If I might first comment on a Tues, Nov 29 2005 2:16 pm post titled: "Its a
wonder we got Doug Woods back, given John Marks Ministries lack of
discretion titled 'Australian Muslim Threat' over which at 1345 hrs on 5
June 2005 he gives the following insubstantial explanation for his actions,
"I am, frankly, the least racist/bigoted person I know: check our website
for articles *pro and con* Jewish/Islamic/Christian/Buddhist/Hindu/atheistic
(any other?) fundamentalism... I follow the dictum of St. Gregory the Great:
===>>> It is better that scandals arise than that truth be silenced <<<===
If this article (though checked with a reputable source) is inaccurate (and
if that's from a reputable source) let's hear about it and I'm always happy
to publish the amended version on our website (see the keyword there for
scientology - as one word - as an example)." [Pastor Rowland Corucher]
The article wasn't accurate and it seems that it was just Religious-Mafia
propaganda which failed to mention the attendance of the Attorney General
the Honorable Mr. Ruddock at the meeting. cf:
http://groups.google.com/group/aus.religion.christian/tree/browse_frm...
Try not to rustle the natives on this one Rowland."
Secondly, I wish to comment on the relationship of the BIBLICAL notion of
the "WAY-HODOS OF PEACE-EIRENE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN-GINOSKO" [Romans 3:17-18]
Tom Fox a claimed peace activist, did not have a full understanding that the
"WAY-HODOS OF PEACE-EIRENE" and the "TAO-WAY TE-OF VIRTUE CHING-AND
CAUSALITY" share a commonality...
"If I understand the message of God, his response to that question is that
we are to take part in the creation of the Peaceable Realm of God. Again, if
I understand the message of God, how we take part in the creation of this
realm is to love God with all our heart, our mind and our strength and to
love our neighbours and enemies as we love God and ourselves. In its
essential form, different aspects of love bring about the creation of the
realm." [Tom Fox]
This explanation conveys the impression that the theological noumenclature
upon which the Peace Activitists constructed their faulty theology is the
equivalent of BABYLON: "The great spritual prostitute who sits on many
waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the
inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication."
[Revelation 17:1-2]
A comment needs to be made, as to the purpose, function and differences
between the traditional DAOIST/TORAH (Pythagorean) A-U-M worldview of the
religious/political Mysteries associated to both the Tetragrammation of
Number (Sephirot) obtained from yarrow sticks/stones {ie. According to Yang
Hsiung's (53 BCE to 18 CE) tetragram system, each four-line glyph has 3
possibilities {ie. 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 = #81} whose component parts are read from
top to bottom, comprising either:
(3) an unbroken line correlated to YANG/FATHER {+ 0, 27, 54};
(9) a line broken once representing YIN/MOTHER {+ 0, 9, 18}; and
(27) a line broken twice symbolising ZHUN/SON {+ 0, 3, 6}
(81) as its culturing as that which organises {ie. within its sphere/ONE
within FAMILY: + 0, 81, 9(9²+1)/2 = #369} the myriad of individual phenomena
(WAN WU): + 1, 2, 3} = Tetragrammation hierarchy value.
"The Mystery gives birth to two divine images. The two divine images give
birth to the spherical [universe]. The cosmic sphere gives birth to Three
Models [of Heaven-Earth-Man]. The Three Models give birth to the Nine
Positions. The Mystery in having the model 'One' {ie. YANG/FATHER {+ 0, 27 -
Paradoxes of the Greatest Skill/ Function of Skill, 54 - Culturing
Perspectives/ Cultivation of Intuition}} attains to Heaven. Therefore, we
say of it that it 'has Heaven [in it].' The Mystery in having the model
'Two' {ie. YIN/MOTHER {+ 0, 9 - Inconstancy of Achievement/ Practising
Placidity, 18 - Origin of Ethical Concepts/ Palliation of Vulgarity}}
attains to Earth. Therefore, we say of it that it 'has Earth [in it]'. The
Mystery in having the model 'Three' {ie. ZHUN/SON {+ 0, 3 - Prescriptions
for Politics/ Keeping the People Quiet, 6 - Superiority of the Female/
Completion of Form}} attains to Man. Therefore, we say of it that it 'has
Man [in it]'.
