Tag: Difference

Don’t Discount the Ways

A beautiful and well-known poem of Elizabeth Barrett Browning begins with, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”
   This could be a good description of the so many varieties of religious experiences, allegiances, and practices that we seem to have now and to have had forever!
   For example, we speak of Judaism and Christianity, but each includes many and differing doctrines and practices, both now-a-days and centuries before!
   Actually, Christianity itself—in all its varieties—is rooted in Judaism. Although it seems hard to recognize now, early Christianity was a variant among other versions of ancient Judaism. Contemporary Judaism itself still has different varieties, both from centuries long ago and also relatively modern times!
   Today we may speak about Orthodox, Liberal, and Reformed Jews (to name a few major varieties) and Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Christians (to name a few major varieties).
   At the time of Jesus, the major varieties of Judaism were Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes (besides, of course, the Messianic Jews who were the followers of Jesus).
   Pharisees were the remote ancestors of the Rabbinic Judaism that we know today. The New Testament refers to them often, usually as critics of the teachings of Jesus—although many Pharisees became his followers (e.g., St. Paul the Apostle).
   The Pharisees were active from the middle of the second century BC until the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. They were defenders of the laws and traditions of the Jewish people and had their backing.
   On the other hand, the Sadducees, during that same period, were associated more with the maintenance of the Temple, its priesthood, and its rituals. They were an elite group of priests.

   We know less about the Essenes than the Pharisees and the Sadducees. In modern times we’ve learned about them through archeological discoveries (e.g., Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls).
   The Essenes led a strict, communal life, similar to what we know about early Eastern Christian desert monasticism. Some suggest that John the Baptist may have been an Essene at first or have been influenced by them.
   In spite of the so many disagreements about what and how to believe and live that have characterized different religious sects and factions over the centuries, the important thing is to remember that there is only one and the same God.
   That means that in spite of internal divisions in and among, for example, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, we are all believers in the one and the same God, although we have deeply rooted practices and beliefs—even rules and regulations—that differ about how best to serve him.
   It doesn’t mean that we should pretend that we don’t have differences or try to “homogenize” our customs, rules, regulations, rituals, prayers, and practices—actually we should celebrate them and profit by them as best we can.
   The great “No, no!” in all this is the “I’m right, you’re wrong” mentality. There is not a one and only way to live a good and holy life.
   When it comes to religion, to knowing, loving, and serving God, we could all profit by remembering and adopting what Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote:
   “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”


 30 July 2023

Accumulated Meanings

Languages are always changing—in the sense that the meaning of their words often is changing and evolving. That’s why, for instance, that occasionally, in a play of Shakespeare, we may have hardly any idea at all about what certain words or expressions mean (or meant when Shakespeare was alive).
   That’s also why it can be a really tricky business translating a very old document written in a foreign language. It helps a lot to know who the writer was and when and where and why was the document first written.
   Take, for example, a common, familiar word like person. It has evolved a lot.
   It can be traced back to ancient Greek, where it referred to the mask that an actor wore in a play and that identified the role he or she was playing.
   And, sometimes in plays, since there were often few professional actors, the same performer played more than one character, using different masks (and dressed and spoke in different ways) for each.
   That’s why the ancient Greek word for the actor’s mask gradual evolved into our common word person (which has come to mean something else entirely).
   A dictionary definition of person says that it is a noun, derived from Middle English persone, derived from Old French, derived from Latin persona: literally an actor’s face mask (hence a character, person) probably derived from ancient Greek.
   It now has many meanings, including: 1. A human being, especially as distinguished from a thing or lower animal; an individual man, woman, or child. 2. a) a living human body b) bodily form or appearance [to be neat about one’s person]. 3. Personality; self; being. 4. Law any individual or incorporated group having certain legal rights and responsibilities. 5. Theology the Trinity.

