I saw a video today of a British comedian

His name is Pat Condell, and he is up in arms about the mosque being built in New York City, as he says "just yards away from Ground Zero."  As I watched the video, some thoughts came to me about it and about our situation on this planet at this time.

I definitely agree with Condell when he says, "Any religion that endorses violence has no business calling itself spiritual."  That seems to include most, if not all, of Earth's religions.  Oops. 

As for the mosque being built on Ground Zero, actually it's being built two long New York City blocks away from Ground Zero -- not just a few yards away.  I think you'll agree that the Christian religion, as it is being practiced by many hatred-filled people in our country is not really representative of the true teachings of Christ.  The same thing is probably true of the Islam religion as well. Many, many Muslims are horrified at what the fanatics have done in the name of their religion.  Cat Stevens is a good representative of his religion of Islam, as a practicer of the true teachings of Mohammed before they were rewritten and taken over by those who love power and control of the people.  We see the same thing happening here in America with the takeover of Christianity a la Bush and Cheney and the rightwing fanatics who mouth every word they are told by Palin, Limbaugh and Beck.  The ignorant will always be with us, it seems.  And fundamentalist preachers in all religions will always take advantage of their ignorance.

Rather than use fear and hatred to control the minds of people, as the GOP is now doing, it would probably be better for all of us to practice Christian principles as they were really taught by Christ.  At least, some of us can start to do that.  We've all seen what fear and hatred can do on our planet -- we've seen the effects of war, over and over and over. And yet, things never seem to change because war is profitable for the elite. They don't mind sending the children of the poor and middle class to their deaths, as long as the $$ keeps pouring into their coffers.   The words of the song Where Have All the Flowers Gone ring in our ears, but we continue to ignore them:  "Oh, when will they ever learn? Oh, when will they ever learn?"

People need to be educated so they will not be controlled by every fear-mongering Limbaugh or Falwell or binLaden who comes along.  Education by experience takes forever, as we are seeing on this planet -- and sometimes it is never learned, no matter how excruciatingly painful the experience may be.  Open minds and hearts are necessary to receive truth as taught by Christ.  I read once a description of Christ as "one who was tall enough to see over all the fences people have built against each other."  He saw the Oneness that is the nature of us all and tried to convey that to the people of his time.  He was killed for it then -- and we are still killing him for it today. 

Just my own opinion....