Keeping in mind that their focus yesterday was the sign put up by a Baptist minister in No. Carolina, and their press release in which they stressed that that minister has the right of free speech, today CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) leads its daily newsletter with these verses:
“Behold! The angels said: ‘O Mary! God giveth thee glad tidings of a Word from Him. His name will be Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, held in honor in this world and the Hereafter and in (the company of) those nearest to God.'”
The Holy Quran, 3:45
“We gave (Jesus) the Gospel (Injeel) and put compassion and mercy into the hearts of his followers.”
The Holy Quran, 57:27
HADITH OF THE DAY: ALL THE PROPHETS ARE BROTHERS
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “Both in this world and in the Hereafter, I am the nearest of all people to Jesus, the son of Mary. The prophets are paternal brothers; their mothers are different, but their religion is one.”
And CAIR adds:
BAPTIST LEADER CONDEMNS ANTI-MUSLIM CHURCH MESSAGE — more below:
Morris H. Chapman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Southern Baptist Executive Committee, issued the following statement regarding a controversy sparked by an anti-Muslim message displayed outside a North Carolina Baptist church: (See article below for background. The Southern Baptist Convention has more than 43,000 churches with more than 16 million members.)
“It is lamentable that Rev. Lovelace displayed a message on the sign in front of his church that applauds the desecration of the Koran. I do not know Rev. Lovelace personally, but no doubt he believes strongly in the Bible as God’s Word and Jesus Christ as the sole means of salvation for mankind, as do all Southern Baptists.
“Of course, the Koran does not support the beliefs of Southern Baptists, but we recognize and respect the rights of Muslims to believe as they choose. Furthermore, Southern Baptists wish to relate to our Muslim neighbors in a respectful manner that allows mutual sharing of our beliefs.
“The Southern Baptist Convention does not control the actions of any member church. It is not a denominational hierarchy. We cooperate as a network of churches and each church is autonomous, acting under its own authority. However, I know the heartbeat of Southern Baptists and I’m confident they will deeply regret the public display of this disrespectful comment about the Koran.”
It kind of reminds me of Rachel Corrie in front of the tank, which always makes me think of the Bible verse about laying down one’s life for one’s friends.
And in a perfect world, juggernauts could be stopped, and clocks turned back on events set in motion long, long ago because of the courage and nobility of a handful of people with more faith in the human species than I am capable of.
What I am capable of is remembering the lyrics from that old musical about Don Quixote, “strove with his last ounce of courage…”
To dream … the impossible dream …
To fight … the unbeatable foe …
To bear … with unbearable sorrow …
To run … where the brave dare not go …
To right … the unrightable wrong …
To love … pure and chaste from afar …
To try … when your arms are too weary …
To reach … the unreachable star …
This is my quest, to follow that star …
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far …
To fight for the right, without question or pause …
To be willing to march into Hell, for a Heavenly cause …
And I know if I’ll only be true, to this glorious quest,
That my heart will lie will lie peaceful and calm,
when I’m laid to my rest …
And the world will be better for this:
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,
To reach … the unreachable star …
link
Don’t know why but this song always makes me cry.
…when Don Quixote de la Mancha sings it. When the song ended you could literally feel the energy going back and forth between the actor and the audience.
It’s one of those musical experiences I’ve not forgotten.
Andy
Sarasota
I’m sure most of you saw Lovelace on Olbermann the other night. What a maroon! His eye twitches were driving me crazy. Brain damage? I suggested to my husband. “No,” he replied, “Pure stupidity.” I loved that Keith just let the guy talk, revealing to the world what a total ignorant bigot he is. Funny how in all of his quoting of what Jesus said, he forgot the part about Love being the Whole of the Law.
What a good point. Keith just let him go on, didn’t he — didn’t interrupt, didn’t balk, didn’t badger. Just said afterwards, something to the effect that “that’s not the Jesus I learned about.”
KO is priceless.
