Play Nicely (Love Thy Neighbour, Part II)
Date Friday, March 29, 2024 - 02:55 AM PST
Topic Religion


(This article was written in response to the postings under "Love Thy Neighbour, Dammit!")

Many people these days seem to have lost their minds to a book, or are victims of those who have had their minds sucked out by this text, the Bible. More specifically, the altered-to-fit-our-view bible that was produced by the Vatican to justify their power and play down the validity of others. If you read a non-editorialized version (i.e. not the KJV that was essentially the world according to James) you will see that certain groups were mentioned when the 'make no pacts' thing was stated to the nation of Israel. This is because these groups were hostile to the fledgling nation of Israel and would practice treachery and deceit in the event of a peace treaty, besides having idolatrous or other offensive practices that would possibly spread to the people of Israel if contact were encouraged (they had enough trouble staying away from things like that in the first place, like Baal and the calf).
Jews are to love their neighbours, to not impose upon these neighbours (neither a lender nor a borrower be) and to deal with them fairly inasmuch as you can still profit from the trade (you gotta make a living). Brothers, other members of the twelve tribes, were to be given preferential treatment for the betterment of the nation, and this is still evidenced today with the custom of selling to friends and relatives wholesale. However, if a neighbour is hostile to you or is preparing to attack you, the order is to strike him with as much force as necessary to stop his attack and deter him from any future attacks, a policy which has served well the tiny state of Israel since its contentious birth in 1948 and which is practiced by most of the more successful nations on earth like Japan (1941, Pearl Harbour, in response to a likely invasion fleet being assembled).

Muslims have the principle of the people of the book, but this is contradicted by the modern Imams, who seem to preach only hate for all others including Jews and Christians and Zoroastrians, the previously mentioned book people. Likewise, many of us here have experienced hate from Christians due to fundamentalist indoctrination bestowed upon brainwashed followers despite the actual words of the Gospels (and I do not include the Epistles here, since they seem to encourage hate against women, homosexuals, Jews, and just about everyone else). The fact is, people are prone to hate and violence for some reason and will find a way within the construct of any religious system to commit violence, doubly so if they can find a passage out of context (like the one you clipped earlier about the no pacts or amends) that will justify their actions. An example of this is the two world idea in Islam, that there is a World of Islam (Submission (to Allah)) and a World of Struggle (usually interpreted as spiritual struggle, a place you go to spread spirituality to those not 'of the book')...which has been reinterpreted as the World of War, the place you go to kill the infidel. The original intentions of both Christianity and Islam were to enact a reform of Judaism and return to its roots as they were at Sinai, as there had been considerable drift or adaptation to the times, depending upon who you ask. Both of the chief figures of these religions attempted to address these concerns to the Priests and Rabbis of their time, only to be rejected since they were outsiders and most people resist change, so after their deaths their teachings have been interpreted as a new rejectionist religion. This is a normal progression of things generally, as you will always have old-school and new-school people at odds with each other and resulting splinter groups, but people lose track of just how closely related and bound these three faiths are.

Since you, Arthegarn, are in the country (one of my ancestral lands) and religion responsible for such high points in history as the invasion of Iberia (where the greatest seat of learning probably ever, between Jewish and Muslim scholars, was destroyed by invading Christians), the Edict of Expulsion (love thy neighbour unless he doesn't convert, then make him not your neighbour), and the Inquisition (Auto da fe, anyone?), your comments do not surprise me as I am sure these attitudes are still pervasive in everyday culture there and seem normal to those immersed in it. These attitudes and misconceptions were prevalent in the years leading up to the second World War (the Great Patriotic War, for you CIS residents) as well, and account for the alarming numbers of common people committing executions before the invading Teutonic troops could arrive.

Modern Israel is confronted with a difficult situation, one which actually started years before there was a state there. There was rampant Muslim violence against anybody they did not like in the land, and the whole area was under British control as a result of the raw deal given to the Ottoman Empire by the Europeans. The Balfour declaration attempted to rectify this by creating an Arab state and a Jewish state in the land known as Palestine since the Romans named it such as an insult. When the declaration was presented, immigration began from the Arab states into the lands which were largely vacant, with the express purpose of demographically preventing anything but Arab land being formed there (many of them had designs on restoring a pan-Arab caliphate that would turn all Arab nations into one big kingdom and restore what was lost when the area was partitioned by outsiders at the end of WWI). When the Arab armies invaded in 1948 (the same day that David Ben Gurion gave his famous radio address declaring the establishment of the state) they drove out or caused to flee these same immigrants, and these are the people who now claim right of return. Thing is, very few people were there before Balfour, and in fact the so-called Omar Mosque (Dome of the Rock) was in disrepair in the late 1800s as it had been built there mostly to desecrate what they believed to be the site of Herod's Temple. The one thing I will assert is that there is currently a difficult situation in that area where conflicting sets of entitlements are complicating what would otherwise be a secession situation, and that wrongs are committed on both sides due to the intensity of this conflict and the fact that it involves primarily civilians.

