Log In reports on its Ramadan-dinner---celebrating 'fasting for peace'? I don't know what to think about it---I mean; the basic premise of Islam is (as far as I can tell) "Just be cool, man! God--strike that--Allah might be nice--if He feels like it--so just Be cool and maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones!" And--while that is nice-and-peaceful--'do the bare-minimum and hope you get lucky (doing nothing to "earn" your place)' doesn't seem very American. (Christianity is closer; simplifying-down to "do nothing, KNOWING THAT YOUR PLACE HAS BEEN EARNED & -GIVEN TO YOU---with a contract signed in BLOOD, no less!" That's closer to the good ol` American 'Work hard and earn your place'-ethic.) Makes me wonder, though; what other religious-holidays does the White House celebrate? Are there any they ought to add or -stop celebrating? (Which? & Why? ... Wherefore? Whither? Whence? To what extent? Etc? )
Doesn't seem American? Perhaps not as we today think of it. The major religion of the U.S. is Christianity which we got from the Europeans who came over here and set up their colonies. Had they not done that and been so insistent and active on conversion, we might be praying to the spirits of nature or whatever the indigenous peoples believed and basing our laws on theirs. (I said "might", not "would". I'm not a Time Lord.) When people came here from all over, they had their own beliefs too, it's just that the Christians were more numerous and decided just about everything to do with the way things are run. I know nothing about Islam, I should probably look it up. I would like to see the White House celebrating, no matter what holidays they decide. The people who run our government work harder than we give them credit for and they deserve a break sometimes.
Christianity--according to the pastor ofLog In I attend--is the only religion that 'provides a way out of eternal doom' (rather than just 'a long list of rituals you perform to take your mind off the worry that God/Allah might just decide to send you to Hell for no-reason-at-all). Kinda makes 'celebrating the holiday of any other religion' seem a bit like 'going to your barber to get your medicine & -your leeching.'
Ah, I see you changed churches! It's good to see that you have found a place that suits you more than that one you were going to before. Anyway, that's a way of thinking about things that I hadn't considered at the time I wrote that. I was only thinking that it would be a way of both honoring the traditions of others and taking the government people's mind off of government matters, perhaps turning it more towards the spiritual and getting them thinking about their own faiths. I still haven't looked up Islam yet, as I was busy with friends and working on getting into culinary classes last night, but I do plan to. It's just that other things take priority right now. (Yeah, I know, put something off now and, next thing you know, it's a hundred years later Thanks, Fifth Doctor quote in my head.)
I don't think I exactly 'changed' churches. More like I 'added' a church-or-two. (Like a well-balanced diet takes food from MORE THAN ONE food-group, my spiritual-diet takes The Word through several different 'filters' ... new-discussion idea(s) ) And you're right. Religion is kind of 'the way that people make peace-with-themselves,' and--government's main function being 'to keep peace'--it's wise to connect with people right at their 'source of inner-peace'