   Theology itself has changes and developments. In the very early days of Christianity, the common meaning of person still was that of an actor’s face mask—while in our day it’s much more that of an individual man, woman, or child.
   This reminds me of my Catechism lesson in preparation for First Communion (which reflected the ancient meaning of person):
   Q: “How many persons are there in God?”
   A: “In God there are three Divine persons, really distinct, and equal in all things—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”
   Of course, as little kids we weren’t taught the etymology of the word, “person.” Even so, it wouldn’t have and couldn’t have adequately explained the mystery of the nature of God—but it could help a little.
   However, in light of the complex etymology of the word, “Three Divine persons” minimally suggests three different roles God plays and three different kinds of relationships God has to human beings and to all the rest of creation:
– God as the loving begetter, maker, creator, and source of all that exists (Father);
– God as the intervenor in human history who uniquely reveals himself and his love through the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus (Son);
– God as the sustainer, guide, and inspirer of our lives, the interior wellspring of our creativity, strength, and love (Holy Ghost).
   This is but one (and not the only) way of describing the one God. No matter what, all believers in the one God are talking about this one and same God whose total complexities are beyond and defy our separate traditions and our so many attempts at description!



4 June 2023

Either-Or-ers vs. Both-And-ers

What’s an “either-or-er”? The odd title suggests a keen awareness of differences, an inclination to focus on the incompatible aspects of things, perhaps a tendency to be judgmental, a likelihood to position everyone and everything on a scale of individual values.
   What’s a “both-and-er”? This odd title suggests a greater awareness of commonalities, an inclination to focus on the compatible aspects of things, a tendency to be inclusive, a likelihood to position everyone and everything within a pool of similar values.
   Here are a few examples:
   – in medical practice, a highly competent cardiology specialist may know little about infectious diseases and barely recognize them, while maybe a general practitioner would;
   – in baseball, an overall good team player may be more highly valued than an occasional heavy hitter.
   – in politics, a leader of a party who can effectively communicate and collaborate with a leader of another party is often more effective than an esteemed and perhaps popular individual who cannot.
   Historically, sometimes people who are initially more “either-or” may gradually tend to become more “both-and”.
   People initially thought of as primarily one or the other, this or that (i.e., totally different), gradually can come to be seen as having a lot of commonalities, one with the other.
   The opposite is also true: someone at first attracted by commonalties may end up increasingly focused on differences.
   Changing attitudes and understandings can also be seen in religious matters, too. Many religious groups that once had been decidedly divided one from the other and separated are gradually finding common ground.

For example:
   – Judaism originally (in the early Biblical times) was perhaps more unified and less diverse than it is today. But, even so, today, in spite of a wide variety of points of view and religious practices, all their adherents still consider themselves Jewish.
   – Christianity started as a branch of traditional Jewish religion, but after a while both Jews and Christians became more focused on their differences than their commonalities.
   – Christians themselves once had such low tolerance for differences that Christian groups with different practices came to be regarded as separate (and antagonistic) churches that were often denounced by the other. (The modern ecumenical movement is trying gradually to reverse that.)
   In our days, there are three great monotheistic religious groups—Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Each of them worships the one (and necessarily the same) God, in spite of their difference in their holy books, history, and practices.
   Something similar could be observed about other aspects of our modern society. Almost all religious, political, and social groups, in spite of their differences in practices, values, and mutual esteem, tend to share more and more what once were the separate history and values of each.
   Every person has personal dignity, unique values, and can make unique contributions. In spite of all the problems in our modern world, happily we’re gradually, slowly but surely, seeing more both-and-ers (and fewer either-or-ers)!
   At the risk of being a little chauvinistic, don’t forget, “E pluribus unum!”

28 May 2023

Perfection

“Perfect” is an adjective with a wide variety of usages. For example, it can mean,
 – conforming absolutely to the description or definition of an ideal type,
 – excellent or complete beyond practical or theoretical improvement,
 – exactly fitting the need in a certain situation or for a certain purpose,
 – entirely without any flaws, defects, or shortcomings,
 – accurate, exact, or correct in every detail.
   There’s an old joke about two children, one incorrigibly pessimistic and the other incorrigibly optimistic. One Christmas their loving parents tried hard to break them of their habits.
   The parents filled one room with a magnificent Christmas tree, beautifully decorated, surrounded by a huge quantity of gifts. They invited the pessimist to open the door. He did and then burst into tears. “Look at the angel figure atop the tree,” he cried, “it’s crooked!”
   They prepared another room for the optimistic brother. He opened the door, saw nothing but straw and manure all over the floor, and clapped his hands with delight, saying, “Where’s the pony?”
   No human construction, situation, assessment, or communication is 100%, absolutely perfect and beyond improvement. (Remember, we’re not the Creator, only his creations.)
   No matter what we attempt and try to do and achieve, there will always be pessimists who will call attention to our flaws, limitations, or incompleteness. And, conversely, there will always be optimists celebrating our assistance, successes, and achievements.
   God made us, limited creatures that we are, and loves us in our struggle to celebrate and use the gifts he gives us and to overcome our imperfections and failures.

