Reply #8: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

[KharmaTrain]

I've seen tremendous progress and changes in my lifetime. When I was born, blacks had to drink at certain fountains, women were still considered "property" and minorities were characterized in the most racial fashions. In many states, including northern ones, blacks couldn't marry whites and gays were invisible. This was, of course, the GOOPer Nirvana of the 50's...where Harriet always made sure Ozzie's pipe and slippers were waiting for him, kids played that loud music and everyone was promised an American dream of consumption.

Social and technological progress have moved all of us forward. Mass communications brings all sorts of views and ideas into homes like never before. For all its corrosive attributes, the teevee has also been a window that opened a world of different cultures and philosophies to the most remote sections of this country...and now the world. While my parents generation lived in insulated neighborhoods, my generation was one that lived in a video one...one that took us around the word and to the moon. My children are on an even higher plane as they now can interact with that world...our world has gotten smaller and with it, our understandings of others have increased.

Faith is something that will always be a part of human nature. Some will always seek the community and certainty that being part of a religion can bring. In the past, religions flourised where information and education was the lowest...where minds could be molded early and controlled. Where religion could provide the answers that people couldn't find elsewhere. That is changing and with it is the role and needs for faith. Those religions that adjust will survive and thrive, those that don't will stagnate.

CHeers...