"Religious" musings

[Scott Horton]

Dear Karen,

Got it.  and, as I said, I meant no disprespect in voicing my observation.

xxoo,

Scott


>From: Karen Willmus <willmusaRUNESTONE.NET>
>Reply-To: Road to Santiago Pilgrimage <GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU>
>To: GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU
>Subject: "Religious" musings
>Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 22:47:36 -0500
>
>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