Giving a hug to the members of this group.

[carolinayellowdog]

9. "Resist not evil" is like a koan to ponder

Being neither a Christian nor the type that takes any "scripture" as infallible, I nonetheless find certain Bible passages reverberating as I try to make sense of encounters with what seems like evil. Of course one can immediately dismiss this commandment with a line like "either Hitler or Stalin would have taken over the world if people didn't resist evil." And yet, there is an aspect of divisiveness and negativity that resistance can only feed. Benign neglect doesn't seem to be appropriate either, so putting out positive messages feels like the right approach. Hence, I found this passage from the UU webpage inspirational:

We are creating a force more powerful than one person or one religion. By welcoming people who identify with Atheism and Agnosticism, Buddhism, Christianity, Humanism, Judaism, Earth-Centered Traditions, Hinduism, Islam, and more, we are embodying a vision “beyond belief:” a vision of peace, love, and understanding.

From a practical POV, in a country that is about 90% theist, it's a recipe for political suicide for the Democratic Party to become associated with militant mockery of all religion. From a spiritual POV, for a minority of a 10% or less minority to blame and insult 90% of the US population (or more than 80% of the world population) over murders perpetrated by three people in Europe seems like a contagious infection of toxic memes. But repeating those memes, even to refute them, seems to just help spread them. So-- hugs to all who are pondering the current situation and trying to come up with positive responses to a tsunami of stereotyping and scapegoating.