I’d like to see some earnestness in this area on governmental ( leadership) levels.

On the local level- it’s true, only through pain and suffering do we really seem to learn ( to grow). Pain and suffering is what gets us unstuck better than anything I know. But not necessarily.

The world does not change from sermons. I do recognize some truths here. But they will wash away because we don’t learn them this way and for me if I haven’t already learned them- as this article acknowledges.

Religion enriches life, gives it depth and multi-dimensional visions, but does not grant man the comfort and complacency that nearly always spell superficiality and shallow-mindedness.” Or at least it shouldn’t. But all too often, we put up intellectual walls instead of tearing them down, and take easy refuge in black-and white thinking.

It shouldn’t but often it does I notice.

I’d start from an even more basic premise with my fellow human being: I am a tribal creature, fearful and quick to judge out of the most primitive motive – to have my tribe survive even at the cost of destroying another that I mistakenly judge a threat. Prejudice comes naturally to me because it was, more often than not, a preservative in my ancestors. Better be safe than sorry. When in doubt, be prepared to lash out by creating a mental adversary, no matter what the reality of the other. I believe things may have changed just a bit since those prehistoric times, yet you and I, by the fact that we are here now, are the inheritors of that spontaneous prejudice. Since we may differ in clothing, in skin color, in so many aspects of appearance and practice, what wonderful opportunities we present to each other for thoughts prejudicial.

But join me in considering that we are prisoners of our nature. Take my hand with the thought that these days there might be a better means of survival for both of us than using the automatic tool passed down to us that has long outlived its usefulness – that survival now means overcoming ourselves.