Editor’s note: Recently in The Voice, the announcement was made of the death of the conductor of the column, Ask Grandpa, which provided readers with 503 weeks of sage advice, humor, and continuity. Below is the repeat of the November 26, 2020 column. The Voice will continue to offer previous columns. We invite special requests of previous columns..
Grandpa says: May you have a peace filled Thanksgiving. With your indulgence, I would like to share with you a bit of history.
While some are out looking for the best “Black Friday” deals they can find, a significant anniversary in the history of “Peace on Earth” will slip past, totally unrecognized by most Americans. November 27, 1095 was the day that Pope Urban II called the forces of Christendom to war against Muslims. It was less about spreading Christ’s gospel of Peace as it was about a land grab. The claim was that Christians should own the Holy Lands. It is a well-known fact of war that if you own the land, you own the people. Conversion by force was never a precept of Christ. Yet, this Pope’s speech led to 925 years of intolerance between two of the most powerful man-made religions on earth.
That is 925 years and counting. Once it was okay to hate Muslims, credence was given to hate members of other faiths or people of no religious background. Then it became proper to hate people of different skin color, those with differing physical stature, eye configuration, or any other visible body structure, yes, including gender.
Hate became the norm. Soon we began hating those of differing opinions, likes, and even thoughts. We learned that we were to hate anyone who did not hate the right things about others. Hate became the way to teach differing people how to love; if you love someone, you must punish them for not conforming to your ways, thoughts, and looks. The more you hated, the more God would love you and reward you. The quest for God’s love became the driving force to eliminate any competition for that love. We learned to give thanks for being able to conquer others, the land, and even our surroundings. We learned to consider God’s bountiful gifts as rewards for a job well done; supreme dominance over others. We could enslave other peoples through submission, taxation, financial dominance, religious persecution, government mandates, starvation, imprisonment and even outright murder. We used the concept of heaven, a place of eternal peace and glory, to justify the torture and inhumanity of war, street violence, and vindictive killings. We were actually convinced that by killing the nonconformist we were doing him or her a favor by sending them to a better place. And the more people were sent to this better place, the less competition we would have in making this world more like we wanted it to be, ours.
From cultural wars, to land-grabbing wars, to urban unrest, to road rage, domestic violence, all the way down to trying to beat out another shopper for the last great gift on the shelf, hatred and greed fuel our modern-day way of life. That is not how mankind started out in the Garden.
If you must display the attitude of “Deus Vult”, which means “God’s Will”, let it be the Will of God as taught by Mohammed, by Christ, by Buddha. Simply put; “Love thy neighbor.” I bid you peace.