From the desk of: Evangelist Al Garza
Dear all,
My spirit is saddened how we have allowed political differences to permeate our spirits, causing oppression and ill feelings among friends and families. I pray to our Creator that we can forgive one another as we embrace our God given rights and freedom of choice. Only God our Father in heaven has the authority to judge and condemn us for our mistakes, beliefs, and bad choices. As a servant of Christ, I reach out in Love. As a friend to many, I reach out in faith. To our families, I reach out in hope. Let us reason together and bring joy to a dark and dreary aftermath.
Politics and Religion: Article shared by Varun Naik!
If politics is ‘the last refuge of scoundrels’, and religion, ‘the opium of the masses’, any nexus between the two is bound to spell doom. However, if we consider politics as involving the recognition and reconciliation of opposing interests within a given unit of rule, and religion as the root of most of the profound and permanent values of life we cannot quite dismiss the idea of the relationship between politics and religion out of hand. Indeed, our problem today arises because we are posing the wrong questions. The question should not be whether religion and politics are related to each other, but what should be their precise relationship? Politicians invariably seek power whatever be the form of government and they intend to wield that power with the government and party as well. When enlightened and respected political leaders like Gandhi or Maulana Azad claimed to draw inspiration from religion, their concept of religion was poles apart from that held by leaders of today who organize a separate political party, for their religious community and demand a separate homeland for it.
Gandhi considered the ethical values imbuing every religion to be an important part of politics; that was what he meant when said that politics divorced from religion becomes debasing. Religion to Gandhi did not mean sectarianism. It implied a belief in ordered moral government of the universe. In this sense, religion is much more than a matter between human beings and their maker; it is, apart from being a mode of worship, also a set of ideas and values. Religion is then a source of moral discipline for its followers.
02/17/17
