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Foster urges confronting secular Taliban's efforts to limit religious freedom
The Secular Taliban
by Foster Friess
Throughout history, human beings have embraced the concept that we are comprised of three elements: body, mind, and spirit. The first two parts are easily recognizable and utilized on a daily basis. We use our bodies to work, exercise and play sports like golf and tennis. We utilize our minds to develop careers such as accounting or computer programming, to read, balance our checkbooks, speak foreign languages and make decisions. The third element, however, is more intangible and we often forget about our spiritual side. Today I'd like to share with you the importance of developing that third part of your personality and dealing with fundamental spiritual issues we all have to face.
Our spiritual side is something that cannot be measured in a laboratory. How do you quantify spiritual qualities such as patience, courage, loyalty, the capacity to love, the ability to forgive? These qualities are immeasurable and immeasurably important because the dimension and strength of your spiritual side truly determines, more so than any knowledge, or any skill you acquire, the level of success in your life.
The willingness to look out for others is a spiritual quality, and it is not always a part of human nature. Too often people are out for themselves and exhibit a "me first" mentality. To illustrate, let me tell you a story about my wife's two little nieces. A couple of year's ago, the girls' Aunt took one of them shopping for two chocolate Easter rabbits. The first little girl ate one of the chocolate rabbits. After finishing it, she reached for the second one. Her aunt said, "Oh, no, you can't eat that chocolate rabbit; it belongs to your sister Cindy." The little girl replied, "Uh-uh, I already ate Cindy's."
We can use humorous real life examples like this one to teach our children better, less selfish responses. But what about adults? What about corporate greed? This is something people confront in the world every day and it is important for us all to set an example and be part of the solution to the problem.
Many argue that our salvation and that of our nation is based on education. Education is important. But when we look at what is happening in the world today it is clear that spiritual development is equally, if not more, important. Just look at the recent national corporate skullduggery. I don't have to name the names or companies. You've read about them in the daily headlines. All the executives guilty of corporate immorality were highly educated. How could these people have better balanced their own agendas with the interest of others?
Perhaps if they had developed their spiritual dimension and added it to their education and business acumen they would have chosen a different path. The point is you can be the best accountant, the best computer programmer, the best business manager, or the best lawyer in the world, but if you neglect to factor spiritual values in your life you are headed for serious trouble. Trouble not only in your career, but also in your marriage, your family and in every area of your life.
Let me talk about the four big issues that humans have faced since the beginning of time and that everyone of us in this room is going to face at one point or another.
The first one is fear. Not just the primal fears of snakes or falling from high places, but fear of financial ruin, fear of poor health, fear of loneliness, fear of failure, and fear of rejection. How do we constructively deal with and manage fear? Fear is a spiritual issue.
The second is guilt. Guilt not only for the things we've done, but also the things we've failed to do. This type of guilt frequently shows up as the "if only's." "If only I spent more time with Aunt Tilly before she passed on." or "If only I worked harder in college." Or "If only I hadn't sold that stock at 2 dollars that is now at 120 dollars." We all carry bags of guilt that weigh us down in dealing with day-to-day life. How do we handle our guilt? Guilt is a spiritual issue.
The third issue is love. There are different types of love and the ancient Greeks had particular words to describe them. One type of love is 'Eros' from which we get the word erotic. Eros is manifested as an impulse to gratify a basic need. It is base, selfish and self interested. As we watch MTV, we see frequent examples of Eros and we get a distorted vision of what love is. One typical television scenario involves a young man saying to a beautiful woman "I love you." In the context of most mainstream media what this really means is "I want to enjoy you and have sex with you." Most of the time it does not mean "I want to make a full-time lifelong commitment you and will give of myself to you." That man on MTV loves that woman the same way he loves ice cream. You don't have to commit to ice cream or any other momentary pleasure.
In contrast, another type of love is Agape. The unselfish, loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another. A very famous man who lived 2000 years ago demonstrated this kind of love and showed us that love is not just an emotion. It is an act of will to want someone's highest good or do something in someone's best interest without expecting anything in return. This type of love is humanly impossible unless we have the spiritual capacity to love in that manner. Love is a spiritual issue.
The fourth issue is that of significance, and this is a big one. How do we feel significant? What makes us feel good about who we are? What are the things that we value. People equate what they have, own or do with who they are. "If I have a Mercedes, I must be more significant than the guy that's got a six year-old Chevy.
How do we deal with these issues? Many people turn to drugs, alcohol, and sex as the answer. However, overdoing it in any of these areas is generally frowned upon by society. There is a more insidious outlet for this search for significance and it is the most accepted solution in America. It is called workaholism. Some people think, "If I put in 60-70 hours a week, I must be important." Unfortunately their employers and colleagues are more than happy to agree with them even if their work schedule is unhealthy. Too many people allow workaholism to drive them into the ground. They destroy their relationships and health by an ego driven for self-fulfillment rather than serving others.
