THE FOLLOWING IS AN OPEN LETTER TO ARCHBISHOP PETER AKINOLA, OF NIGERIA
to respectfully challenge the position he has taken as reported in the Nigerian press :
Dear Peter (Sunday 15th March, 2009)( see
http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=137926
“We have none of us done our duty as free societies. We have oppressed the poor; we have accepted advertisement in the place of truth; we have given too much power to money; and we have been indifferent to the quality of human character.
“The democracy of the future must be a great deal better and cleaner than any which now exists, with more reverence, more discipline, more love of beauty, more joy in life, as well as more social justice and better distribution of wealth, more freedom for the soul and more friendliness between man and man.”
“What a long and strange war it is where violence tries to crush truth ! Hard as it may struggle, violence cannot weaken truth, and its efforts only make truth stand out more clearly. Truth, however brightly it may shine, can do nothing to stop violence, and its light only irritates violence even more. When might is ranged against might, the stronger defeats the weaker. When discourse is ranged against discourse, what is true and convincing confounds and dissipates what is based only on vanity and lies. But violence and truth can do nothing, the one against the other.
Nevertheless, don’t be fooled by that into thinking that they are at the same level as each other. For there is this extreme difference between them: that violence only has a course marked out for it by God’s command, such that its effects redound to the glory of the truth which it is attacking, while truth subsists eternally, and triumphs in the end over its enemies. Because it is as eternal and powerful as God….
Truth subsists eternally, and triumphs in the end over its enemies.”
The words above are not mine of course, but they are appreciated by me; one conscripted to do my “duty” for my country some 40 years ago. And it is still so today. Today, I am blessed – a proud father, loving parent and grandparent, artist, piper, free thinker, poet, and writer….
I am encouraged to read from Islamic sources that "the highest aspect of jihad is to speak the truth in the face of tyranny" (and that “there is no fault in you if you make a mistake, but only in what your heart "intended”), but am also aware that forgiveness and generosity must be nurtured from the home outward for the love of truth to thrive and grow in community. This is why I have now written to you, and others of many religious colours and persuasions, and invite you to take a look at my wound-wisdom website to highlight the issue: There is no hate in Love.
The website www.wound-wisdom.tk is free to all who seek, and I invite you and others to let me know if anything I have said is not true. It sprang from my concerns about a "growing up issue" described in the "Challenge to Servant-Leaders" section of the site, following my creation of the "Peace and Harmony" picture-puzzle artwork, and the insights I had gained from it: that all of us are both male and female inside.
The "outside" is merely the wrapping which hides the complexity inside; for we are all uniquely created. If this is the case, male = female, just as black is white, and the end is a new beginning.... And we must honour the inside, as well as the outside. No judgment by an outsider is required. Parents are for nurture, pure and simple, not for whipping and stoning * See Biblical References Below *.
I know that I speak to you as one “from the bottom, up”, but I trust that the importance of the loving message encapsulated in the “Peace and Harmony” artwork and attachments will not be lost on you – for each one has a place, in God’s place – even for one at the bottom.
I trust if you have read this far that you will give love a chance, and even if I am a stranger, and strange to you, you will journey with me through wound-wisdom to its fruition, Peace and Harmony for ALL. And in kindness, respond, even if you have some criticisms. I will give each thought, and perhaps modify my approach. I look forward to dialogue, but don't want to get bogged down with dogma.
You will notice that I have taken quotations from the Koran and other holy books from different faiths, and from many other sources. All of these speak with one voice: the truth of the Golden Rule is honoured, and that is how we all want it to be....
1. There is no hate in love: Hate melts in the arms of Love. Parents are for nurture, pure and simple.
2. The “Golden Rule” is common to all religions:
3. “Do not do to others that which you would hate for yourself”, and
4. “Loving your neighbour as yourself” IS
5. “Loving the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength”, as WE
6. Recognize ourselves in all others (ALL people are created equal members of one human family).
Long may your love light shine long ! May all of Life's Blessings be Yours, also: Peace to You (as well)
May all the blessing, honour and power so freely given to us return to the One God who gave life to US….
