Saturday, November 20, 2010

What are we nurturing?

"Eric Rudolph the religios terrorist was not inevitable, just as the
teenage bridge builders of Whitwell were not. They were each carefully
and intentionally nurtured." Eboo Patel in "Acts of Faith"

Eric Rudolph is the man responsible for the bombings in both the
Alabama health clinic and the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. The bridge
builders in Whitwell are middle school students responsible for
building a Holocaust memorial to encourage people to "pause and
reflect on the evil of intolerance and hatred."

What kind of actions are we nuturing and encouraging in our
communities and specifically in young people? Why is it more accepted
to love the Jews that were massacred in the Holocaust than to love the
Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or Christian next door, across town, or
across continents? Can we learn to love while we are both alive to
receive the love?

Quote from Eboo Patel's book, "Acts of Faith"

Quote from Eboo Patel's book, "Acts of Faith"

"Someone who doesn't make flowers makes thorns. If you're not building
rooms where wisdom can be openly spoken, you're building a prison."
Shams of Tabriz