My thoughts onINCLUSIVISM, EXCLUSIVISM, and PLURALISM.INCLUSIVE: if we can learn to accept the otherness of other and respect every which way one appreciates the divine, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge.
PLURALISTS: These Individuals are comfortable calling God every possible name, as they believe in the essence of the causer rather than a name, they are not bothered by the limitations of language, they are comfortable greeting you Shalom, Namaste, Salaam, Jai Jinendra, Peace to you… to them they all mean the same, they are synonyms. Pluralism is an attitude of accepting and respecting the God given uniqueness of each one of the 7 billion of us.
MODERATES: As beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, faith is in the heart of the believer. Those who believe their faith is great, do not negate the divinity of others faiths. They believe as their faith works for them, other’s faith must work for the other. A simple test I have found that works is; those who securely believe in their own faith, usually do ascribe similar security to the followers of other faiths, the corollary of that is if you do not have enough faith in your own, you assume that other’s don’t have it either and you hide in your insecurity by denigrating the other faith. Example: The preacher who expressed hate for gays vehemently was Gay himself, the one’s who call other faiths hateful are hateful themselves.
EXLUSIVE: Those who believe that theirs is the only right path, others aren’t. We have to be careful here, as Christianity and Islam, the two most accused of, are not exclusive either, it is been propagated as such for the interests of the self-proclaimed politically motivated guardians, who believe exclusivity will bring them clientele. Jesus was all an inclusive person, so was Muhammad. The Qur’aan guarantees God’s grace to every one who is good to his creation; life and matter.
RELIGION v. PRACTICE: Our City Law books set the limits on speed and safe driving, yet we have hundreds of violations every month; Our Criminal Laws punish for murderers, rapists, arsonists… yet, we have all crims committed every day in every part of the world. The question is do we blame our law books or the individuals? Every religion teaches one to treat the other as they would wanted to be treated, yet there is violation of that rule by at least 1/10th of 1% of population in every group, do we blame the religion or the individual? I have not seen any correction or restoration of justice by blaming the religion, particularly in the last three decades, had we gone after the individuals as messers of law and order, we had better chance of restoring that delicate balance.
NEOCONS: The Neocons are insecure individuals; they are they extremists who believe that by annihilating others, they will secure their safety and mess up further. These individuals hide under every religious label, from Buddhists, Christians, Hindus and Jews to Muslims and others. Their language is loaded with exclusion. I wish they spend that energy, passion and time towards peace.
RELIGIOUS INDIVIDUAL/PEACE MAKER: The one who mitigates conflicts and nurtures good will, he believes what is good for one has got to be good for all and vice versa to sustain it. Justice and truth are paramount to the.
PEACE is the responsibility of each one of us, if we have not contributed towards mitigating conflicts and nurturing goodwill, how can we expect others to do it? We cannot demand peace when we are loaded with malice, ill-will and hate.
Mike Ghouse