Suzanne's Take: A Social Commentary

WHAT IS OUR VOICE?
April 1, 1998

In wrenching situations that recently have had public play -- from Karla Faye Tucker, to Iran, to Clinton -- one side argues with another. I can't find a media voice with a non-dualistic point of view.

Today, there was a piece about Jonesboro on the editorial page of the Los Angeles Times. "It's Too Soon to Ask for Forgiveness" complained about the Jonesboro clergy expressing concern for the two boys that opened fire at their school. The lead statement was, "The Sunday sermons should have addressed why a loving, just God permits such evil." The writer says that "the spiritual challenge of the moment" is the pervasiveness of a "no-fault-theology," where we forgive too fast. Many people wrote in to agree, saying we need to straighten our moral compass to keep a judgmental God on duty.

How about another story, where if we use the God-word, it's that the universe is all God. Each encapsulated human can tune in directly, sans religion or clergy, to the creator force. Religions were carved out from something primal that's basic to them all. Now, we are accessing that level where the otherness is found.

Many people now have tuned in. We can date this wave from the Chicago Parliament of World Religions, in 1893, when the East was introduced to the West. This knowing that God is inside is the healing of the world. All strife has been moving us toward it: we are no longer barbarians, we do not entertain slavery any more, and movement after movement removes minority groups from the domination of the majority and powerless people from the rule of despots. "It" is moving. We are on our way.

Maybe Jonesboro was a breakthrough to wholeness. Forgiveness is a pivot between dualistic comprehension and the experience of unity. Brutal as were the actions of the two boys, their youth inspires a compassion that melts everything into the One.