The sage investigates changes in the moon's appearance and location, as well
as departures from its orbit {ie. The term TS'E NI means 'to lose the
regular course' where for every 19 years there must be 7 intercalary months
(Heaven's Compensation) and presumably may include irregularities such as
eclipses:
"Heaven and Earth face each other. Sun and moon are in conjunction. Mountain
and valley flow into one another. Light and heavy float on one another. Yin
and Yang succeed one another. High and low rank do not defile one another."
}. He only finds a norm in the constant sequence of sun and moon, and in the
order of male and female. He makes them the canonical model for all
eternity. Therefore, the Mystery in grand fashion comprises Heaven's
Origins, binding and securing it to what is to come.
The Mystery works with multiples of six and nine. The divining stalks use
three times six (ie. 18). The Priniciples of Heaven and Earth uses two times
nine (also = 18). The Mystery certainly does use eighteen as a base then!
The Grand Accumulation Sum begins with 18 - 'Origin of Ethical Concepts/
Palliation of Vulgarity' divining stalks and ends with 54 - 'Culturing
Perspectives/ Cultivation of Intuition'. If we add the numbers that
correspond to the beginning and end of the stalks, 18 + 54 = #72 -
'Self-Love/ Holding Oneself Dear', we halve it to make the Grand Centre {=
36 - Natural Reversals/ 'Secret' Explanation; Tallying the vertical axis
produces:
#1 - To Guide with Names/ Reason's Realisation,
Categorical Imperative: (#27 - Paradoxes of the Greatest Skill/ Function of
Skill + #9 - Inconstancy of Achievement/ Practising Placidity + #3 -
Prescriptions for Politics/ Keeping the People Quiet + #2 - Contrast of
Terms/ Self-Culture) = #41 - Playing with Reversal/ Sameness in Difference
(Septet form 9(9²+1)/2 = #369 as Centre = 13 to 17 September; with New Moon
18 September 2001 = 1 Tishri 5762 as 122J3W2D) ,
Categorical Imperative: (#54 - Culturing Perspectives/ Cultivation of
Intuition + #18 - Origin of Ethical Concepts/ Palliation of Vulgarity + #6 -
Superiority of the Female/ Completion of Form + #3 - Prescriptions for
Politics/ Keeping the People Quiet) = #81 - Making the Essence Clear/
Propounding the Essential
It is these two imperatives, which both the Torah [Deuteronomy 6:5;
Leviticus 19:18] and Jesus of Nazareth affirm are the essential substance of
the Law and the Prophets: "Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a
question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment
in the law? Jesus {He is saved; a deliverer; a saviour} said unto him, Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second
is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
While the Pharisees {ie. within the contemporaneous Dead Sea Scrolls as
Flattery Seekers} were gathered together, Jesus asked them, Saying, What
think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David
{well beloved; dear}. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call
him Lord, saying, The LORD-YHWH said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right
hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord,
how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst
any man from that day forth ask him any more questions." [Matthew 22:35-46]
(KJV circa 1611 CE)
Therefore, the following comment by Ivars Peterson of Science News fails to
give adequate historical and theological references as to the sacred element
within Howard Garns' present day popular "Sudoku Math Puzzle" and might in
reality be understood as an attempt to provide a revisionistic view of
history and ethical accountability. He suggests, that the "sudoku grid is a
special case of a mathematical object called a Latin [or magic] square [x =
n(n²+1)/2]. A Latin square consists of n sets of numbers from 1 to n
arranged in a square pattern so that no row or column contains the same
number twice. Latin squares go back to at least medieval times. Leonhard
Euler (1707-1783 CE) a deeply religious Calvinist throughout his life, was
the first exceptional mathematician to study magic squares systematically.
