of God- Non-Pentecostal
1
Church of God of Prophecy
2
Church of God Pentecostal
2
Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints
1
Church of the Nazarene
2
Community
6
Congregational
3
Covenant
2
Eastern Orthodox
2
Eckankar
1
Episcopal
20
Evangelical
4
Evangelical Covenant
1
Evangelical Free Church
1
Foursquare Gospel
3
Free Methodist
2
Full Gospel
6
Greek Orthodox
2
Hindu
1
Holiness
5
IFCA International
1
Independent
8
Interdenominational
13
International Pentecostal Holines
1
Islamic
5
Jehovah's Witnesses
13
Latter Day Saints
6
Lutheran
18
Lutheran ELCA
1
Lutheran Missouri Synod
10
Lutheran Wisconsin
2
Messianic
2
Methodist
8
Methodist Episcopal
4
Methodist Free
2
Methodist United
22
metropolitan Community
1
Missionar Baptist ABA
1
Nazarene
14
Non-Denominational
113
Orthodox
4
Pentecostal
57
Pentecostal Church of God
1
Petecostal Holiness
13
Presbyterian
18
Presbyterian-orthodox
2
Presbyterian-PCA
8
Presbyterian-Reformed
3
Presbyterian(USA)
16
Primitive Baptist
3
Reformed
1
Reformed in America
1
Religious Science
5
Reorganized LDS
1
Seventh Day Adventists
27
Seventh Day Pentecostal
1
Spiritualist
1
Unitarian Universalist
2
United Church of Christ
5
Unted Pentecostal
3
Unity
3
Universal Fellowship
1
Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches
1
Vineyard
1
Wesleyan
1
Synagogues - Jewish
7
Synagogues - Messianic
1
Synagogues - Reform
1

The Why

noreply@blogger.com (lubomira) — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 14:26:00 +0000

I'm an American. I like living in America, and I say that not because I was born here, or grew up here. It's the same feeling I have when I say I am a Floridian, even though I was not born in Florida. Florida is my home, it is where I want to live, and where I want to make things better.

I think any person who calls themselves an American can feel the way I do, no matter if they were born here or not.

I have also had the very wonderful opportunity to travel a lot during my life. I realize not many people get to do this, and I am thankful for all the people/reasons which/who made my travels possible. I've been to many countries, though not too many, and seen lots of things. I wish I could have seen more.

I made a lot of friends, and I grew to appreciate different cultures. People all over were very nice to me, and in many cases, risked their lives to help me.

Those sort of experiences really had an impact on me.

And now, as I sit in the comfort of my home, I look at what is going on around me now - the human conflicts, the anger, the polarity of thinking in the media outlets that are available to me.

The "us versus them" mentality has me puzzled and saddened, and thus I blog.

I have noticed that due to the overwhelming amount of media outlets available to us, we more and more talk ABOUT each other, rather than TO each other. This seems the most prevalent in the arenas where Belief is on the line. This can be seen in the politics of today in America.

It also exists in the arena of Organized Religion.

So what if you just want to "just get along?"

Who can you talk to? Everybody has a slant. Sure lots of churches, temples, and mosques have charity wings, and they all want to tell you how peaceful they are, but more often than not, they just want to "bring you into their fold".

I've talked to a few places about InterFaith dialogue, but there always seems to be a catch. There doesn't seem to be many places out there where you can just TALK TO people about tearing down walls of misunderstanding and misconceptions.

There needs to be more of those places. Especially now. We need it, because if we don't start getting along, we're doomed.

This blog is dedicated to InterFaith dialogue in the Central Florida area and beyond.

Although I grew up in a Judeo-Christian community, I am open to all faiths, and hope to inspire discussion, and learn more, and grow.