Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Catholic Muslims, Anyone?
Religion is a topic that you’re not supposed to talk about in public, because it causes so much ill feeling when you step on others’ cherished beliefs. Well, since I’m right and anyone who disagrees with me is wrong, I’m going to talk about religion, in a very specific way, and the heck (or wherever your beliefs send you) with the rest of you.
Specifically, I’d like to talk about the similarities between a Roman Catholic Christmas Mass in a small town in Mexico and an Islamic service in Minneapolis. My wife’s ex-husband, my step-daughter’s father that is, died suddenly a couple of weeks ago. He lived in Minnesota, and the service, and internment (more on that in a bit) were in the Minneapolis area. And yes, I mean Minneapolis. Sorry to anyone from the St. Paul side of town, but it was Columbia Heights and Burnsville, if you must know, so Minneapolis. Not that there’s anything wrong with St. Paul, don’t you know. Before I begin the main story, I’d like to report how I was really struck that this guy, who was born in the Middle East, raised in Syria, lived in Egypt and Iraq, ended up resting in the frozen ground of the Upper Midwest. Never assume anything in this life, I say. But, anyway, back to my main story.
On Christmas sometime in the late nineties we were in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora right at midnight, attending the High Mass celebrating Christmas. I’ve written about Christmas before and the basically secular way the USA has embraced it over the years, but to these folks in this small town there is nothing secular about the holiday at all. At least, not once the service starts. I really enjoyed it, and as I understand enough Spanish to catch the drift of a sermon, I enjoyed that, too. No weird crap about “God is punishing New Orleans with hurricanes” or any such drivel. It was Christmas, so the sermon was about Jesus and his message to the world.
Okay, sure, I hear you say. Yeah, yeah, that’s nice, but move it on. Okay, here I go. Some years later, about two weeks ago this coming Friday to be exact, I heard almost the exact same speech from the speaker at an Islamic service in Minnesota. Okay, this guy didn’t mention Jesus, although he could have, from what I understand of Islam. They take their lessons, though, from Muhammad, who, I take it, tells them to treat people justly. Treat people justly. Just like, as the Priest in Mexico said, Jesus said that we are no longer allowed to ignore the ill, the poor, and the downtrodden, that now that we have the word we must be kind and generous to all. “Do you treat your spouse justly?” asked the Islamic speaker. “What have you done for your less fortunate neighbor?” asked the Mexican priest. Other than the brief introduction, which consisted of “the good news is that Jesus came to live among us and tell us how to live” (more or less) the two sermons were right down the same theme. The service in Minneapolis was more methodical than the Methodist Church, but the message was the same as you’d hear from a Methodist minister or a Catholic priest. Not, says my cynical side, that anyone pays attention all that often, but the message stays the same. Come to think of it, Buddha’s Eight-Fold Path boils down to much the same message as well. I wonder, are those holy dudes wrong, or is everyone else, including me, just as dense as the concrete in Hoover Dam? Heck, I’ll never know, because I’m dense, but I do wonder.
To finish the funeral story, those folks were very loving with the dearly departed. They have burial customs that vary a bit from ours. Two days later and he was in the ground, as I can personally attest. Then his friends shoveled the dirt on personally, with much energy. Everyone should have such friends. And, as I’ve mentioned before, there did not appear to be anyone among them that had the least gripe about this country. They were mostly immigrant, and mostly too busy building their piece of the American dream to think about doing anything stupid. Islam will adapt to the USA. For instance, by tradition, women and men are separate at a service, but I’m told that such is not the case at the mosque where his widow worships. (I didn’t think that tradition could last around here.) Remember the Church of England? They adapted. Irish Catholicism? Ditto. Lutheranism? Same thing. Even Buddhism has adapted, as I’ll bet nobody in Buddha’s day played a single quarter of basketball, for example. (I know of some Buddhist basketball teams, honest.)
