tuluum's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Religion and Damnation I got this last night from Steve's awesome Disseminatrix group... http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/special_packages/iraq/5554317.html Army chaplain offers baptisms, baths BY MEG LAUGHLIN CAMP BUSHMASTER, Iraq - In this dry desert world near Najaf, where the Army V Corps combat support system sprawls across miles of scabrous dust, there's an oasis of sorts: a 500-gallon pool of pristine, cool water. It belongs to Army chaplain Josh Llano of Houston, who sees the water shortage, which has kept thousands of filthy soldiers from bathing for weeks, as an opportunity. ''It's simple. They want water. I have it, as long as they agree to get baptized,'' he said. And agree they do. Every day, soldiers take the plunge for the Lord and come up clean for the first time in weeks. ''They do appear physically and spiritually cleansed,'' Llano said. First, though, the soldiers have to go to one of Llano's hour-and-a-half sermons in his dirt-floor tent. Then the baptism takes an hour of quoting from the Bible. ''Regardless of their motives,'' Llano said, ``I get the chance to take them closer to the Lord.'' A blue-eyed 32-year-old with an abundance of energy, Llano goes out every day to drum up grimy soldiers for his pool. He talks to truck drivers, tank drivers, computer specialists -- anyone and everyone. He goes out to the combat zone to the fighting soldiers and the combat support soldiers who keep them in supplies. ''You have to be aggressive to help people find themselves in God,'' he said. He calls himself a ''Southern Baptist evangelist,'' and justifies the war and killing with a verse from the Gospel of Matthew, which he often recites: ``Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's. ''This means we are called upon by our government to fight and that is giving unto Caesar, as the Bible tells us,'' he said. Earlier this week, word went out that portable showers might be installed here soon, but Llano was undaunted. ''There is no fruit out here, and I have a stash of raisins, juice boxes and fruit rolls to pull out,'' the chaplain said optimistically � Reading this reminded me of an email exchange I had read earlier on a mailing list. Someone made a comment about 'damn Christian missionaries'. Another person stated that Christians can not be 'damned'. It was all very interesting to me. I believe that belief constructs your reality. If that is your belief that is what you will create for yourself. However not even Christians agree on the terms of their religion thus the proliferation of sects and denominations. So the Bible itself is not even as clear as they would want to purport. And, even if it was there is no reason (outside of belief) to assert that it is more valid than the Bhagavad Gita, Koran or Zorostrianism. Religion and theology fascinate me and as a non-Christian it amuses me that Christians rarely consider that maybe they are the ones who have been led astray (not saying they have, but they don't entertain the possibility even when they try to convert others). That strikes me as an arrogance that belies the humility that I feel we should be striving for. I think individual self-reflection, self-awareness and love should be the goals of any spiritually enlightened person and those things are not the domain of any one faith. I believe that G-d manifests in love and spirit and using that definition I can agree that if we reject love and our spirit then we will be living in a Hell of our own doing. That Hell (in my opinion) is as open to Christians as it is to Pagans or Buddhists. If Christians didn't believe that they could be (or are) damned they wouldn't be in such fear of Hell. It's an interesting paradox. I also believe that the concept and message of G-d is too large to be contained, confined to (much less owned and defined by!) any one man-made sociological construct. That's what my faith believes and it too is clear on that point :) Did anyone see the episode of South Park when it turned out that the Mormons were the only ones who go to Heaven? Everyone else was 'damned'. I thought that was peachy :) We'll only know who was right when our time comes. And until then I see little sense in condemn or convert cos you could be wrong, very wrong in the long run. I do not think about Hell or worry about Hell because I have no reason to fear it. I have been taught that if I live the best, most giving life that I can on this earth the rest will take care of itself. Life is here now to be lived. **************************************************************************** Current Clix Ranking: 16 | Previous Clix Ranking: 16 6:50 a.m. - Wednesday, Apr. 09, 2003 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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