   There are no perfect people—not even among canonized saints! We all have limitations, flaws, and failings. We all make misjudgments and mistakes and “sin”.
   It doesn’t necessarily mean that we are profoundly flawed—only less than perfect.
   If our lives are to be thoroughly examined, measured, and adjudged, there will be, in retrospect, imperfections and regrettable moments—words, deeds, or actions.
   Since we’re limited, a critic can always find grounds for criticism. Generous school teachers to the contrary, we actually never really merit 100%—but, even so, there are huge differences, for instance, among grades of 95% (very, very good), 75% (not too bad), or 50% (seriously needing attention and improvement).
   This doesn’t mean that we should stop striving for perfection, only that we should do so realizing that it is absolutely totally unattainable.
   It also means, though, that we should stop wallowing in our inevitable failures or bewailing our imperfections. It’s okay to dream the impossible dream, but only if we don’t forget that it’s the impossible dream! (No 100%!)
   It’s also okay—and appropriate—to be realistic about our successes and failures, for we necessarily have both.
   If you’re inclined to be overly pessimistic about your life, remember that total perfection is impossible for you—but, also, with the help of God you can do, and probably have done, many good and wonderful things for many others.
   If you’re inclined to be overly optimistic, remember that only by God’s grace have you achieved all that you have achieved!




26 February 2023

One Church, One Faith, One Lord

For the first ten years of my life, I was a city dweller and lived in an apartment house.
   A curious word, when you think about it—a kind of “house” [singular] made up of separate “apartments” [plural].
   But, after all, a house is a dwelling made up of separate rooms. So, an apartment house is a dwelling made up of separate apartments.
   The apartment house dwellers have some sense of solidarity since they live in the same building with the same identifying address—but, they have a sense of separateness too since the apartments vary in size, furnishings, and inhabitants!
   To make it a tad more complicated, sometimes apartment houses themselves are grouped together, to be identified as neighborhoods—different clusters of buildings in the one and the same city or town.
   As a kid, growing up, I certainly, clearly knew what apartment and which house I lived in, what neighborhood and (since it was in New York City) what borough we lived in, and of course what city, state, and country we lived it—and, as I learned more about geography, what continent and part of the world as well.
   Later on, I learned about the world as one of many planets in the same solar system, our solar system as one of many in the same galaxy, and the many galaxies as well…
   If your life started out in a very different situation—for example, on a large estate or ranch in a wide-open sector of the country—you might find the city lifestyle and mentality somewhat strange and hard to understand. And, you might even be more suspicious of strangers than a city dweller who encounters them all the time.
   What stirred up all these odd thoughts for me was the concluding refrain of each stanza of a hymn in the Divine Office: “One church, one faith, one lord”

   When we say, “one church” what do we mean? Is it the church we’re used to and were raised in? Is it the local parish or diocese? Is it the particular branch of Christianity we belong to?
   Is our one church more like an historic dwelling on a huge estate or more like an apartment house with a lot of different dwellers, but sharing the same address.
   Does one church mean everybody prays, believes, and behaves the same (or at least tries too)? Or, can one church include a wide variety of languages, ideas, customs, rules, and regulations.
   For many centuries, long ago, people believed in the existence of many gods. This, of course, invited a difference of opinion about right and wrong, how to worship, and a host of other things.
   But, if people believe in only one god, they must be actually believing in the one and the same god no matter what different names, titles, prayers, customs, and usages they might have and observe.
   And, it follows, that the one and the same God isn’t giving contradictory commandments, rules, and teachings to different groups of believers. It’s got to be the misunderstandings of the different groups of believers among themselves.
   Religiously, we are like dwellers in an apartment house! We live next door to one another, but in the same dwelling. Apartments can and may be different in size, furnishings, and number and kinds of people, but all share the same address.
   We’re fellow dwellers and citizens in the same town and place. We’re all neighbors. We live together in the same world with the one and same God!


