Time to Grow Up
To be clear, I’m not just a yahoo who says they’re a Libertarian and then votes Republican or Democrat. I am an actual Libertarian, cheering and voting for Harry Brown when others were scratching their heads about the lesser of two evils. I worked at the Orange Country Register, for heaven’s sake. So when I say that I like a National Review article, it’s not just because I’m a “conservative” blogger gushing about my favorite outpost of neo-con silliness. No - I’m recommending this article because it says exactly what I’m thinking about the whole Islam-Cartoon-Riot absurdity going on…
Deroy Murdock on Cartoon Jihad on National Review Online
The problem with telling an entire planet of fundamentalist religious groups to “grow up” is that a) it’s not really practical and b) the same cultural institutions that encourage infantile behavior tend to also suppress communication of messages like, “grow up.” Groups like Christian Peacemaker Teams are addressing the problem in the only way I can imagine - taking the benefits of respect and tolerance to groups that desperately need to see a better way. They send people into communities to engage people through relationships and example.
As Quakers, we need to be doing the same in our own neighborhoods. We need to be engaging the religious groups of our communities by building relationships and living out our peace testimony. And maybe we, just like everyone else, need to grow up a little bit and begin the process of going “back home” to the religious traditions we’ve come from and bring back a little of what we’ve learned at the “edge.”