Judgment day. Everybody thinks they are doing what is correct, but of course not everybody can be right. There is a concept in Judaism of the Righteous Gentile, one who will be given honoured status in the End Times due to living respecfully and properly without being of any certain religion. Can you say that about the other two Judaic faiths? Muslims keep the laws that were laid down in what you call the "Old Testament", such as not eating the flesh of unclean animals like swine (when was the last time you ate from a salted ham that was in somebody's kitchen on a rack?) and observing the Sabbath by not working or dealing with worldly matters. Tell me, o righteous one, on what day do you pray and contemplate and do no work, do not travel, carry nothing, write nothing, light not or extinguish not a flame, and so on? Most Christians do not follow the commandments that they say makes the difference between them and the damned, not the ten or the seven or the 613(If Christians consider themselves, as the Muslims do, the rightful heirs of the Covenants, they must obey all the laws since they have not been revoked and are part and parcel of the Covenants...if they consider themselves Gentiles then there are only seven laws (the Noahide, or laws of Noah) that they need to be concerned with, including not worshipping any other gods as the Trinity concept treads dangerously close to doing) and therefore are on shaky ground to "cast the first stones" as it has been my experience they do frequently. On Judgment Day/End Times/Rapture/whatever the only thing that will matter is righteousness and whether you were a good person, and when I look around me I see good people who are Satanists, Wiccans, Picts, Buddhists, Christians, Jews, Asatru, Greco-Roman Pagans, Setians, Muslims, Hindus, and people who just can't decide but still think it is cool to be nice. The one thread that runs through all these people is that they would get along if they lived in a house together and think that people should be considerate and understanding (as in, actually taking the time (as some of you seem to have with Satanism) to learn about the other person's perspective instead of dismissing it) and kind to their fellow creatures just because it is the right thing to do.

Unfortunately there are bad seeds in all these groups, people that pontificate or lecture others about how they are wrong and they are damned for all time because they don't do this thing or that thing right, or just plain act with hostility and inconsideration toward others...and these people cause others to form incorrect stereotypes about their groups and cause intergroup hatred and fear, as evidenced by earlier statements about how the Jews are not supposed to love their neighbours. Ask anybody that knows me how I treat others, and I think you will get a surprise because I love my neighbours in as many ways as possible (twice in the naughty ways)...

Besides all of this, for the benefit of you 'Kabbalists', KBL or Kabbalah (the word that can be spelled any way you want since it is only three consonants meaning 'tradition') is a Hebrew (or possibly more correctly, Haviru, ancient Hebrew) word and a Hebrew tradition that predates Judaism, so if you are to love your neighbours with the exception of 'those non-neighbour-loving Jews' I guess you will have to cast that body of work aside as worthless as well.

Recognising that we have a worldwide readership here in our little corner of the web, I would like to explain something about schools in the United States since I know little of other systems except for Belgium. We are taught in our pre-first grade, otherwise known as Kindergarten (roughly 'Garden of Children') to Play Nicely and Share Your Toys, Don't Hate Anybody, and Get To Know Someone Before You Decide If You Like Them Or Not. If everybody would really learn and practice these rules (they're not just for rug rats anymore) we would all get along fine, without religious territorial pissings or spouses fighting over suspected affairs (spouses are property?) or theft or greed or anything that necessitates a pile of statutes with which you could wipe your arse for all eternity and never run out of pages.

Now everybody find a blackboard and a good piece of squeaky chalk and write ten times each:
  • I will play nicely.
  • I will share my toys.
  • I will not hate anybody.
  • I will see the inner good in everybody.
  • I will treat others as I want them to treat me.
  • Each person is as good as
    every other person.
  • Devin is a currant.


-Rogue

Le joli rouge

Ich suche nach Klugheit und Wahrheit.




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