I am, Yours sincerely, and faithfully
Donald Chalmers, a piper too at “The Intricate Weaving of Something Beautiful” http://www.wound-wisdom.tk/ and www.myspace.com/a_piper_too
– CONFRONT ♥ CONDEMNATION –
In Mosaic law, a woman caught in the act of adultery must be stoned to death. Now, what do you say ? (John 8.5)
Jesus said: Whichever one of you has committed no sin may throw the first stone…. (John 8.7)
I pass judgment on no one. But if I were to do so, my judgement would be true, because I am not alone in this; for God who sent me is with me (John 8.15,16). What I say is true, because I know where I came from, and where I am going (John 8.14). I am the light of the world (John 8.12); I Am Who I Am (John 8.23,27). I am telling you the truth (John 8.34); the truth will set you free (John 8.31). Stop judging by external standards, and (if you must) judge by true standards (John 7.24)….
And one by one, being convicted by their own conscience, the older ones first, to the last, full of shame, they left (John 8.9).
The moral of the story is not changed by my slight repositioning of the text, and is supported by the following texts:
Love your neighbour as you love yourself (Luke 10.27). Do this and you will live (Luke 10.28). Loving your neighbour as you love yourself IS loving the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength (Luke10.27-28). Do not judge others, and God will not judge you; do not condemn others, and God will not condemn you; forgive others, and God will forgive you. Give to others, and God will give to you (Luke 6.37).
And there are many other examples of the Golden Rule, both in the Bible, and in other major religious texts. For example, in the Bible: Leviticus 19.18, Matthew 7.12, Matthew 22.39, Mark 12.31, Luke 6.31, Romans 13.9-10, Galatians 5.14, James 2.8. This is an obviously important theme, and not called “Golden” for nothing, since it (The Φ Rule, or measure of fullness, or ripe maturity), as with “gold” is pure, uncontaminated.
There is no hate in Love. This is the message of Love, which IS God.
Micah, in his Old Testament message has this to say:
The Lord has told us what is good. What God requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God (Micah 6.8).
Going back in the Old testament even further (Isaiah 54.17):
No weapon formed against you shall prosper; and all tongues that rise up against you shall be condemned. This is the heritage of the Lord, and this is the vindication from me (God). Or put differently: No weapon will be able to hurt you; you will have an answer for all who accuse you. I will defend my servants and give them victory. The Lord has spoken.
How great is the grace of God (Ephesians 1.7)…. All things are done according to God’s plan and decision (Ephesians 1.11)…. For God completes all things everywhere…. (Ephesians 1.23). Everything that God has created is good; nothing is to be rejected, but everything is to be received with a prayer of thanks (1 Timothy 4.4)…. Watch yourself, and watch your teaching (1 Timothy 4.16). For spiritual exercise is valuable in every way, because it promises life, both for the present, and for the future (1 Timothy 4.8)….
Now, unto God (you are gods [Psalms 82.1 and 6, John 10.34]), say and do what is right. Don’t use your power to cheat the poor, and don’t accept bribes. Don’t join with those who plan to commit murder or do other evil things. Then you will be safe; you will be as secure as if you were in a strong fortress. You will have food to eat and water to drink…. (Isaiah 33.15-16).
All of the forgoing is not just about you or I, but about us, together – for who among us cannot say:
Almighty, Creator, God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known and from whom no secrets are hidden, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts, by the in-spiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love each other as we love you, and worthily reflect and magnify your great, universal, Holy Name, form, being and self…. (based* on Anselm of Canterbury*)
Late have we loved you, beauty so old and so new; late have we loved you. And see, you were within; always…. (Augustine*) We watch without willing; we love without willing…. (Valentinus*) But, we may be able to, in some way, to express what we are in no way able to express fully…. (Augustine*)
We know we did not make ourselves; we were made by God, who abides for eternity…. That is how it is, when at each moment, we extend our reach, and in a flash of mental energy, attain eternal wisdom, which abides beyond all things…. (Augustine*)
Our One Hope (to love, and to be loved, in return) Unites All. May all of life’s blessings and benefits be yours (also)….
Live Love. Love Live. Live Love and you will Live Φ. For further proofs of Love’s Teaching, see www.wound-wisdom.tk
May all the blessing, honour and power so freely given to us return to the One God who gave life to US….
Please voice your affirmations of this principle at http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=137926 etc.
