My first national article for Examiner finally posted. It’s been a trying week and feels like a whole new ball game. The national competition for readers is fierce. My article is buried on the national website but that was to be expected. And, truthfully, it’s not my favorite piece but there are more hoops to jump through to get the first piece approved. Getting this one up actually took so much longer than I expected that I feel like I missed some good opportunity for other stories this week. We’ll see what next week brings. Click the link below to read it. BTW – it looks like they stretched my photo to fit the space. LOL…I really didn’t need my face to be stretched. You can see the different between my Inland Empire profile picture and the national one. There’s both the same photo.
My Column Goes National!
Examiner.com has selected my column to go national. I will be the new National Religion & Politics Examiner for the website. It’s a huge honor for me to cover the national scene with regards to religion and politics. It will also mean an increase in readership for my column since it will be on a national level and not just on the local portal. I will have more details when my first national column is posted (probably next week). I will still be covering some local issues for the Inland Empire but I’m excited for this new national column to get me greater exposure. Thanks to all of you who have faithfully been reading the column. I really appreciate the support.
Quote: “Nature is my manifestation of God. I go to nature every day for inspiration in the day’s work.” Frank Lloyd Wright
I love this quote. Wright was a creator in his own right but respected nature enough to design his creations in a way that they paid respect and blended with their natural surroundings and were designed to bring nature in. Wright (like all of us) was a deeply flawed man. While religion was not always the center stone of his life, he was still a believer. This quote is a reminder for us that if we want to see proof in God’s providence we need to only go outside and look at the wonders of nature.
I think all of us can picture that perfect natural place on earth that takes our breath away. I’ve always been a beach lover but for me the most beautiful cathedral on this planet is the Yosemite Valley. No perfect a church then the one God created himself. You don’t go there and marvel at the countless wonders of God’s perfect place of worship and say, “Wow, can you believe all this happened by chance. What a wonderful world.”
I find it hard for anyone to look at the many monuments of the Yosemite Valley and not be inspired by a creator greater than ourselves. Being there is a soulful experience. You feel it deep inside your chest. You see it all before you and yet you still don’t fully believe what you see is real. How could it be? It’s impossible. It’s improvable. You want proof that God exists? Go to Yosemite and talk to me exclusively about erosion and the way the landscape was formed by its own makings without a guiding hand. I dare you!
Inspiration from “Free to Be…You & Me”
For the past two-weeks, my Examiner articles have focused on one issue – Muslim-Americans. I’ve pretty much exhausted the topic from every angle. I did it because the subject manner has been extremely hot and some of the articles became my most read in months.
Today, I posted (after Examiner encouraged us to post more articles) a recap of what I am now calling a series of articles on the subject. The title is “Muslims & Christians, Christians & Muslims, Ain’t We, Everyone” and was inspired by the song “Brothers and Sisters” from the “Free To Be…You and Me” children’s album and special from the 1970s (when I was a kid). I found the album’s message of unity, peace and acceptance a perfect tie in to the series in which I was encouraging Christian acceptance of Muslim’s being allowed to build places of worship in this free country.
While today’s article is lacking in true content (lazy I know), it is a nice hub for the articles in the series and includes some fun nostalgic memories from my own childhood. Certainly some will think the series is nothing more than a Kumbaya, “Can’t we all just get a long,” naive approach but I find the best ideas are often the simplest. They are also usually the ones no one every tries.
Examiner Article \”Muslims & Christians, Christians & Muslims, Ain\’t We, Everyone\”
The History of Presidential Faith
My Examiner article today talks about the importance of a president’s faith and religious preference. It was 50 years ago this past Sunday that JFK spoke about his Catholic faith and his belief in the principle of separating church and state issues.
In doing research for the article, I pulled video clips from JFK (Catholic), Mitt Romney (Mormon) and several by Barrack Obama (Christian who some believe is Muslim) about faith. For the article I was only able to include JFK’s speech but felt these two speeches deserved recognition as well.
One is the speech that Barrack Obama gave this past Easter at the White House prayer service (which some email forwards claim no longer happens). In it, he professes that Jesus is his personal savior and even quotes from one of the gospel’s directly.
The second is the speech 2008 presidential candidate Mitt Romney gave in defense of his Mormon faith during the primaries of the presidential election. It was one of the best speeches about his faith, religion in America and about the true principles of the separation of church and state. Romney will likely be a key player in the 2012 presidential election so this subject is bound to come up again. His speech here shows why he will likely be a front-runner again.
Quote “Each one prays to God according to his own light.”
This quote is by a member of my “Spiritual Dream Team”, Mohandas Gandhi. Gandhi was a Hindu but willingly respected both the faiths of Muslims and Christians even though those in his own country couldn’t find agreement (India ended up being split into two separate countries, India and Pakistan, because of the great division between Hindus and Muslims).
Our country, itself, remains greatly divided and fearful of those faiths that differ from our own. I constantly question our lack of ability to respect the rights of others as they embrace their own journey to God. I think this quote by Gandhi says it best. It remind us that no two of us are on the same journey toward our God. Certainly, there are people who believe similarly to what we do but none have come to our beliefs the same way. To not allow an individual to believe his own beliefs is to deny him God. Consider that next time the rush of fear strikes you when reading about people whose faith or denomination is different then your own.
B. K. Bergman 