I have posted some of these in the past, my Dad and I are on fairly opposite sides of the spectrum when it comes to how we relate to the world, as well as how we appear to implement Spirit into our lives.

On occasion he sends me links to things on the internet and if I didn’t think he actually believed them, I would think he was pulling my leg.  The most recent one was the Tuesday after the Paris bombings and is basically a video about just how terrible Islamic Refugees are.  The kind of thing one has come to expect on Faux News during a smear campaign to validate one of their perspectives.

For anyone who wishes to see it, here’s the link.

An Open Letter to my Dad

Dad,

I love you, but why do you insist on sending me this electronic diarrhea?  What do you want me to say, hate and judgement are the right answer?  Sorry, I cannot and I will not.  I’m glad you found a video showing the worst of people so you have justification and vindication for the hardness of man’s heart; may it bring you the peace you search for, though I doubt it; hate never brings peace, it cannot, it is impossible.

I find it so sad in this country that we this multi-billion-dollar victimhood campaign called “The War on Christianity”.  The supposed victims of this war cannot look up from their self-imposed victimhood long enough to realize that it is this exact 180 from what their religion teaches and how they respond to the world around them that brings on the condemnation of the world, not some Devil persecuting them or trying to deny them Heaven.  As you used to tell me all the time, “Actions speak louder than words.” What are current and modern “Christian” actions saying about what they have taken from what they claim to hold most dear, it rips my heart out every time I watch self-proclaimed Christians behaving in the antithesis of Christ-like ways.

You are not going to like this, but as terrible as what ISIS and radical Islam are doing, I find the killing, nay murdering, of souls that has become the norm of modern Christianity in its judgmentalism and hatred for its fellow man, to actually be as terrible if not worse; one takes innocent lives, the other destroys Spirit and Soul of not only its enemy but of itself.

Believe and do what you wish, I cannot change your mind or your heart, but I’ll pass on something to think about:

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

Matthew 25:31-46 (KJV)

Is there a risk in doing the right thing?  Of course there is, there is always the probability of bad people doing bad things, but you do the good thing because it is right, not because it is easy and safe.  How can one be a “light unto the world” if their own heart is nothing but the darkness of hate and judgment?  Living in darkness makes it impossible bring light to others, darkness is the absence of light and living in the light is often terrifying since you now attract the attention of those in the darkness.  Even worse is that you attract the attention of those in the darkness that want to keep others in the darkness in the names of power and control.

In this world doing right and being a light is rarely safe and almost never easy, but I try to remember this before I wallow in despair:

When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it–always.

Mohandas K. Gandhi

Love and Peace,

Robert