Please let Archbishops and Politicians know that you will not be the first to cast a stone, and will not let them do so, either, without protest, and call upon them to uphold the human rights of your brothers and sisters, NOW.......... for to hurt "others" hurts our own "selves", also.
to respectfully challenge the position he has taken as reported in the Nigerian press :
Dear Peter (Sunday 15th March, 2009)( see
http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=137926
“We have none of us done our duty as free societies. We have oppressed the poor; we have accepted advertisement in the place of truth; we have given too much power to money; and we have been indifferent to the quality of human character.
“The democracy of the future must be a great deal better and cleaner than any which now exists, with more reverence, more discipline, more love of beauty, more joy in life, as well as more social justice and better distribution of wealth, more freedom for the soul and more friendliness between man and man.”
“What a long and strange war it is where violence tries to crush truth ! Hard as it may struggle, violence cannot weaken truth, and its efforts only make truth stand out more clearly. Truth, however brightly it may shine, can do nothing to stop violence, and its light only irritates violence even more. When might is ranged against might, the stronger defeats the weaker. When discourse is ranged against discourse, what is true and convincing confounds and dissipates what is based only on vanity and lies. But violence and truth can do nothing, the one against the other.
Nevertheless, don’t be fooled by that into thinking that they are at the same level as each other. For there is this extreme difference between them: that violence only has a course marked out for it by God’s command, such that its effects redound to the glory of the truth which it is attacking, while truth subsists eternally, and triumphs in the end over its enemies. Because it is as eternal and powerful as God….
Truth subsists eternally, and triumphs in the end over its enemies.”
The words above are not mine of course, but they are appreciated by me; one conscripted to do my “duty” for my country some 40 years ago. And it is still so today. Today, I am blessed – a proud father, loving parent and grandparent, artist, piper, free thinker, poet, and writer….
I am encouraged to read from Islamic sources that "the highest aspect of jihad is to speak the truth in the face of tyranny" (and that “there is no fault in you if you make a mistake, but only in what your heart "intended”), but am also aware that forgiveness and generosity must be nurtured from the home outward for the love of truth to thrive and grow in community. This is why I have now written to you, and others of many religious colours and persuasions, and invite you to take a look at my wound-wisdom website to highlight the issue: There is no hate in Love.
The website www.wound-wisdom.tk is free to all who seek, and I invite you and others to let me know if anything I have said is not true. It sprang from my concerns about a "growing up issue" described in the "Challenge to Servant-Leaders" section of the site, following my creation of the "Peace and Harmony" picture-puzzle artwork, and the insights I had gained from it: that all of us are both male and female inside.
The "outside" is merely the wrapping which hides the complexity inside; for we are all uniquely created. If this is the case, male = female, just as black is white, and the end is a new beginning.... And we must honour the inside, as well as the outside. No judgment by an outsider is required. Parents are for nurture, pure and simple, not for whipping and stoning * See Biblical References Below *.
I know that I speak to you as one “from the bottom, up”, but I trust that the importance of the loving message encapsulated in the “Peace and Harmony” artwork and attachments will not be lost on you – for each one has a place, in God’s place – even for one at the bottom.
I trust if you have read this far that you will give love a chance, and even if I am a stranger, and strange to you, you will journey with me through wound-wisdom to its fruition, Peace and Harmony for ALL. And in kindness, respond, even if you have some criticisms. I will give each thought, and perhaps modify my approach. I look forward to dialogue, but don't want to get bogged down with dogma.
You will notice that I have taken quotations from the Koran and other holy books from different faiths, and from many other sources. All of these speak with one voice: the truth of the Golden Rule is honoured, and that is how we all want it to be....
1. There is no hate in love: Hate melts in the arms of Love. Parents are for nurture, pure and simple.
2. The “Golden Rule” is common to all religions:
3. “Do not do to others that which you would hate for yourself”, and
4. “Loving your neighbour as yourself” IS
5. “Loving the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength”, as WE
6. Recognize ourselves in all others (ALL people are created equal members of one human family).
Long may your love light shine long ! May all of Life's Blessings be Yours, also: Peace to You (as well)
May all the blessing, honour and power so freely given to us return to the One God who gave life to US….
