DECEMBER 21 -27, 1986 THE MICHIGAN CITIZEN
9
It's hard for me to believe that. I
mean, if you're going to threaten me
with hellfire to get my allegiance, you
ar not 100 ing for my love. If I threaten
my wife and say, "I'm going to bum you
up if you don't love me:' I couldn't
get my wife's love. and I certainly
would b considered a psycho. So how do
religious people get av ay ... ith claiming
that God is going to bum us if we don't
believe what he says? That doesn't even
m esens.
So I don't want to live under that fear
and threat. I wanted something more
rational, like re pect for other humans.
This is the reason that helped deliver me
from Christianity. It is that the • 'white
man" brought it, that the Jew and Gen­
tile don't reflect my interest.
And the question is: What did v ·e be­
lieve before the J wand Gentile came?
And if God is God, how is it that this
new God is more important than the one
we had originally? That's what I ould
like to know. How did this come out?
Here we taught the white man, Jev and
Gentile. about God. We taught them the
Ten Commandments - we had 42. and
they just extracted 10. We taught them
isdom, an, and architecture. And ho
Dr. MalllcurG Karen.
Th t is wh I turned to African tr dition-
I religion, which pushes emphasis -on
life here and only here. I began to study
Egyptian theology and extract from it b -
yond the piritualism. I extract from it
the social morality of ho you live with
your brother and sister.
The real test for me of morality and
pirituality and in the fin I analysis of
religion, is ho it 0 to unite men and
men in the world and how it betters
our lives and raises us spiritually beyond
the animal arid. And it doesn't seem
t Ouistians have a good � of
that. It's the Ouistians that enslaved Us.
did the people, the' newcomer,
come and tell u h 'to live and call us
avage ? So really that wa . 'en ugh for
me to get p t it right then. but it was
the irrationality of it and the fa t that
it was pan of th ppre or' ulture,
and it was u d to k p people up in the
ky rather than on the earth where ev­
erything el e is happening. So it's irra­
tional. It's these rea n that led me
away from it.
•
If you want to find the
true spirit of Christmas,
just look deep inside
yourself. It lives there.
waiting for a chance to
blossom. Our wish for you
during this beautiful season is
that the spirit of Christmas will
shine in your heart today and all
year long. From all of us to you and
your dear ones - the happiest
of Christmases and a bountiful
and fulfilling ew Year. Thank you
for your continued friendship.
FRO THEClnzENSTAFF