11 December 2022

Mairzy Doats

This is the title of a once very popular song, composed in 1943. The words looked strange and were spelt strangely, but, somehow, they sounded right and made sense:
   Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey.
   A kiddley divey too, wouldn’t you?
   One of the song’s writers said it was inspired by an old nursery rhyme:
   Cowzy tweet and sowzy tweet and liddle sharksy doisters.
   With due respect, the way we used to sing and pray in Latin had some similarities. We didn’t necessarily understand many, if not most, of the words, but overall, we had a good sense of what we were all about!
   It reminds me of a saying attributed to St. Francis of Assisi:
   Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.
   In other words, everything we say (or preach or write) may not necessarily be fully or clearly understood, but, overall, it’s through the way we live our lives that we are successfully communicating!
   I studied the Latin language for several years, and, later, I studied in Latin for several years. That included attending Latin lectures, reading Latin text books, writing Latin documents, and even defending a point of view in oral Latin.
   But, no matter my fluency—or lack thereof—the language never could have the emotional impact, evocativeness, and nuanced meaning my native language could and did.
   At times there were Latin words that didn’t entirely make sense to me, but usually I understood the overall message!
   Very often many traditional religious words, sayings, rites, customs, and practices seem like that. We may not necessarily understand all the details, but, overall, we get the idea!

   Some of the canonized saints were great philosophers, theologians, canonists, or founders of religious orders, but they were not singled out because of the sermons they preached, or the books they wrote, or the organizations they created.
   They were distinguished because of the quality of the lives they lived and how they affected and impacted the lives of those that knew them.
   Maybe some of their enterprises were good and successful—and maybe not. Maybe they lasted—and maybe not. No matter!
   Maybe you have no idea what mairzy doats means, and maybe, in any case, you don’t care. It’s okay!
   Maybe you know exactly what a kiddley divery too means, and you wouldn’t. So, what!
   Certain words, songs, books, movies, sermons, classes, videos, programs, etc. may or may not be useful to one or another of us. We may even debate their merits with others.
   But to allow the differences of opinion and diversity of interests to become barriers dividing us into conflicting groups is basically, as Mr. Spock would say, illogical.
   It is an indisputable fact that each and every person is unique and no two people are ever or ever can be absolutely identical.
   Therefore, every joining together with another involves compromise (not entirely doing things your way), compassion (enduring things together), and collaboration (achieving something, but not necessarily all that you would prefer).
   Try to use nice words, but above all it’s being nice that counts!


25 September 2022

Male – Female

Male: a person bearing an X and Y chromosome pair in the cell nuclei and normally having a penis, scrotum, and testicles, and developing hair on the face at adolescence; a boy or man.

Female: a person bearing two X chromosomes in the cell nuclei and normally having a vagina, uterus, and ovaries, and developing at puberty a relatively rounded body and enlarged breasts, and retaining a beardless face; a girl or woman.

    These biological definitions are the fundamental meaning of the two words—and, based on these definitions, it’s hard to imagine changing from one to another.

Masculine: having qualities traditionally ascribed to men, such as strength and boldness.

Feminine: having qualities traditionally ascribed to women, such as sensitivity and gentleness.

    These behavioral definitions are not so clear and fixed as the biological—there are men with some “feminine” qualities and women with some “masculine” qualities.
    Remember when you were just a child? In my time (long ago!), if you fell, hurt yourself, and began to cry, usually it was your mother who held and consoled you. Dads usually didn’t do that sort of thing.
    If you wanted to use hammers and nails and other tools, usually it was your father who showed you. Moms usually didn’t do that sort of thing.
    Gentleness was considered feminine behavior and toughness, male behavior.
    Girls could play “house’” and have dolls, but not boys. Boys could have bats and balls to play with, but, traditionally, girls didn’t.

