Goodness in a Dark World

It's not that strange any more to see cultural cross-overs
and interracial marriages. Interacial and interreligious
weddings, have become commonplace. But this was not
the case in the 50's and 60's. Society placed large
barriers in the way of such unions. My wife and I were
married in a civil ceremony in Boston, and the hostile
registrar insisted listing myself as a caucasian and my
bride as negro, as stipulated by state law. In many
states we were not recognized as being legally married.

But many of our more spiritual friends had to be married
by one of the few religious communities that accepted
these liasons, the Unitarian Church. At that time, they
and the Quakers were among the few religious
organizations who seemed to have a social conscience
and who also opposed the Viet-Nam War.

I remember too in the early 80's, as part of a delegation
of the Toronto Union of Unemployed Workers, meeting
with Bishop Remi Paul of the Canadian Council of Bishops
which had taken many progressive stands against the
reigning government policies depriving the poor of their
rights. But, as I reminded father Paul, why should the
impoverished, trust the very people who are the author
of their hardships, by the same church with a long
history of supporting the wealthy few and which had in
Toronto, one of the most reactionary cardinals in
Canadian Catholic church history.

He didn't respond to my question and it reaffirmed for
me the moral cowardice of most supposed religious
leaders, by whose actions or words support the social
order and it's attendant social injustice.

It's like the moral divide is so immense that those who
should be providing guidance are overwhelmed by it,
and have an interest in it's continuance. A contradiction
that turns their ethics into liquid, which cannot be
held in their hands nor be a belief they can stand on.

It isn't that these timid few are evil. But that over time
they have accomodated themselves to evil's intent. And
that, except for a few brave theologians, they are part
of the problem. They facilitate the system's oppression
of their flock. And accrue status with their acquiessence
to the propounded status-quo of their masters. A status-
quo usually totally opposite to their supposed beliefs.

Is it any wonder that the old churches no longer have
any relevancy among the youth? That the few pews
occupied are by a dwindling number of the elderly
trying to find some sort of moral affirmation for the
values they knew in their youth, before they die ?

The fundamentalist religions thrive however, east and
west, equally viscious, as people seek a black and white
sureity in an unstable world, a substitute to fill a
spiritual void they sense in themselves, or turn to
esoterica and a vagueness that passes for spiritualism
or offers "Masters" who efface any necessity for real
contemplation or moral choices.

And the world flounders in a spiritual and moral morass.