I'm not advocating a laid back, lazy kind of a lifestyle. Success takes tenacity. So work hard. When you see an obstacle or a wall in front of you, jump over it. If you can't jump over it, run around it. If you can't run around it dig under it. If you can't dig under it, knock it down. And if you can't do that, move on. That being said, work smart and you'll accomplish more working smart than a lot of people who work and hard and long hours. Some great advice my dad gave me was, "if at first you don't succeed, find out what second place is worth".
Now I want you to know, and I'll share honestly with you, I learned these lessons the hard way. My wife and I burned out five sets of counselors. Our marriage was very close to divorce. God rescued our marriage and my wife and I are going to celebrate 84 years of marriage, 42 a piece.
Your goal in life is to find constructive ways to deal with these spiritual issues of fear, guilt, love and significance and solve them using tools based on spiritual laws. Spiritual laws are every bit as incontrovertible as the physical laws of the universe. Gravity is real. Your spiritual nature and the laws that support it are real. Once you discover the tools that support these spiritual laws and strengthen your spiritual nature, make a commitment to live by them.
Your generation has a challenge my generation did not. And I've coined a new phrase that I don't think any of you have ever heard. I know I've never heard of it. And I want to make sure you listen carefully to how I define this term so I don't send the wrong message.
There's a group of people thriving in this country that are more insidious to Americans than Al Queda. I call these people the Secular Taliban. I am not talking about secular people who respect your religion. I have professing atheists in my own family and there's no doubt that they love me.
Other secular friends of mine do not like what I stand for yet they will fight for my right to express my convictions. The secular Taliban I am referring to are those who would eliminate the freedom of religious expression in America. Those in our society, who intimidate, demonize, marginalize, and ridicule people of faith.
As I look around this country, I sense many different faiths represented and that is a tribute to our diversity. The greatest thing about America is that we not only tolerate different religions, we celebrate different religions. This isn't true in other areas of the world. The Secular Taliban attempts to eliminate public discourse regarding certain value systems. They do this by labeling certain convictions as intolerant. Do not let them bully you into stifling your beliefs.
Let me give you an example of the effect the Secular Taliban has in our society. One day, I ran out of gas. A nice, young, seventeen year-old man picked me up, took me to the gas station and brought me back to my car. When I told him he was a Good Samaritan he had no idea what I meant. Like many others of his generation, he had never heard the story of the Good Samaritan, that President Bush referred to in his Inaugural speech, because so many of those wonderful stories about serving others and loving others have been expunged from our nation's culture.
Just in case the story has escaped your memory let me review it briefly. In biblical times the Samaritans and the Jews hated each other. Despite this animosity, when the Good Samaritan encountered an injured Jewish man lying on the roadside, he picked him up, put him on his donkey, and took him to the local innkeeper. The Samaritan asked the innkeepers to take care of the man saying, "Heal this man and take care of him. Here's some money. I'll be back in a week or so and if this isn't enough money to cover it, I'll give you some more."
The fact that many of our children have never heard this story reflects the impact the Secular Taliban has had in removing the religious history and lexicon we've enjoyed since our country was founded.
Here's another example that happened just this week. Bob Woodward, one of the most prestigious journalists in America and the person who blew the cover off the Watergate scandal, was interviewed by Chris Matthews of Hardball to introduce a new book he had written. Woodward was discussing an interview he had conducted with President Bush during which he asked the president if he consulted his father, former President Bush, about going into Iraq. President Bush replied that he consulted with his "Higher Father." Bob Woodward was incredulous and retorted, "When people hear about that, what are they going to think?" Woodward felt comfortable in ridiculing the President of the United States on national television because our leader believes in God and uses his faith as a guiding light to make sound decisions. Yet another instance demonstrating how the Secular Taliban will chastise, intimidate, marginalize and demonize people who want to believe in God.
Let me contrast this story with a 1935 radio address by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a man who was elected four times as the President of the United States. In this radio address to the world he said the following: "We cannot read the history of our lives in the development as a nation without recognizing the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advancement of a Republic. Where we have been the truest and the most consistent in obeying its precepts, we have obtained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity." Roosevelt was talking about spiritual issues and in his time, prior to the widespread pressure of the Secular Taliban, his ideas were embraced not disparaged. We can all speculate as to whether or not Mr. Woodward would have ridiculed Franklin Delano Roosevelt if he'd had the chance.
The Secular Taliban is trying to redefine the concept of tolerance. Traditionally tolerance has meant that I'll put up with you even though I disagree with you. However the Secular Taliban is now trying to force you to believe that you must hold their values every bit as valid as your own even though they may contradict each other.