He introduced a particular type of Latin square (a Graeco-Roman square) as a
new kind of 'magic square.'" [Math Trek, Science News Online, 18 June 2005]
There is an interesting anecdote about Euler concerning the court of
Catherine the Great and the visitation by the French philosopher Denis
Diderot (1713-1784 CE). Who having little to no mathematical knowledge (like
myself), was informed that someone had a mathematical proof of the existence
of God. He asked to hear it. Euler then stepped forward and stated his
popular identity formula: "Sir, e^iPI + 1 = 0, hence God exists!" [ref:
Wikipedia - where i is the imaginary unit and x a real number. Since cos PI
= -1 and sin PI = 0 hence the equation] Diderot it is reported by some
accounts, had no idea what Euler was talking about and returned to France
following realising its intent as a cutting, dismissive jibe {ie. to shift
from one side to the other when running before the wind, as a fore-and-aft
sail or its boom; to utter mocking words, scoff, jeer, to taunt, deride,
flout, a sarcastic remark}. Similarly Jesus of Nazareth tells a woman within
the temple confines, who is allegedly caught in the very act of adultery, to
'Go-poreuomai and sin-hamartano henceforth-meketi the more-epischuo'--That
is: 'by your good works, you shall not return (to sin again).''' [John
8:11]}
The 36 divining stalks of the Grand Centre are used to regulate the 729
Appraisals. Altogether [36 x 729 = 364 x 72 + 36 = ] 26,244 stalks make up
the Grand Accumulation, with 72 stalks per day for the 364 1/2 days of the
year. The Deficit Appraisal fills it out, so as to bring it into accord with
the days of the year and the pitches and calendar in their course."
([Copyright 1993 Michael Nylan Yang Hsiung's (53 BCE-18 CE) 4 BCE (T'AI
HSUAN CHING) 'Canon of Supreme Mystery on Causality -- Natural Divination'
(HSUAN KAO) 'Revelation of the Mystery', p 461, 463])
Any disparity between commentators over whether Yin(g) = female as passive
principle (EARTH) and Yang = male as active principle (HEAVEN) as conveyed
by the Book of Changes (I-Ching) of 2800 BCE or Lao Tzu's (6th century BCE)
Tao (the way) Te (of virtue) Ching (and causality), is perhaps due to the
ambiguity as to whether the elements #1 and #2 follow the Pythagorean Number
Symbolism, in that they are distinct from the meaning of number which
assigned to odd number a male attribute (eg: the monad as Zeus) and even
number a female attribute (eg: the duad as Hera) and gave them co-jointly a
spermatic quality in the emulation of nature-PHUSIS {germination or
expansion, natural reproduction}: "Men, why are you doing these things? {ie.
In that they called Barnabas (the son of a prophet) Zeus/Jupiter and Paul
(small; little) Mercury/Hermes and had sought to sacrifice to them} We also
are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn
from these vanities unto the living-ZAO God-THEOS, who made the
heaven-OURANOS {
(YANG/FATHER - Formula of Universal Law as Sovereignty: #1 - Nature contains
Nature {#4 - Nature amended in its Nature}) says: "Act as if the maxim of
thy action were to become by thy will a universal law of nature."
}, and the earth-GE {
(YIN/MOTHER - Formula of Humanity as Head of State: #2 - Nature rejoices in
its Nature {#5 - Act of Nature}) says: "Act that you use humanity, whether
in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as
an end, never merely as a means."
}, and the sea {
(ZHUN/SON - Formula of Autonomy as Individual: #3 - Nature surmounts Nature
{#6 - Form of Nature}) is a synthesis of the first two. It says that we
should so act that we may think of ourselves as legislating universal laws
through our maxims, in a possible Kingdom of Ends. We may think of ourselves
as such autonomous legislators only insofar as we follow our own laws.
}, [and the fountains of waters {
(ONE - Formula of Progression: #4 - Nature amended in its Nature {#7 -
Engendering Nature}) as a progressive adaptation within its sphere of
operation.
} [Revelation 14:7]] and all things that are therein: Who in times past
suffered all nations to walk in their own ways." [Acts 14:15-16]
} and the Tetragrammation formulation of the name YHWH {ie. 72J = 12 x 294 x
364 = 12 x 293 x 365.2425 = Tetragrammation on YHWH as 72} associated to the
natural cycle of the four seasons as regime of governance. And how this
relates to the alternate '#57 - Laissez Faire Politics/ Simplicity In
Habits' perspective of the 'topical year' commencing New Years
Day/Resolution 1 January as proposed by the Gregorian calendar reforms of
1582 CE and adopted throughout the British Empire in 1752 CE.
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman of Project Genesis suggests of Ramchal's (Rabbi Moshe
Chaim Luzzatto 1707-1746 CE) explanation, that it concerns a Categorical
Imperative associated to the very start of creation. His explanation of the
Kabbalistic terminology brings it all down to earth: "'All the
sephira-levels that G-d created' that is, all the non-material building
blocks that went into the creation of the world known as the sephirot
(plural of sephira), 'were (originally) arranged in order, with one under
the other'. In fact we learn that, 'everything's in place (ideally) when the
more extraneous sephira-levels are below the more exalted ones and are
subservient to them, which is how things will be in The World to Come.'
