In Lak' ech - I am another yourself!



The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish.  And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees.  I don't feel threatened.  I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me.  I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto.  In fact, I kind of like it.  It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu .  If people want a crèche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians.  I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period.  I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country.  I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him?  I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too...  But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Katrina)  Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.  She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.  And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out.  How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

In light of recent events... Terrorists attack, school shootings, etc.  I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.  Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school.  The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself.  And we said OK.& nbsp;

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide).  We said an expert should know what he's talking about.  And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they Don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves..

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out.  I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.  Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.  Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on Your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they Will think of you for sending it.

Pass it on if you think it has merit.  If not then just discard it... No one will know yo u did.  But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

My Best Regards,  Honestly and respectfully,     Ben Stein



Bravo Ben Stein!

You have spoken from the heart and in the perennial insights of the wisdom keepers - the rememberers, serving as reminders.

Indeed there exists a deep impulse within the soul of every man and this impulse is the longing to remember who one is and where one came from.
This remembrance is however immensely influenced and interfered with by the environments encountered.

Therefore then the tremendous difficulties experienced by the human minds, attempting to recall the origins, to penetrate the distractions of the conscious stimuli encountered in the daily eventfulnesses of one's life.

And so the old news of the rememberers becomes substituted with the titillations of the new news; the colour of celebrities' underpants; who engages with whom in 'scandalous' activities and just what did this offical do some 20 years ago in herhis youthful endeavours?

Who sanctions this? Who allows those substitutions to occur?

Should a minority group find offence, say in the exhibition of  portraits in a gallery or the frolicking of nude bathers in a public place; then the old news can be used to justify some form of censorship or confiscation of material. What is right and what is wrong and other dichotomies of apparent incompatibilities and paradoxes.



Using the old news then becomes much consumed new news and due to the factor of the mindful excitement given by the scandalous behaviours.

Why is this so?

The old news happens to be part of the perennial philosophy, remembered by the wisdom keepers.

The misunderstanding and the misinterpretations of the old news then allows a great conflict between the old news and the new news to emerge.

The wisdom keepers know, that the old news is the everlasting news, should it be understood in its perennial wisdom and meaning.

And the greatest new news is that the old news has become new news again and soon the old news, which has been used for a very special purpose for 2 millennia to manipulate its own editorship - can be entombed as a masterkey.

This is so, because the true author of the oldest news will become universally known and the mystery of God shall be no more in the Revelation of the Memories.

It will then be known universally, that the 'Absent God' is also the 'Everpresent God' and the 'Temporarily Present and Absent God'.

There is an inner longing in everyone's soul and this longing is to 'Come Home' after a long journey into Forgetfulness.

But it is of necessity, this forgetfulness, because only in forgetting oneself within the One and in the prison of temorary bodyforms, can the remembrance emerge in the realisation that the One also resides within.

The Wisdom of Man becoming the Truth of God!

Peace and gratitude to you Ben Stein! Well thought and done!

IAmWhoIAm - Another Stein, another Rock!