"Religious" musings

[Karen Willmus]

For those of you who don't know me (which is all of you, I guess) I'm a person who generally looks on the humorous side of things.  I'm the one who originally referred to the list as a "Christian" list and I've enjoyed reading the reactions.  Please note, Scott, in my original post I used the word in quotation marks.  Even if it sounds like it, I never did mean to imply that all the people subscribing to the list were Christian, just as I'm not naive enough to believe that all the people sitting in a Church on any given Sunday morning are Christian.  However, I was responding to the question of whether to leave the Matamoros up or not, and that certainly is a Christian topic.  I'm glad the question was raised in the first place.

I am interested in hearing people who are not Christian tell about their impressions of the pilgrimage, and of the cathedrals, etc.  What non-Christians think of the Matamoros and what Christians do or say with this symbol is very important to me.  It's not that I feel the need to PLEASE anyone, but it's still nice to get the feedback.

There are a lot of things in history we would like to change, but of course can't.  My ancestors had nothing whatsoever to do with slavery (they were Norwegian) but they settled on land in North Dakota less than 6 years after the Sioux nation had been massacred and driven into reservations.  Ironically, I've been in situations where black Americans have tried to make me feel guilty for the sins of my forefathers (in Norway?), but the Native Americans who have been my friends have never commented negatively that my family's farm encompasses several hundred acres of former Sioux homeland.  I am acutely aware of it, nonetheless.  But I didn't control the railroads, I didn't control my grandfather, and I don't control my brother who farms the land now. 

What I can do is honor the memory of the people who came before me by telling their stories as truthfully as I can.  Lies divide people, not truth.  I would expect a Christian to use every effort to tell the truth.  I would not expect a cathedral which has weathered 500 years of turbulent human history to be decorated in cheescake and fluff.  Christianity is a religion which should deal honestly with corruption in the world, and if there are statues and artwork which harken back to painful history, then let them be seen, only be sure to let them be interpreted with truth and not prejudice. 

 I thought the observation someone made that the Spanish appreciated and preserved the mosques and synagogues to be especially touching.  It is good for us to educate ourselves as to the true events and nature of the strife between Christians and Muslims and Jews.  The intertwined history of those three faiths is a mind-boggling thing which affects us all daily, whether you believe in God or not.  If we tried to be politically correct, the first thing we should get rid of is the Old Testament.  But how can we throw out one of the cornerstones of our civilization?

To me, the Camino is a microcosm of the journey we take through life.  Some take the journey with every intention of finding God.  Some take the journey not knowing what they are seeking.  Some take the journey out of fun, or adventure, or because of a relationship with someone else.  But the reasons you start out on the road may have very little to do with what you find.  One of my friends who walked the Camino let home as a pot-smoking rock-and-roll drummer.  Fifteen years later, he became a priest.

El Camino had everything to do with it.

Peace to you all,

Karen
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