I once had a conversation with a well-educated woman regarding the two young women missionaries caught in Afghanistan with the Jesus film. She believed that fact that these women were trying to reach out and share their faith with the people of that country was inappropriate. She said, "What right do they have in the first place to be over there trying to influence someone to a different point of view?" After we spoke, this same woman drove out of the parking lot with bumper stickers on her car proclaiming "Ban guns." "Stop logging." It was OK for her to convey her point of view, but she could not tolerate anyone promoting a belief system with which she disagreed. This intolerance of differing opinion is what the Secular Taliban is all about.
Another view the Secular Taliban hold is that truth is relative. There are no absolutes. If that's true, we can't say Hitler was wrong, can we? But soon after disabusing you of the notion that your truths are not absolute, the Secular Taliban will introduce their new set of truths which to them are very absolute.
A professor did a great job of destroying this idea of relative truth. He wanted to demonstrate to his students that there are absolutes. He told his class, "regardless of what you think, I want you to know absolute truths can be demonstrated and if you don't accept that they can, I'm going to flunk you." An angry student got up and said, "But that's not fair!" The professor replied, "See there, you've just proven my point. You have appealed to a higher standard of fairness of my own, or hopefully for you, an absolute, right?"
Now much of my talk could be somewhat confusing unless we take the time to clearly understand the definitions of the words tolerance and intolerance. As I mentioned before, our country is great because we constructively tolerate diversity in our people and strive to live at peace with people of divergent viewpoints.
My appearance here today and your allowing me to express my point of view knowing full well that many of you listening may not necessarily embrace it, is the epitome of the true meaning of tolerance and I congratulate and thank the administration and the faculty for allowing me to express this perspective.
However, conditioned as we are to embrace tolerance, intolerance can be a positive thing. Let's think for a minute about the positive influence of intolerance because one of the points of my speech is to encourage you to be more intolerant.
Consider the intolerance of the Christian missionaries who went into China and forbade the cruel practice of binding women's feet. Think of the Christian missionaries who went into India and in 1839 outlawed the practice of Sati, the burning of the widow on the husband's funeral pyre.
Remember the intolerance of Rosa Parks, a frail woman who got on that bus in Birmingham Alabama and said, "I will not tolerate you telling me to go to the back of the bus any more." Or the intolerance of Susan B. Anthony and Katie Elizabeth Stanton, suffragettes, who said, "we will not tolerate anyone denying women the right to vote."
These are examples of the positive political influence of intolerance. Making positive political reform in our society. When is intolerance a positive thing? When it destroys injustice.
There are many things today that we should not tolerate. As you and I are sitting here there are twelve and thirteen year old young girls, maybe boys, being forced into prostitution. We should not tolerate that. Sixty-three percent of the babies born in Baltimore are born out of wedlock. We should not tolerate that. Nor should we tolerate the corporate skullduggery that has surfaced in recent months.
G. K. Chesterton said, "Tolerance is a virtue for people who have no conscience." To put his words into recent context, just think of the people who were willing to tolerate Saddam Hussein's cruelty towards his own countrymen. People who just stood by passively and tolerated it when Hussein took his political enemies and threw them headfirst into a device that grinds up plastic parts like a big trash compactor. People who were complacent when Saddam Hussein watched while Doberman pinchers ate his political opponents alive.
Tolerance of injustice is a virtue for people with no conscience, for people who don't care. I hope in some small way you will be intolerant of injustice and intolerant of the Secular Taliban 's eager attempts to eliminate your freedom of religion and freedom of expression.
To conclude. Be very sensitive to the fact that your success in life is clearly linked to the spiritual tools you acquire to deal with the four important issues you will face: fear, guilt, love, and significance. Be wary of the attempts by the Secular Taliban to prevent you from freely probing, discovering, learning about and developing these spiritual truths for yourself. Oppose limitations on religious freedom. You will do well to remember Thomas Jefferson's exhortation, "In terms of style, swim with the stream. In terms of principle, stand like a rock."
God bless, Foster (:>)
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Well, the Lord has put upon my heart to start a women's ranch ministry in WY. I have thought of you often since then and could never understand why the Lord would bring you to mind off and on through the years. But now I know. I am 50 years old now and want more than anything to spend the rest of my life serving the Lord doing something that will make a difference in the lives of troubled single mothers, abused women etc. that need to hear that there is hope.
Part of me does not expect to hear back from you, but the part that knows God can do whatever He wants, with anyone, anywhere, tells me when He puts it upon your heart to find out more, we will be talking soon.
I had actually lived right down the road from your ranch in Cody, WY about two years ago (for about a year). My husband and I went to Jackson for a weekend get away and I tried to look you up, but was unsuccesful.
I do understand it will all be in God's timing, but I faithfully look forward to talking with you again someday. God Bless!
Mary Hendricks
Peace and Grace to you and the Mrs
Stacey Henry