His point is that order and proper hierarchy are the ideal. It had been in
place at the beginning and will be in place again in the end. 'But
everything was damaged'-- everything suddenly changed for the worse -- 'when
the 'husk' rebelled against its Master.'
The 'husk' is another name for the yetzer harah (which on both a personal
level and a cosmic one is the resistance to G-dliness). It's referred to as
a 'husk' or 'shell' because it comes about before the 'fruit' of G-dliness
does [1 Corinthians 12:3-31], because it preserves the fruit (just as the
yetzer harah preserves society, for without it there'd be no childbirth,
civilization, etc.), and because like all husks and shells the yetzer harah
is destined to be cast aside when it no longer serves its purpose (as we'll
see).
For when the husk rebelled against G-d and thus removed itself from the
natural order of things, it separated the Jewish Nation (represented by the
last of the sephira-levels, which is nourished by the largesse of the lot of
them) from G-d by virtue of the fact that things were no longer 'in place',
as order and hierarchy are the ideal as we said, and 'the more extraneous
levels' were no longer 'below the more exalted ones and ... subservient to
them'.
Not only that but 'as soon as the husk took control of the sephira-levels
the supernal light reversed itself', which is to say that G-d's presence hid
itself, 'the sephirot were no longer joined together, the Divine Flow
diminished, and the Jewish Nation's abilities weakened and lessened.'
And in fact that spiritual chaos and malnourishment is our situation in
exile on an ethereal level." ([Copyright © 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman,
Ramchal, 'The Great Redemption', 'Exile', Chapter 7, Project Genesis])
Thus in this example, the husk or the outer shell {Nature amended in its
Nature {Engendering Nature}} as the New Year's formulation adopted as part
of the Gregorian calendar reforms of 1582 CE might be considered at the
personal level, the equivalent to our New Year's Resolution custom, whereby
one might purge themselves of undesireable compulsions in much the same way
as the 'yetzer harah that is destined to be cast aside when it no longer
serves its purpose'. Or undertake some corrective and restorative action.
But there is also a cosmic kernel correspondence which proffers a resistance
to Godliness and in point of fact rebels against God as MALAKOS [Luke
7:24-28; Matthew 11:23-30; Damascus Document 8:3-12]: "While we pursue those
government ministers asleep at the wheel of the ship of state, let's also
castigate ourselves and remind ourselves that it is only a materialistic,
utilitarian people which is collectively able to work the public conscience
into such a state of submission so that the nation is able to trade
successfully with a corrupt despot while convincing itself that necessary
and justified sanctions are honoured and all is in readiness for war."
([Jesuit priest, lawyer and academic Frank Brennan, annual Manning Clark
lecture, 2 March 2006; source: The Australian 3 March 2006, Jill Rowbotham,
'Priest laments society's "moral lethargy"])
It is this knowledge duality {eg: "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem
{House of Bread} of Judaea in the days of Herod {son of a hero} the king,
behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem {VISION OF PEACE: The
Autonomous Nature as Forma Corporis is the equivalent to the demiurge as
supernatural animating agent within the universe [Exodus 23:20-24; Acts
12:20-24] as the Shekinah [#11, #2, #37, #47 * Ignorant Guides/ Viewing the
Distant, #75 - The Destructiveness of Envy/ Harmed Through Greed, #28, #32,
#81, #30]. And who was especially important as having an associated
equivalence to the Almighty [Genesis 17:1] as Shaddai {Heb. Shin (#300)
Daleth (#4) Yod (#10) = #314 % 81 = #71 as [#5, #21, #11, #71 * Know-How as
a Disease/ The Disease of Knowledge, #58 - Political Reversal/ Adaptation to
Change, #24, #65, #34, #6]} being proposed by Yang Hsiung's (53 [4] BCE - 18
CE) T'ai Hsuan Ching (Canon of Supreme Mystery on Causality -- Natural
Divination) is as follows:
a) Yang - #44 - Moderate Values/ Setting Up Precepts (May 26-31)
b) Yin - #50 - Fantasies of Avoiding Death/ Estimation of Life (Nov 28-Dec
2)
c) Zhun - #73 - Employing Deeming/ Daring to Act (Jan 16-20)
d) One - #15 - Mastering Guiding Discourse/ Revealers of Virtue (Dec 22-26)
}, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his
star in the east, and are come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard
these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. ... [W]hen Herod
saw that he was deceived by the wise men, [being] exceedingly angry; he sent
forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in
all the districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which
he had determined from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by
Jeremiah {exaltation of the Lord} the prophet, saying, 'A voice was heard in
Ramah/Ram {elevated; sublime}, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning,
Rachel {sheep} weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because
they were no more.'" [Matthew 2:1-3]
} of what is both an ontological and cosmic realm which John Polkinghorne
suggests within his Terry lectures, celebrating 300 years of the Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge, is the basis of the definition of religious
belief issued by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 CE, bringing into play the
full resources of Greek philosophy in an effort to articulate orthodox
understanding of the Status of Christ: "One and the same Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and
truly man, ... One and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognised
in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without
separation." ([Copyright © 1998, John Polkinghorn, 'Does God Act in the
Physical World', 'Belief in God in an Age of Science', p 67])
As suggested within my 24 June - 20 July chapter titled, 'Course-TROCHOS of
nature-GENESIS or world-KOSMOS of iniquity-ADIKIA?', the essence of orthodox
asceticism is a convoluted process of detachment from reality, involving a
paradoxical subordination of self to an inner perception or apparition of
mind; {Gk. horama}, as self-grandising hallucinatory autosuggestion and
deification in claimed unity with one's inner daemon. [#6, #69, #20, #70 *
Difficulty in Knowing How/ Difficult to Understand, #70, #3, #69, #60, #14 -
Kether (Crown)] Whereby the "heart has been purified of all thoughts; that
his nous has been liberated from fantasy, logic and the passions and has
returned to the heart and been united with it in the Holy Spirit".
Its monasticism proscribes, that the knowing of truth is attained by one
whose nous is unified in his heart. In order to bring this about, the
ascetic decides to live a reclusive and mystical life and feels a distaste
for everything which disunites his nous. [#1, #5, #61, #81 * Making the
Essence Clear/ Propounding the Essential, #5 - Natural Guidance/ The
Function of Emptiness, #16, #31, #61, #15] - Chokmah (Wisdom)]
Man's soul is thought by the ascetic, to being tripartite. In other words it
has three powers, the intelligent, the incensive and the appetitive. When
the soul is ill, its three powers are also ill. Christ began his cure of the
soul with the appetitive power. For desire unsatisfied fuels the incensive
power, and then the intelligence too is ill. Therefore the incensive power
of the soul cannot be cured before the appetitive power is cured, nor can
the intelligence be cured until the other two powers have been cured. [#15,
#7, #47, #67 * Three Treasures {kindness, frugality and no presumption that
one is first among all under Heaven}, #71 - Know-How as a Disease/ The
Disease of Knowledge, #11, #48, #51, #48 - Thrones (Saturn)] ([St. Maximos
the Confessor (580-662 CE), Vladimir's Seminary Press, On the Cosmic Mystery
of Jesus Christ, Ambiguum 7 Section I, p 53-54])
- dolf
- <http://home.iprimus.com.au/telos/rottenburg.html>
- <http://home.iprimus.com.au/telos/sally.html>
- <http://home.iprimus.com.au/telos/kant.html>
November 28, 2005, Monday 12:26 PM Eastern Time
IRAQ VOWS TO HELP FIND KIDNAPPED BRITON
PA Reporters
The Iraqi government has pledged "every assistance" in helping to find a
British peace activist kidnapped in Baghdad, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
said today.
Retired Professor Norman Kember was snatched alongside two Canadians and an
American in Baghdad on Saturday.
Mr Kember, a grandfather and a former professor at a teaching hospital, who
is believed to be in his 70s, is a former secretary of the Baptist Peace
Fellowship and a trustee of the Christian peace organisation the Fellowship
for Reconciliation.
The Foreign Office would not confirm who he was working for or the location
where he was kidnapped.
In another development in Iraq two Britons were killed and three others
injured earlier today in an attack on a bus carrying Muslim pilgrims south
of Baghdad.
