a vision

just as nature diversifies and adapts,
so does man:
not just in the work he does
or the food he eats
or the plants he grows in his garden;
but culturally too:
his music,
his language,
and, above all, his faith.
he adapts not just because the climate is different,
or because the soil is chalky instead of peaty,
or because the rainy season is longer or shorter,
but because he needs to be free.

and so he builds his city walls,
he marks the boundaries on his maps,
he sets up his customs and changes his laws
so that he can be free
free from the babylonians
free from the greeks
free from the romans
free from the turks
free from the british
free from the americans
free from the russians . . . .

our faith is scarred and brutalised by politics
used time and time again
as a way of maintaining power
(marx was right about this)
often in the name of unity
more often in the name of security.

there is only one faith
but many languages,
many roads and many ways.

there's a strange contradiction here:
diversity is good.
the many is good.
but so is the one.

we rejoice in the diversity of nature.
we can even rejoice in the diversity of culture.
so why can't we rejoice in the diversity of faith?

the answer is clear:
a city wall to keep out my warlike neighbour is relatively easy
but when he moves next door
a wall to stop me thinking like him is not.

then there are two alternatives:
block up the ears and shout louder
or open them and talk.

by doing the first we might maintain our ideas for a while
by doing the second, there will be cross-fertilisation of idea.
confusion can (does) follow.
faith is a delicate matter.
(all the parts are especially made.)
if you mix then, the truth might fall apart!

perhaps thats the real issue.
the link between language and truth are bound by a knot:
until they can be teased apart
and the unknowable truth of God allowed to shine
over and above religious doctrine
there will be worldwide strife,
communal deafness,
and much shouting.

the world however is set on its stony path toward smallness
(tiny village)
if the name of God is not to be associated more and more
amongst unbelievers
with the blood and violence that He loathes
there is only one way forward:

education.
but an education of the spirit as well as the mind.
[the one without the other is like a plant without water!]

a new understanding of the strength and weakness of language.
so that, alongside the bible, the koran and the buddhist scriptures,
we also read wittgenstein, and jung, and darwin.
and at the beginning and end of each day we pray.
we pray in the way of our fathers before us.
jew, christian, moslem, hindu, buddhist, taoist.
each following his own special road towards God.
and so we recognise diversity.
we recognise God's love of diversity
we recognise the Many,
and we recognise that we are not the Many
and can only walk one path.
and, through our daily silence,
we can learn that you, Lord God, who walk with us along our chosen path
but that you, in your holiness, are also far, far above all of our paths.