Who was the pope?

Someone asked me how could I write something positive about the pope or even fall for the Schiavo con job by the press. To set the record straight, I am not a catholic pro-life liberal. Those are terms set to limit who or what I am or can be. I don't even belong to any particular religion. I do accept there is something greater than myself in the universe. I am learning to become a person capable of living truthfully with myself and others. I am learning to be of service. Some days the lessons are harder than others. It means accepting the truth and rejecting the lies even when the lies are easier. As I am learning to discern, I see how easy it is for me to make snap judgements without viewing the evidence objectively. So I'm going to take a second look at the Pope.

To many he was a great man to others not so great. In fact some see him as another part of the system of lies. While the latter may be true, he discerned some truths and preached it.
The church he led, like many other religious organizations reinforce the lie under a false veneer of truth. I've been duly presented with "the evidence". It doesn't mean that nothing worthwhile can be learned from the church or the pope's life. An example is the catholic reporter link on this blog. I find stuff there that makes sense and forces one to look at the truth as some of the Pope's statements have done for me. Just as I find stuff at various places, though my favorite at the moment is signs of the times, I find truth in some of the things the Pope had to say.

The Pope inspired many to be more compassionate, or as compassionate as one could be when our minds are held hostage. His inaction on some issues allowed many of the injustices he spoke against to continue. As such don't think he was a savior. He was just a man struggling with the human condition as we all do. That he did it through the lens of the religious convictions of the catholic church, set a limit on how far he would go. Still his convictions guided his life to serve some good for others as professed by those he has touched. Like most of us I'm sure he did his share of bad deeds too.

What I do know is he spoke out about many forms of injustice and reached out to various groups that are often ignored. He spoke against economic exploitation, and saw that this war we are fighting in Iraq is unjust. I also know that his mind,like most other human minds, is ruled by a predator. As Castaneda's Don Juan would say: it is is "baroque", "contradictory", "morose". We can however get glimpses of truth. It is this that I was thinking of when I wrote about the Pope. That part of him that holds the possibility for truth. So he did not specifically speak out against the church's discriminatory stance toward homosexuals or women. I do agree that it contradicts his views about injustice. In fact he firmly defended the church's more discriminatory doctrines. However, since to me speaking against injustice implies injustice against all, his talks inspired me to work toward this, even if in practice he himself didn't quite get there. I don't know if I will either but I continue to work. I don't for a minute think or expect the church or any other organization to be pristine and holy in these things. That it is run by humans imprisoned by the desires of the predator's mind says a lot. That it has managed to serve many in various ways is refreshing. It is more refreshing when I see some get past even those limits to reminded us of some of the important things, especially during times when it is most difficult to think about. He taught us that our materialistic attitudes and exploitation of others are the ways in which we lose compassion and our humanity. He showed me that it is not just about what we want and want now, but about the sea of humanity striving to be free.

As I said in a previous blog he probably did as much as he could with what he had in him. I do know that Pope John Paul II spoke the absolute truth when he talked about the culture of death. If more of us had the concern for others and the disclipline he had, even if this disclipline was mostly used to staunchly defend the not so nice policies of the church, maybe we could come together and find a way to put it to good use. Maybe even find a way out of the enslavement of our minds, bodies and souls.

Culture of Death

"A culture of death seeks to impose itself on our desire to live and live to the full. There are those who reject the light of life, preferring the fruitless works of darkness. Their harvest is injustice, discrimination, exploitation, deceit, violence. In every age, a measure of their apparent success is the death of innocents. In our own century, as at no other time in history, the culture of death has assumed a social and institutional form of legality to justify the most horrible crimes against humanity: Genocide, "final solutions," "ethnic cleansings," and the massive taking of lives of human beings before they are born or before they reach the natural point of death."
---Pope John Paul II

Added to the social and institutional form of legality are phenomena such as "premptive srikes," "fight against terrorists,"either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." Shamefully, there are so many others we could add from the paradigm of our current culture that one can only conclude that the culture of death is not seeking to impose itself. Rather,it is THE culture, our culture. As such, a culture which seeks to destroy quite naturally it too will be destroyed in the process. One need not do anything to bring it on as it does so on its own. The only hope is that room will be made for a culture of life, of light, of love via the natural possibility that something new and completely different often arise out of chaotic states. Those of us who deplore the culture of death, must find a way to be ready when this possiblity arise. Only then can one become a part of the future of life and light and love. Such a future does not entail waiting to be raptured, or having a great leader provide all the solutions to our problems. It is learning to be objective and see our current culture for what it is-a culture of slavery and death. It is rejecting all the ways in which we contribute to the culture of death beginning with refusal to believe the lies.

Death of America

Rachel Corrie died around this time last year. This week another American woman has died though under different circumstances. Buried in the sensationalism of the past few weeks is the fact that another human being has had to suffer because of choices made by others. I wanted to avoid commenting on the big news story of the week but I couldn't help it. The death of this American woman Terri Schiavo, is symbolic of another dragged out possibly torturous death-the death of the American Republic. I know plently others such as Gore Vidal have written and shouted about this for a long time. It is a concept I would have believed preventable if not down right impossible in my once illusory view. I know better now. All one needs to do is take a look at the past and present. America's elite sacrifice Iraqis every day who are very much aware of what is happening to them. Countless other nations have also chosen torture and death for friends and enemies alike. We the American people have mostly turned a blind eye to it all.

As long as we can continue to be busy consumers who allow our children participate in the killing game we are indirectly condoing murder as fun. When we allow our military to use similar games to recruit our kids to kill for real and they die doing this job, we honor them as heroes. We directly choose to let Iraqi children, Afghani children, our children, die. When we turn a blind eye to the death and destruction of others, with ease we become victims of death and destruction ourselves. This is the essence of the death of America. Our allowances for the choices our government makes to torture and murder others is what gives people like Mike Schiavo the authority to make the choice he did concerning Terri.

As I wrote this, I received an email alert that the pope has died. I haven't checked to see if it's true. I can only think of others like him who used their authority (which comes from the choice to BE) to speak for the weak and dispossesed. I can see that such people are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. They have long carried the burden of witnessing and doing something about the persistent enslavement of this planet to no avail. Maybe the pople has done all he could with what he had in him and is duly tired of this world. As non religious as I am, I send prayers of thanks for the Rachel Corries and the Pope John Pauls, even Terri Schiavos of the world. They have reminded me that beauty and compassion though rare is possible only by us becoming its representative. I also pray for god or whomever, to have mercy on us for the kind of world we have participated in creating-a world where beauty and compassion has been held hostage by the slave masters. May we develop the will and ability release this hold and create something different.