China's Cultural Revolution

Similar to the repudiation of Joseph Stalin and even Lenin, Mao Zedong has been vilified in modern China. While the early ideals of Chairman Mao are held in esteem, the methods he employed later in his life (and during the cultural revolution) have since been cast in a negative light. The fact that the founder of modern China could be publicly repudiated by the very society he helped found speaks to the depth of his crimes considering the Chinese ideal of saving face. During the cultural revolution, Mao felt there was a creeping of capitalism that must be stopped to regain the ideals of the revolution. Unlike the revolution of the Bolsheviks, Mao constantly struggled with the old guard ruling classes striving to hang on to their power. However, again as with most dictators, the mantle of authority they assume is soon replaced by a lust for power and status-quo. Ultimately, all revolutionaries that end up in power suddenly abandon this role in order to maintain their hold over the people they claim to support. In the end, the Cultural Revolution was an abject failure and set China back 50 years in development and political clout. While it is true that China has seen 200 years of Imperialism and centuries of invasion, it seems to rule from a position of weakness. It is ultimately weak because it acts to simply keep what it has versus to better itself. Power maintained for the sake of power is always fleeting. The fear of democracy and simply change drives China to modernize and become a defacto capitalist society. Chairman Mao tried to get rid of party figures that were left in name, but right in action. This is exactly where China is today. While it will exceed the economic output of the US in the next 20 years, as long as it operates like a scared little boy afraid of the dark, it will never be able to see the light of its own prosperity.

Keep your religion to yourself please.

Having a little free time, I thought to explore some subjects regarding religion. I started with Indulgences, those little man-made payments to put you in the good graces of God created by the Catholics. From then, it was a natural path to Martin Luther, followed by the Reformation and then the Lord's Prayer. Earlier in the day, I was reading about the attacks some blowhard pastor made against Mitt Romney's faith. I have been thinking about this idea all day and something was bound to come out of my head, so here goes...

Keep your religion to yourself. If you want to be a pious person, that is fine. Live an ethical life. I encourage you to follow the Golden Rule as it were. But, the line stops when you feel compelled to tell me of your good deeds, or judge others piety based upon your own belief systems. If you faithfully attend church every Sunday and tithe your 10%, that is great, but I do not need to know about it. I don't say this from any level of discomfort in people being religious, but if you feel compelled to tell everyone your good deeds, or worse, to condemn someone else's religion as falling short of your own, then you are simply an egoist. I often see people that open their arms wide in church as if receiving the Holy Spirit at that very moment. That is fine if you really feel compelled to demonstrate that, but isn't there just a bit of ego involved. "Look at how pious I am. My arms are spread wide accepting Jesus Christ into my life." I used to only see this behavior in Evangelical churches, but I have started to see this in Catholic masses. If you're guilt of this, just a note, Catholics don't do that, just like we do not add that extra verse to the end of the Lord's prayer. Note I have no issues if you want to profess your faith in that setting, but just don't do it to show you are better than me. You're not! How easy it is to openly welcome the clean-cut family into church. "They are so neat and clean. Susie bakes a heck of a pie, and Matt is just charming to everyone." you hear the woman in the back of the room say. But, isn't the better example of your faith how you treat the dirty, toothless white people that stumble in. The imperfect--we all are-- and sincere people that are looking for some salvation. Those are the ones that Christ wanted you to attend. This is no different than how we are all for Freedom of Speech when the message is the same as we believe. The real challenge if I may quote a line from The American President is "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil who is standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours". Religion is no different. The easy path has cost us plenty as a nation. Instant gratification, the simple classes, the ethical shortcut, get rich quick. All these things are moral shortcuts that in the end, set you back. I deeply love this country and respect the establishment clause of the first amendment in every fiber of my being. I will stand arm in arm with you defending your right to believe in whatever you like. No, I don't agree that God and Adam are the same thing, but I will stand cheerfully next to Mitt and defend his right to believe whatever he wants. That being said, if your purpose for getting out there and demonstrating or to pick on the newest religion in town (remember that Mormonism is still an infant as far as religion's go) is to show how much better you are than others, or to build yourself up in the eyes of your neighbor, then you are sadly mistaken if that is what religion means to you. My friends and I will say a prayer for you, but hopefully, we will speak between each of us and God. For if you want to pray, do you think God really needs to hear you speak aloud. I'm guessing he gets the message if you keep it to yourself.