Easier said than done
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
By Richard Anderson
Over the years, my dad has managed to teach me a thing or two. For
example, he’s fond of observing that the other guy is never as bad as
you think he is, and you’re never as good as you think you are. “God
loves diversity” is another of his pithy sayings.
And never fall in love with anything you eat – you might grow up to
marry it, which I can’t say I really understand but I like to repeat it
anyway.
Above all, he taught me to be skeptical. So I am. I’m skeptical of
dietary supplements that claim to be a cure-all for high cholesterol,
cancer, acne, erectile dysfunction and a host of other ailments and
syndromes.
I’m skeptical of gurus who claim that happiness is as easy as plunking
down $25.99 for their latest poorly written, easy-bake, self-help book.
And I’m skeptical of anyone who suggests they have all the answers.
Also, I’m skeptical of Walid Shoebat.
Shoebat, you will learn upon reading our cover story this week, is a
former Palestinian terrorist, taught from his earliest days to hate and
want to kill Jews and those who would aid and abet them. But, upon
moving to the United States and marrying a Catholic woman from Mexico,
he renounced radical Islam and now spreads a New Testament message of
peace and love while warning that the only good Muslim is a
fundamentalist Muslim bent on world domination.
I don’t doubt Shoebat’s story. Who am I to do so? If the guy says the
scales fell from his eyes and he was able to see the light, well,
you’ve got to take a fellow at his word about certain things.
I even respect him for his ability to question his old, ingrained
assumptions. But the reason I’m skeptical is because, based solely upon
our interview, he seems to have simply traded one dogma for another.
Instead of taking the Holy Quran literally to justify the eradication
of one group of people, he’s now taking Holy Scripture literally to
justify why he’s backing a new team.
I suppose I’d rather he (or anyone) use the New Testament to preach
peace than use the Quran (or any other book) to preach hate.
But I’d like it even more if we all could stop judging each other based
on which book we take literally and work very hard and deliberately to
recognize and respect the fundamental humanity that is essential to
each and every one of us.
Maybe that would make it harder for us to kill each other in huge numbers and horrible ways. Maybe.
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Easier said than done | Planet JH News Article: Editorial
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