    In those days, a girl who had behaviors associated with boys was called a “tomboy”; a boy who had behaviors associated with girls was called a “fairy”.
    Now we have a far more varied and elaborate vocabulary to describe sexual behaviors and identities.
    It’s like shopping in a paint store. You may want blue paint, but you still need to choose what shade of blue you want from a color chart with far more possibilities than you may have expected.
    There are far more possibilities on the “Male – Female” chart or range, too, and some of the labels or names we use for them are pejorative and some are not.
    The behaviors associated with “man” or “woman” can vary from culture to culture, ethnic group to ethnic group, country to country, and age to age.
    In spite of biological, behavioral, and historical, and other differences, it’s clear that we are all human beings. It’s also clear that we may have different sexual identities, relationships, behaviors and moralities.
    Once, being questioned about divorce, Jesus said, “…Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female’…” (Mathew 19:4)
    This was a reference to biological difference, not behavior, in answer to a provocative question about the Mosaic law, about husbands divorcing their wives.
    Years ago, the Heinz company had a popular advertising slogan on its ketchup bottle about its “57 varieties”.
    I don’t know if human beings are that diverse, but we’re all God’s children and, in spite of differences, belong to that one and the same variety!


28 August 2022

Why Did God Make Me?

Q. Why did God make you?
A. God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next.

   If you’re old enough to have been taught “catechism” as a child, you may remember this question and answer from the Baltimore Catechism.
   It’s about our purposes—and their priority is important:
   Our first purpose is knowledge, not distilled, abstract knowledge but practical, functional knowledge. The first challenge of our lives is to get to know God, to really get to know God, as best we can.
   This means clear thinking about God all during our lives—it’s a never-ending task. As a child, we think about God in a childish way; as a mature adult, we think about God in a mature, adult way. It’s a life-long practice and challenge for each of us.
   Our second purpose is love, not necessarily a passionate or deeply emotional feeling but definitely a persevering choice to seek to know and trust God better and better.
   This means subordinating our will to God’s will, constantly seeking to enjoy God, and striving to make God the center of our lives—another life-long practice and challenge for each of us.
   Our third purpose is service, a total and deep commitment to obey the will of God as best we understand it, especially in expending ourselves for others.
   This means, as St. Ignatius of Loyola said, “. . . to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for any reward, save that of knowing that we do your [i.e., God’s] will.”
   Just as our knowing gradually changes and develops as we grow older and are more experienced, so does our loving and serving.

   It’s okay that our understanding of our purposes changes as we age. We gradually lose some of the dynamism and spontaneity of our earlier years—but no matter what, we still are called to know, love, and serve God as best we can.
   Our report card about how we live our lives may not be all stars, but it’s important that, no matter what stage of life we’re at, we’re still getting an “A” for effort!
   In all this, beware of comparing yourself to others. Every person is unique. You’re not exactly the same as anybody else. God gives different gifts to different people, and different challenges as well, and has different expectations for each one of us.
   St. Francis de Sales, in his “Introduction to the Devout Life” explained all this well:

   When God the Creator made all things, he commanded the plants to bring forth fruit each according to its own kind; he has likewise commanded Christians, who are the living plants of his Church, to bring forth the fruits of devotion, each one in accord with his character, his station and his calling.
   . . . devotion must be practiced in different ways by the nobleman and by the working man, by the servant and by the prince, by the widow, by the unmarried girl and by the married woman.
   . . . devotion must be adapted to the strength, to the occupation and to the duties of each one in particular.

   God made you to know, to love, and to serve, and you have to do it as best you can—your way, not mine!


31 July 2022

Guinea Kids

Guinea pig: 1. A short-eared, tailless rodent often used in scientific experiments or kept as a pet.  2. The subject of any sort of experiment.

   You know, you’re a sort of guinea pig yourself. Don’t be offended. It’s not a put-down. I am, too. Everybody is.
   Isn’t every child born a kind of subject of an experiment? The experimenters—the mother and the father—are not well-trained professionals with extensive schooling and training in the fine art of having and raising children.
   The experimenters range from historically, socially, educationally, culturally similar people to widely diverse.
   This means that the newborn child often may be similar to his/her extended family members and easily welcomed. On the other hand, the newborn child sometimes may bear little resemblance to most of his/her extended family members and perhaps be hesitatingly welcomed.
   In every case, every child born is unique and a blend, a combination of many diverse genes, cultures, and personal traits. Every newborn child is a kind of subject of an experiment on the part of his/her parents.
   First of all, every newborn child is part woman (mother) and part man (father). Also, every newborn child learns what it means to grow up not only from these two diverse parents but also from diverse others in his/her immediate and extended family as well as friends, neighbors, acquaintances, and still others—who may be somewhat similar or widely diverse.
   In view of the inexperience of parents, the diversity of positive and negative influences, and the vicissitudes of early life, it’s amazing that each one of us survived, not to mention flourished.
   (Of course, thanks be to God, our birth and development did involve God, too!)

