Welcome friends!
You know how I’m always saying I think it’s a mistake to link any particular religion, such as Islam, with the ignorance, intolerance, and violence that I think can really be associated with pretty much any religion but especially any of those rather emotional and hot headed creeds that have arisen over the centuries in the Middle East? I know it’s a tough sell because one hears so much more these days about people living in Muslim lands that I think one can easily get the wrong impression. When one hears about ostensibly Christian fanatics running amok in Western countries it always seems to be so much more localized and idiosyncratic than the wholesale hatred, chaos, and carnage that popular religion seems to fuel in the Middle East. But as I always say, I don’t think it was always that way, nor do I think it will necessarily stay that way. I know I did a little story on what some fundamentalist Christians in Uganda were up to a little a while ago but I’m sure the point was probably muddied by factors such as race, culture, and ethnicity, so I suppose many American and European Christians had difficulty relating the story to their own situation despite the fact that many people suspect the behavior in question had a great deal to do with the influence of certain American evangelical Christians. (October 28, 2011.) Fortunately (for pedagogical purposes anyway) I recently read a story about some suitably pale complexioned and at least quasi-European people calling themselves Christians in Georgia that I think might serve to make my point. No, I’m not talking about the US state of Georgia, although I wouldn’t rule out doing a comparable post on that particular locality some day. I’m talking about the country of Georgia: that ever so ancient and eminently eastern backwater of Europe tucked between Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia and probably best known in the US as the birthplace of everyone’s favorite bloody tyrant: former dictator of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin (aka Iosif Dzhugashvili).
So what was the good news out of Georgia that caught my eye this week? ... Sorry but only selected archived (previous year) posts are currently available full text on this website. All posts including this one are available in my annual anthology ebook series available at the Amazon Kindle Bookstore for a nominal fee. Hey, we all need to make a buck somehow, right? If you find my timeless jewels of wisdom amusing or perhaps even amusingly irritating throw me a bone now and then. Thank you my friends!
