Blog
ANTI-RELIGIOUS PROPAGANDA
Working for the United Nations is an honor. The UN’s core values reflect a desire for a better, safer, freer society for all. Its charter includes the purposes “promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.”
TOLERANCE
In 1963, Martin Luther King had a dream. A dream of freedom and equality for all. He got shot for it. The bullet which killed him is what one could call the essence of “unwillingness to accept views, beliefs, or behavior that differ from one’s own.” This is the exact definition of “intolerance.”
TOLERANCE
Change won’t happen unless you and I stand up for what is right and demand that our beliefs—whatever they may be—are respected as they should be.
TOLERANCE
While there is no rote answer to that question, I believe that upholding free expression has two sides. One side, of course, is keeping it free. The other, perhaps not as obvious, is insisting that expression contribute positively to society or at least not weaken the social bonds that make freedom possible.
TOLERANCE
The meaning of the call remains the same, however. The end of a year and the beginning of a new one are a time for reflection, remembrance and, many hope, redemption. In contrast to the festivities and jollity of January 1, the Jewish New Year traditionally is the date that God decides the fate of mankind for the coming year. For 10 days after Rosh Hashanah individuals have the chance through good deeds and prayer to change God’s decision, which isn’t made final, sealed and complete until Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
SCIENTOLOGY RELIGION
Ten years ago, I was a new daddy. With a year-old daughter and my wife and I expecting our second, I was simultaneously in love with this new job of “dad” and utterly fascinated by how this parenting experience was shifting my own understanding of my religion. See, Scientology as a subject is all about helping people improve conditions they face in life, and who’s got more problems than a new parent? I had first shared own my faith online back in 1996 when I made my first webpage, so sharing my family experience seemed a natural extension.
TOLERANCE
The news reminded me of my own visit to Stonehenge some decades ago. Like so many others, I was very curious about what drove a people lacking any sort of technology to haul 20-ton rocks many miles and place them in a precise order. The people who built it in multiple stages between 5,000 and 2,600 years ago left no written history of themselves, so we can only guess.
TOLERANCE
When any label about someone else is offered, peel it back. Find out what’s actually underneath. Free them from the cage in your mind and talk to them honestly. Keep your own counsel. Find your own truths. You don’t need to agree. You don’t have to join them. But having another friend is never bad, even if he is (or especially because he is) from another religion.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
With everything going on in the world right now, it is time to change. It is time to stop condoning discrimination of any kind. I would rather we devoted our energy to teaching the next generation to respect others, their color, beliefs, and religion, instead of having to teach them how to protect themselves from discrimination.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
It was April 2019, the beginning of Easter celebrations in France. That’s when, to the world’s horror, the 850-year-old Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral erupted in flames. Was it just an accident, terrible timing, or did someone intend to set this fire?