My point is that people should really quit worrying so much about the immigrants who are coming to this country. Their religions may look odd, but the underlying message is the same. And, as I said in an earlier post, absolutely anyone can partake of the Great American Communion of Free Enterprise. Who and when else you worship is, like much of life in these environs, entirely up to you.
Specifically, I’d like to talk about the similarities between a Roman Catholic Christmas Mass in a small town in Mexico and an Islamic service in Minneapolis. My wife’s ex-husband, my step-daughter’s father that is, died suddenly a couple of weeks ago. He lived in Minnesota, and the service, and internment (more on that in a bit) were in the Minneapolis area. And yes, I mean Minneapolis. Sorry to anyone from the St. Paul side of town, but it was Columbia Heights and Burnsville, if you must know, so Minneapolis. Not that there’s anything wrong with St. Paul, don’t you know. Before I begin the main story, I’d like to report how I was really struck that this guy, who was born in the Middle East, raised in Syria, lived in Egypt and Iraq, ended up resting in the frozen ground of the Upper Midwest. Never assume anything in this life, I say. But, anyway, back to my main story.
On Christmas sometime in the late nineties we were in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora right at midnight, attending the High Mass celebrating Christmas. I’ve written about Christmas before and the basically secular way the USA has embraced it over the years, but to these folks in this small town there is nothing secular about the holiday at all. At least, not once the service starts. I really enjoyed it, and as I understand enough Spanish to catch the drift of a sermon, I enjoyed that, too. No weird crap about “God is punishing New Orleans with hurricanes” or any such drivel. It was Christmas, so the sermon was about Jesus and his message to the world.
Okay, sure, I hear you say. Yeah, yeah, that’s nice, but move it on. Okay, here I go. Some years later, about two weeks ago this coming Friday to be exact, I heard almost the exact same speech from the speaker at an Islamic service in Minnesota. Okay, this guy didn’t mention Jesus, although he could have, from what I understand of Islam. They take their lessons, though, from Muhammad, who, I take it, tells them to treat people justly. Treat people justly. Just like, as the Priest in Mexico said, Jesus said that we are no longer allowed to ignore the ill, the poor, and the downtrodden, that now that we have the word we must be kind and generous to all. “Do you treat your spouse justly?” asked the Islamic speaker. “What have you done for your less fortunate neighbor?” asked the Mexican priest. Other than the brief introduction, which consisted of “the good news is that Jesus came to live among us and tell us how to live” (more or less) the two sermons were right down the same theme. The service in Minneapolis was more methodical than the Methodist Church, but the message was the same as you’d hear from a Methodist minister or a Catholic priest. Not, says my cynical side, that anyone pays attention all that often, but the message stays the same. Come to think of it, Buddha’s Eight-Fold Path boils down to much the same message as well. I wonder, are those holy dudes wrong, or is everyone else, including me, just as dense as the concrete in Hoover Dam? Heck, I’ll never know, because I’m dense, but I do wonder.
To finish the funeral story, those folks were very loving with the dearly departed. They have burial customs that vary a bit from ours. Two days later and he was in the ground, as I can personally attest. Then his friends shoveled the dirt on personally, with much energy. Everyone should have such friends. And, as I’ve mentioned before, there did not appear to be anyone among them that had the least gripe about this country. They were mostly immigrant, and mostly too busy building their piece of the American dream to think about doing anything stupid. Islam will adapt to the USA. For instance, by tradition, women and men are separate at a service, but I’m told that such is not the case at the mosque where his widow worships. (I didn’t think that tradition could last around here.) Remember the Church of England? They adapted. Irish Catholicism? Ditto. Lutheranism? Same thing. Even Buddhism has adapted, as I’ll bet nobody in Buddha’s day played a single quarter of basketball, for example. (I know of some Buddhist basketball teams, honest.)
My point is that people should really quit worrying so much about the immigrants who are coming to this country. Their religions may look odd, but the underlying message is the same. And, as I said in an earlier post, absolutely anyone can partake of the Great American Communion of Free Enterprise. Who and when else you worship is, like much of life in these environs, entirely up to you.