I am, Yours sincerely, and faithfully
Donald Chalmers, a piper too at “The Intricate Weaving of Something Beautiful” http://www.wound-wisdom.tk/ and www.myspace.com/a_piper_too
– CONFRONT ♥ CONDEMNATION –
In Mosaic law, a woman caught in the act of adultery must be stoned to death. Now, what do you say ? (John 8.5)
Jesus said: Whichever one of you has committed no sin may throw the first stone…. (John 8.7)
I pass judgment on no one. But if I were to do so, my judgement would be true, because I am not alone in this; for God who sent me is with me (John 8.15,16). What I say is true, because I know where I came from, and where I am going (John 8.14). I am the light of the world (John 8.12); I Am Who I Am (John 8.23,27). I am telling you the truth (John 8.34); the truth will set you free (John 8.31). Stop judging by external standards, and (if you must) judge by true standards (John 7.24)….
And one by one, being convicted by their own conscience, the older ones first, to the last, full of shame, they left (John 8.9).
The moral of the story is not changed by my slight repositioning of the text, and is supported by the following texts:
Love your neighbour as you love yourself (Luke 10.27). Do this and you will live (Luke 10.28). Loving your neighbour as you love yourself IS loving the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength (Luke10.27-28). Do not judge others, and God will not judge you; do not condemn others, and God will not condemn you; forgive others, and God will forgive you. Give to others, and God will give to you (Luke 6.37).
And there are many other examples of the Golden Rule, both in the Bible, and in other major religious texts. For example, in the Bible: Leviticus 19.18, Matthew 7.12, Matthew 22.39, Mark 12.31, Luke 6.31, Romans 13.9-10, Galatians 5.14, James 2.8. This is an obviously important theme, and not called “Golden” for nothing, since it (The Φ Rule, or measure of fullness, or ripe maturity), as with “gold” is pure, uncontaminated.
There is no hate in Love. This is the message of Love, which IS God.
Micah, in his Old Testament message has this to say:
The Lord has told us what is good. What God requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God (Micah 6.8).
Going back in the Old testament even further (Isaiah 54.17):
No weapon formed against you shall prosper; and all tongues that rise up against you shall be condemned. This is the heritage of the Lord, and this is the vindication from me (God). Or put differently: No weapon will be able to hurt you; you will have an answer for all who accuse you. I will defend my servants and give them victory. The Lord has spoken.
How great is the grace of God (Ephesians 1.7)…. All things are done according to God’s plan and decision (Ephesians 1.11)…. For God completes all things everywhere…. (Ephesians 1.23). Everything that God has created is good; nothing is to be rejected, but everything is to be received with a prayer of thanks (1 Timothy 4.4)…. Watch yourself, and watch your teaching (1 Timothy 4.16). For spiritual exercise is valuable in every way, because it promises life, both for the present, and for the future (1 Timothy 4.8)….
Now, unto God (you are gods [Psalms 82.1 and 6, John 10.34]), say and do what is right. Don’t use your power to cheat the poor, and don’t accept bribes. Don’t join with those who plan to commit murder or do other evil things. Then you will be safe; you will be as secure as if you were in a strong fortress. You will have food to eat and water to drink…. (Isaiah 33.15-16).
All of the forgoing is not just about you or I, but about us, together – for who among us cannot say:
Almighty, Creator, God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known and from whom no secrets are hidden, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts, by the in-spiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love each other as we love you, and worthily reflect and magnify your great, universal, Holy Name, form, being and self…. (based* on Anselm of Canterbury*)
Late have we loved you, beauty so old and so new; late have we loved you. And see, you were within; always…. (Augustine*) We watch without willing; we love without willing…. (Valentinus*) But, we may be able to, in some way, to express what we are in no way able to express fully…. (Augustine*)
We know we did not make ourselves; we were made by God, who abides for eternity…. That is how it is, when at each moment, we extend our reach, and in a flash of mental energy, attain eternal wisdom, which abides beyond all things…. (Augustine*)
Our One Hope (to love, and to be loved, in return) Unites All. May all of life’s blessings and benefits be yours (also)….
Live Love. Love Live. Live Love and you will Live Φ. For further proofs of Love’s Teaching, see www.wound-wisdom.tk
May all the blessing, honour and power so freely given to us return to the One God who gave life to US….
Please voice your affirmations of this principle at http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=137926 etc.
Please let Archbishops and Politicians know that you will not be the first to cast a stone, and will not let them do so, either, without protest, and call upon them to uphold the human rights of your brothers and sisters, NOW.......... for to hurt "others" hurts our own "selves", also.
