Guns, God, and the American Way

This is because of the US Pastor in Louisville that decided to have an "Open Carry" rally for a service. Seriously guys? Is nothing sacred?

Aside: Legislating Religion, Culture and Pluralism

After reading some of the comments on my YouTube station, I felt like I needed to respond to the elephants in the room (actually, it may have been a herd on the verge of stampeding). It is dangerous to allow fear and bigotry into legislation. It has lasting implications and frequently aftershocks continue and reverberate in ways that are unexpected and unpredictable. It is also dangerous to put up walls where we should be extending hands in friendship and seeking avenues of common ground.

Beyond all this, don't you EVER legislate my God. Separation of church and state is about freedom from someone else's god as much as it is about freedom to worship your own.

Aside: Stupid Sarkozy

Now, I know people all have different ideas about burkas, BUT there are some other considerations that people need to think about before legislating against them.

Tolerance, plurality, or co-existance? - an Aside

I saw this video on pomomusings. It caused me to remember many of the lessons I learned while I was in India which I think are relevant to our discussions here. Particularly, I think of how we all seek something more than "this" and how difficult it is for so many of us to find "it". Beyond that, when we do, frequently we tend to be hurtful to those who have a different way of accessing the divine. This is a problem in our globalizing world where so many cultures and religions are interacting at an increasing rate.... the question becomes, how do we deal with this?

Now I would not say that I am tolerant of others views. In fact I am actually quite hard and fast about where I come down. This doesn't mean I won't give you air time. If I were merely tolerant I might simply condescend to allow you to believe whatever it is and smirk behind your back saying my way was the high way. By being forthright and admitting inconsistencies and conflicts, it's much easier to respect the other.

This should not only be practiced in India in political elections, or even on an interfaith level, but rather needs to be practiced on an intrafaith level. That is, different denominations of Christianity need to come into conversation with one another and really talk. May the most pragmatic begin!!

Indian Elections : A Mammoth Democratic Exercise from Shashwat Gupta on Vimeo.