The Shiite pilgrims, from the the Husaini Masjid (mosque) in Northolt, west
London, were en route to religious sites when they were ambushed by gunmen
as they neared a checkpoint in the Dora neighbourhood, according to Iraqi
police.
The two shot dead were named by a member of their religious community as
Businessmen Saifuddin Makai, 39, from Streatham, south London, and Husain
Mohammedali, 50, from Harrow, north west London.
They were on a pilgrimage to holy shrines at Kerbala, Najaf and Kufa,
according to a friend of the victims Shabbir Abidali.
He named the wounded as Yahya Gulamali, 60, and Ali Qaiyoom, 46, both
businessmen, from Harrow, and Miss Zehra Jafferjee, 60, from Wembley, north
west London.
The Foreign Office did not confirm the names of those involved.
Commenting on the kidnapping Mr Straw, in Barcelona at the Euromed Summit,
said: "I discussed this matter this morning with Foreign Minister
(Hoshyar) Zebari of Iraq. He has pledged every assistance from the Iraqi
government.
"This is a very, very difficult and very worrying situation for his family
and Mr Kember.
"We remain in touch with his family."
He added: "The United Kingdom does not pay ransoms."
Colleagues of Mr Kember have paid tribute to the individual they described
as a man of integrity and a tireless peace campaigner who attended the big
anti-Iraq war demonstrations in London.
The retired professor, of Pinner, north-west London, was reportedly taken
from a potentially dangerous district of western Baghdad along with the
three other members of his group.
A statement from the Baptist Union of Great Britain said: "Professor Norman
Kember has been a consistent campaigner on peace issues all his life, and he
travelled to Iraq as a peace activist.
"He is a long-standing member of the Baptist Peace Fellowship and of College
Road Baptist Church in Harrow, and our prayers are with his wife and family
at this time."
Chris Cole, director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, said: "He has
consistently opposed war and violence. He has worked for peace and to
educate in particular young people about non-violence and the power of
non-violence.
"All members and supporters of our organisation are praying for him and his
wife, Pat."
Mrs Kember made no comment this afternoon as she left the couple's home and
was driven away to an unknown location.
Last night she said her husband was "representing a number of different
organisations," adding: "People are being very, very good to me and I'm
being supported."
The couple's daughter Jo Thomas and her husband Ian, who works as a lifeboat
helmsman in Weymouth, Dorset, where the family lives, have travelled to
London to be with Mrs Kember.
Allen Birch, press officer for Weymouth lifeboat station, who is a friend of
the Thomas family and Mr Kember, said: "I know him very well. He's a very
sincere man, a man committed to peace.
"He is a solid Christian and his life-long work has been working towards
peace and I understand he has gone to Iraq on a peace mission.
"The family are quite upset at the moment, quite obviously, and I know Ian
has taken his wife Jo up to London to give support to her mother."
Up to 200 foreigners have been abducted in Iraq over the past year and a
half.
Two British civilians were taken hostage and killed.
Aid worker Margaret Hassan, who was head of Care International in Iraq and
had lived in the country for 30 years, was kidnapped in October last year.
Her body has never been found, but she is believed to have been murdered.
Kenneth Bigley, a 62-year-old engineer, was kidnapped in September last year
and beheaded, with his death captured on video.
November 28, 2005
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"Russ T. Nale" <His_child2005yourhat@yahoo.com.au> wrote in message
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Why are we here?
by Tom Fox
The day before he was abducted in Iraq, with three other members of
Christian Peacemakers, Tom Fox wrote the following reflection.
"Be patterns, be examples in every country, place, or nation that you
visit, so that your bearing and life might communicate with all people.
Then you'll happily walk across the earth to evoke that of God in
everybody. So that you will be seen as a blessing in their eyes and you
will receive a blessing from that of God within them." (George Fox)
The Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) Iraq team went through a discernment
process, seeking to identify aspects of our work here in Iraq that are
compelling enough to continue the project and comparing them with the
costs (financial, psychological, and physical) that are also aspects of
the project. It was a healthy exercise, but it led me to a somewhat larger
question: Why are we here?