It’s the season finale of “Lost” and that’s what I’ll be watching. For weeks now, I’ve missed Wednesday nights with Keith because I sought respite from constant political consciousness by immersing myself in this strange X-Files/Survivor show. Ah, but next week, it’s re-runs and I’ll add my viewership to Keith’s ratings mid-week.
And yes, that’s the sum-up I recall: “That’s not the Jesus I learned about.” What a fine boy. His mother must be so proud.
Ohhhh .. it’s a two-hour finale! I have to tape it for my daughter.
When I’ve watched it, it’s made me giggle. I’m sorry. That French woman last week, looking grave and distressed, “The otthhhhheeeeeers.”
Yep, it’s the absurdity that hooked me. I like my diversions to be mainly meaningless. Otherwise, they provoke me and then I might as well be watching Hardball. Totally gave up on “Revelations,” by the way. It had the mainly meaningless part going for it but I could not engage with the primary characters. On “Lost,” I can at least focus on the sexy hunk, the recovering drug addict/rock star, and marvel at the weirdo commando guy. Not to mention the sexual tension between the doctor and the murderess. And the cute kid and his dad.
And I’m fascinated by a show that features a hugely obese guy in a sympathic light. What was the casting director thinking? Hey, let’s get a guy most of our couch potato audience can relate to?
Darn. The Amber Frey movie is on CBS. What to do, what to do.
O Gawd, Susan. No contest. We got the Amber Frey story already by perusing People mag while standing in line at the grocery check-out. “Lost” wins because, ya know, they just might find a space creature inside if they blow the capsule hatch off. Or, the folks on the raft may discover they’re all inside a domed set like that Jim Carrey movie… being watched by space creatures. Or… I’m likely to be disappointed and write a diary tomorrow morning about meaningless diversions.
Years ago, I’ll never forget: I took my kids to see “Edward Scissorhands” and afterwards I was ranting about how vapid it all was. My son, who was 14 or 15 at the time, said, “But, Mom, it doesn’t have to mean anything.” It was a revelation. I put on the brakes and turned around to look at him in the back seat. It was the moment that I realized that substance and meaning were old-fashioned; style and eye-candy are all that matter.
Meaningless stuff is fun! It’s why I love shows like South Park, etc. Oh, and one of my pet peeves is people who say, with their noses pointed downward, “Oh, I NEVER watch television.” When I’m really tired or don’t feel good, there’s nothing quite like it. I felt much better after I read the long New Yorker story about Noam Chomsky who said that he and his wife, before they go to sleep, watch Law & Order at 10PM! 🙂
OK, I just did that to get your attention. 🙂
But I don’t watch a lot of TV anymore. I’ve always been more of a radio guy anyway, and besides, we have an eight-year-old Entertainment Czar in the house. It’s a sad commentary on the state of my life that the interval between Rugrats episodes I’ve never seen before is getting longer and longer.
One of the high prices of being a parent! This is fun:
http://www.vanaqua.org/home/
— the beluga cam — it’s mesmerizing
heh heh.
Not the cam, which I didn’t know they had (and thanks for the link), but I remember one afternoon in Vancouver when we had been silly enough to walk from our hotel on Robson St. to the Aquarium in Stanley Park. It isn’t that far, we thought. We could use the walk, we thought. It’s a nice day out, we thought.
One out of three is good, right?
So once we got there we spent an hour or so just watching the belugas swim back and forth while Mrs. Omir’s knee rested up. It was very relaxing.
Here’s my favorite Canadian cam link:
http://www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/visit-museum/webcam.html
I’m looking at it at night right now and I can’t remember if you can see the Johnson St. bridge (it’d be a big blue bridge in the background), but if you can our favorite hotel is just to the right of the bridge. The view is of Victoria’s Inner Harbour, a lovely place to spend some time. The cam is sponsored by the Royal British Columbia Museum, another lovely place to spend some time.
Looks like the Johnson St. Bridge and therefore Swans Hotel is off the right side of the picture.