Tuesday: Silence of the Silent Majority

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross


There is a joy that comes from having true friends that cannot fully be expressed. As we come to the end of the year 2005, I am reminded of the many people that have blessed my life over the years. Some for a sudden encounter while traveling that I never saw again and others that have traveled through life with me for great periods of time.

It is the others that help us define who we are and whom we will become. That is a very precious gift that is above price.

It is written that you cannot change another person but that is so far from the truth that it is almost laughable. You cannot have complete control over another person unless you have them locked in the basement but that isn’t much fun even with a dog it is a rather boring idea. However, we do change each other sometimes in subtle ways and sometimes dramatically.

Have you ever had a friend say something in such a way that all of a sudden you do a total mind shift about an idea or concept?

It is the interaction with others that helps keep our minds growing and expanding and thus that is how we help others change and they help us change. Sometimes even the dumbest statements can have a profound impact on how we perceive our world, our selves, and our realities. I think some of the dumbest statements that I have heard uttered by another human being is Pat Robertson the fundamentalist right wing wacko who claims to be the voice of God incarnate. Now I basically believe that the constitutional guarantee of free speech is more important when it protects the person whom I totally disagree with than protecting those with whom I find conceptually sound. However, when Robertson and his ilk began to use the media to try and legislate morality I must admit I became a bit offended but again he has the right to rant, lie and be delusional or this truly would not be a free country.

I have a little story to illustrate a point about how a friend and an enemy can truly create a mind shift.

Where I live is called by many the Bible belt. I live about an hour from Robertson and his Liberty University. After the daily morning show, on would come dear old Pat the racist, misogynous, homophobe. One morning he suggested that the United States should assassinate the president of Venezuela. This man Pat Robertson if you will recall suggested that the terrorist attacks of 9/11 were the fault of Americans because we were living a life of sin by permitting homosexuals and so forth to do what they do.

It was because of stupidity like this being spoken from the pulpits of churches that I was required to attend growing up that truly caused me a crisis of faith. I think the nail in the coffin that buried my belief was when fundamentalist Christian ministers across the country would use the power of their pulpit to frighten their congregation in order to prevent them from voting for John F. Kennedy. Their reason for fear was that Kennedy was a Catholic and he would have to answer to the Pope of the Catholic church and thus America would be run by the Vatican City.

Every time I hear someone like Robertson I shutter at how people lives are twisted by lies that have nothing to do with God but with the private madness of ministers, religions and their followers. They call themselves Pastors because they are here to guide their flocks of sheep. To be a sheep is to be one who does not think for oneself. These men of God feel that what they speak is literally a channeling of the mind of God.

As you can gather I had developed a mind set about Christians and in particular Protestants. That was until I met a special person named Janet Elaine Smith. Janet had been a missionary to Venezuela for quite a few years. Now when I first heard this I was a little put off because what I had been taught is that the role of a missionary is to proselytize and destroy indigenous religions that were not Christianity. When missionaries were recruited and trained, they were charged to go to the dark continents and save the heathens. Well that might have been what the folks back home thought when Janet went off to Venezuela with a mission to help. Janet did not demonstrate her love of humanity and God by trying to destroy the faith of the people who by the time she arrived were primarily Catholic, instead she reached out with love and kindness to help them create healthier and happier lives. In fact, she was so admired by the people that she was actually invited for dinner at the house of the President of Venezuela.

Now here is where the story gets interesting. Janet and I were talking about Robertson’s call to assassinate the President of Venezuela. As I snickeringly said to her: that is just so Christian of him! She laughed at my statement. The next time I talked to her she had personally called the Venezuelan Ambassador to the United States. How she got through to him is another story best told by her. However, she did get him on the phone and she reportedly said to him. Mr. Ambassador, I am a former missionary to Venezuela and while I was there I even had dinner with the former president. I am calling to you to personally apologize to you for the words of Pat Robertson and to let you know that most Christians in the United States in no way condones this kind of behavior or way of thinking.

Overtime Janet has managed to heal the distrust that I had for Christians because of my exposure to the radical right that has so perpetuated hate, anger, and in effect act as anti-Christ.

To my amusement yesterday I had forgotten to change the channel at the end of the morning show and actually had the TV on mute. It was then I had one of the moments of epiphany in that I learned that perhaps not all who live in this Bible belt support the words of this man Pat Robertson. On the top of the screen throughout the show was a banner that read: This is a paid television program and does not necessarily represent the thoughts and opinions of this station.

I was definitely uplifted and did a little happy chair dance of joy.

I want to personally thank Janet Elaine Smith for accepting my belief that God is too big for one religion and the only way to truly know a spiritual person is to see her work.