If I understand the message of God, his response to that question is that
we are to take part in the creation of the Peaceable Realm of God. Again,
if I understand the message of God, how we take part in the creation of
this realm is to love God with all our heart, our mind and our strength
and to love our neighbours and enemies as we love God and ourselves. In
its essential form, different aspects of love bring about the creation of
the realm.
I have read that the word in the Greek Bible that is translated as "love"
in the word "agape". Again, I have read that this word is best expressed
as a profound respect for all human beings simply for the fact that they
are all God's children. I would state that idea in a somewhat different
way, as "never thinking or doing anything that would dehumanize one of my
fellow human beings."
As I survey the landscape here in Iraq, dehumanization seems to be the
operative means of relating to each other. US forces in their quest to
hunt down and kill 'terrorists' are as a result of this dehumanizing word,
not only killing "terrorists", but also killing innocent Iraqis: men,
women and children in the various towns and villages.
It seems as if the first step down the road to violence is taken when I
dehumanize a person. That violence might stay within my thoughts or find
its way into the outer world and become expressed verbally,
psychologically, structurally or physically. As soon as I rob a fellow
human being of his or her humanity by sticking a dehumanizing label on
them, I begin the process that can have, as an end result, torture, injury
and death.
"Why are we here?" We are here to root out all aspects of dehumanization
that exists within us. We are here to stand with those being dehumanized
by oppressors and stand firm against that dehumanization. We are here to
stop people, including ourselves, from dehumanizing any of God's children,
no matter how much they dehumanize their own souls.
These are the last comments Tom wrote on his web diary, Waiting in the
Light, before he was kidnapped:
The ongoing difficulties faced by Fallujans are so great that words fail
to properly express it. Words from a cleric in Fallujah as he tried to
explain the litany of ills that continue to afflict his city one year
after the U.S.-led assault took place.
All the men in the mosque were from my neighbourhood. They were not
terrorists. Words from a young man who said he left a room of men either
injured or homeless thirty minutes before the raid on his mosque, the same
mosque shown in the now-famous videotape of an American soldier shooting
unarmed men lying on the mosque floor.
There havent been any funds for home reconstruction available since the
change in Iraqi government last January. The words of a civic leader from
Fallujah as he showed CPTers the still-devastated areas of his city.
There are no words. A city that has been demonized by Americans and many
Iraqis, using the words the city of terrorists. A city that its residents
call the city of mosques. A city that even its residents have to enter at
checkpoints, often taking up to an hour to traverse. A city that is being
choked to death economically by those same checkpoints.
CPTers and a member of the Muslim Peacemaker Teams came to Fallujah to
meet with friends and contacts to ask them if the city was planning on
doing something in remembrance of the tragic events of last November when
U.S. forces attacked their city of 300,000 to root out, by U.S. estimates,
1,500 terrorists.
What we heard in response were words of remembrance, resistance and
resilience. The cleric said that a number of civic leaders had come to him
with a proposal for an action in remembrance of the anniversary. Their
proposal was to raise funds to contribute to relief efforts for the
victims of the earthquake in Pakistan. He said that a teaching of Islam is
to always look to aid others in need before asking for aid yourself.
The cleric said that he recently travelled to another Middle Eastern
country and during his visit he met with a cleric from Libya. The Libyan
cleric said that in his city, and in other places in Libya, parents are
naming newborn girls Fallujah in honour of the city. The cleric said that
more than 800 girls had been named Fallujah in his city alone.
Words are inadequate, but words are all we have. Words like collective
punishment and ghettoize come to mind for the current state of life in
Fallujah.
What words or deeds could undo the massive trauma faced by the people of
Fallujah every day? Everywhere we went during the afternoon young boys
listened to our words and the words of those with whom we were meeting. I
kept wondering what was going on in their minds as they relived the events
of a year ago and the ensuing trauma. What effect will these events have
on their lives as they grow up?
There are no words.
Tom Fox is a Quaker. For the past two years he has worked with Christian
Peacemaker Teams in partnership with Iraqi human rights organizations.
Christian Peacemaker Teams is an initiative of the historic peace churches
(Mennonites, Church of the Brethren, and Quakers) with support and
membership from a range of Catholic and Protestant denominations.
Supporting violence-reduction efforts around the world is its mandate.
Article reproduced with the kind permission of Christian Peacemaker Teams
--
Russ T. Nale
http://grace.break.at
God is still speaking
http://www.stillspeaking.com
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