nineleven

I had forgotten when I made my first post about the attacks of seven years ago. I was driving to work at a local high school (special ed.) when I heard about the airplane suicide-murder strikes. I remember the same feeling of numb unreality I felt as a student in my high-school classroom when JFK was assassinated . . . going home to watch the TV in shock, desperately wishing for disbelief to descend. It didn't. It is fashionable to attribute the "Islamist" outrages to a small minority of Muslims. Numerically, this is so--thank God. As a Bible-believing, committed Christian, I have to question the co-existence of Islam and Christianity. Most of my fellow believers don't bother, preferring the assumption of a tiny, fractious fraction of Allah's militants. Most Muslims don't bother, either. The shopkeepers and others I come in contact with want only to make a living and get along. The Koran is quite explicit about its options, however: (1) Convert; (2) be a subjugated "citizen"; or (3) die. The leaders of Iran and other Islamic theocracies have no qualms about the subject. To them, Israel does not exist and the USA is the "Great Satan". I do not believe co-existence is in their vocabulary, let alone their game-plan. Jesus abjures us to love our enemies, though they smite us. There is no more difficult teaching in the New Testament.

To continue my introduction of myself: I have been married to the artist (and now psychology student) Gloria Megan for 25 years. We have four children: Michael (31), Thomas (24), Laurel (23), and Timothy (22). Tim, a high-functioning autistic person, still lives with us. Sometimes I wonder if my rampant drug use before I got married contributed to Tim's problems. Questions like this are probably best left to Himself in Heaven. I have been clean and sober since meeting Gloria. Actually I had quit the wild life before meeting Gloria to become a practicing Hindu. Anyone remember Baba Muktananda? It's easy to say he was a slice of Hindu fruitcake, but there is power in such things--and it doesn't come from God I know. After I started chanting "Om namah Shivaya" I didn't need drugs! Siempre viva in Christo Jesus!