   If your parents were very different from one another and others in your neighborhood as well, you probably grew up being comfortable and at home with a high degree of diversity—and vice-versa!
   The experiencing of diversity and the challenges of understanding are not confined to childhood alone. They usually continue all through our lives.
   Thanks be to God for the diversity of our contemporary world and the different languages, traditions, cultural mores, and people that are part of our daily life!
   We all were used to diversity all the time in our early life. Whatever happened to us that we often seem to have lost our ability to live with and accommodate ourselves to it?
   Remember, we’re all “guinea kids”. We’re all subjects of a great and never-ending experiment. We’re all different from one another to one degree or another.
   We’re all special and unique with special and unique talents and gifts, special and unique capacities and abilities, and special and unique roles to play in life.
   What’s really dumb, wasteful, and deadly is for us to seek to avoid diversity, change, and challenge and to cling to what was instead of dealing with what is and what’s next.
   Each one of us is an experimental model, each one of us is constantly changing, each one of us lives by observing, studying, and experimenting.
   If a guinea pig were asked, “Aren’t you tired of being tested and experimented with? Don’t you want to be left in peace?”
   The pig might well reply, “Are you crazy? You want me dead? That’s who I am and what I do! My nature is to be experimental.”
   Yours and mine, too!


17 July 2022

The Great King Over All Gods

For the Lord is the great God,
   the great king over all gods,
Whose hand holds the depths of the earth;
   who owns the tops of the mountains.
The sea and dry land belong to God,
   who made them, formed them by hand. (Psalm 95:3-5)

Once people generally believed in many gods, some greater and more powerful than others.
   The Jewish scriptures (“Old Testament”) tell of a gradual process, a growing realization, a kind of discovery, that the god of Abraham and his descendants is the supreme god, greater than all the others, and ultimately that there are no others.
   This means, for instance, that all the branches of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, no matter what their differences, are all worshiping the one and the same God.
   Accordingly, this implies that although Jews, Christians, and Muslims have many differences, they should fundamentally be one—i.e. they should treat one another as fellow believers.
   By extension, if there is only one God, this further implies that the same should apply to all other religious believers, no matter what their customs or beliefs.
   And, if there is only one creator, this still further implies that the same should apply to everyone, no matter whether they have religious beliefs or affiliations or not.
   A threat to all of this is giving exaggerated importance to structures of difference.
   For example, Hagia Sophia, the great church, then mosque, now museum in Istanbul: Why must it be one or the other? Why can’t it be a shared place for different styles of worship, reflecting its long history?
   Must strictly orthodox Jews, Christians, or Muslims—or followers of other religions—pray separately from less orthodox Jews, Christians, or Muslims?

   Another, parochial example: When Cardinal Francis Spellman was Archbishop of New York, he had to respond to a massive immigration of Puerto Ricans and, later, other Latin Americans to the archdiocese.
   Historically separate churches were built for each national/ethnic/linguistic group. He decided that the same church building should accommodate people of different customs and language and that the priests should know or learn the customs and language of the parishioners.
   Our contemporary society seems to place an exaggerated importance on differences and institutionalizing them. If you like chocolate and I like strawberry, we don’t have to go to separate ice-cream stores.
   Restaurants, stores, schools, churches, neighborhoods, apartment houses, police forces, political parties, nations, and every kind of structure or organization need to be aware of differences and respect them—but not institutionalize and segregate them.
   The 1964 New York World’s Fair had a great exhibit that taught this, “It’s a Small World”; it’s still seen in Disney parks. You ride through scenes of different parts of the world, where animated dolls dressed in different, traditional clothes, sing, and even dance, to the same song. Then the same dolls are shown all mixed together, dressed in their different traditional clothing, but singing together the same song.
   It was a fundamental lesson about life. Of course there are differences! You and I and everyone else—we’re all ultimately different from one another, each one of us unique, but we are all creations of the same God.
   You’re not a polytheist! No matter what, don’t be afraid to sing the same song!




8 May 2022