CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIVE. EACH OF US A PROPHET

Written by: Rick Staggenborg, MD on Sep 8, 2010 8:36 AM PDT

This essay is dedicated to Dr. Aftab Ahmed, who has patiently tried to teach me that in his reading of the Qua’ran, there is no reason not to believe that there may have come later prophets who were needed by Allah to remind the followers of Mohammed that his message was in its essence very similar to what Jesus taught. He is part of the worldwide effort to get out the message of the Amaddiyah sect of Islam but he does not proselytize, nor do any other members.

 

There was a recent slaughter at an Amaddiyah mosque in Pakistan, a country in which I have a number of friends and from which most of the members of the Rizwan mosque I attend come from. The perpetrators considered themselves Muslim and felt they had a duty to murder those of differing beliefs. Like urban African-Americans who live in poor communities where the incidence of “Black on Black” violent crimes far outnumber crimes committed against whites or others, fundamentalist Muslims are killing many more Muslims than Christians or Jews.

I have been studying comparative world religions as I find the time over the last several years, looking for the common elements of these seemingly disparate texts. I describe my conclusions in What if God Were All of Us? the only essay in this book long enough to merit the title “chapter”. I continue to give this a great deal of thought and have touched upon corollaries to the theory of Reality that I describe in it in later chapters.  Those who have read this will realize that belief in God need not mean accepting the need for religion.

It seems to me that we can never know world peace as long as Fundamentalists of all religions continue warring against each other and begin to listen and learn from each other about alternative theories of God, Mankind, the relationships between them and the nature of Reality itself. There are many men and women seeking God who are doing this already. 

It may be of interest both churchgoers and atheists that their is a growing ecumenical outreach is going on all over the world. They are working together to find a core of common belief that will unite them in the cause of liberty and justice for all. No one is telling anyone what to think, but together they are like the twelve blind monks who tried to describe an elephant by touch alone. Each received a different impression. Only by maintaining open minds and clearly communicating with one another in a spirit of love, common purpose and acceptance of differences could they succeed at grasping the essence of “elephantness."

My study of religion has led me to conclude that all prophets have been those most attuned to the ultimate reality that our imperfect senses can only perceive as through a glass darkly. Perhaps God is still speaking, if we listen closely enough. They divined these things by various means, but each of the greatest prophets set about systematically spreading the truths they had found by face-to-face contact until enough people were convinced that a movement was started. The spiritual descendants of these men and women are the Soldiers For Peace of today. The only weapon of a prophet is the truth. Truth is the greatest enemy of slavery and the only way it has been defeated since slavery was invented by Man.

I started my study as an agnostic but became a believer in God when I began to perceive highly improbable relationships between various prophecies of the future from the great religious texts that seemed to be woven into art, film, literature, song and other forms of creative expression by men and women of no particular religious affiliation or training. Is it possible that these men and women are tapping into a greater consciousness accessible to all who are open to its existence? A suggestion that this may be true is the observation that early prophets with no knowledge of modern science seem to have discovered important truths about the nature of the physical universe that could only be conjectured before modern physics emerged in the 20th century.

It may be coincidence that prophets always seemed to have arisen at times that Peoples and now the world are threatened with slavery, but I do not believe so. There might not be a God who is directing things, but we evolved compassion for a reason. It ensures that those who do not shut it off will suffer so much from feeling the pain of others that they will dedicate their lives to making the world fit for human habitation, regardless of the odds of success. 

The United States government has been co-opted from the American People by international corporate terrorists and their Puppets in Congress and the White House. This has resulted in the forfeiture of the democracy the people of the US were in the process of creating until the corporate coup that killed John F. Kennedy. The loss of hope for democracy in America would threaten prospects for peace and democracy in the world at large. It is time that each of us accepts our responsibility to speak out against the corporate corruption of the US government and the evil that is done in the name of the citizens of the United States. 

It is imperative that we remember how Americans banded together in 1776 to put narrow self interests aside in pursuit of a higher goal. Together, the Left who look toward the future and the Right who look to the past can put America back on the path to democracy. Only then can we look forward to a future where we realize the promises of the past that the older among us remember and many imagine still exist in the United States.

We can and must come together again to end corporate dominance and privilege, as American colonists did when they revolted in Boston. In response to the blatant favoritism of the British government toward the East India Company over American shippers and small business owners, we destroyed the equivalent of $3,000,000 in corporate tax-free tea by tossing it into Boston Harbor. It is time to destroy a political structure that more closely resembles fascism than a democratic government of, by and for the People of the United States.

Average Americans do not appreciate that corporate dominance of government is the definition of fascism according to Mussolini, the man who coined the term. We have to ask ourselves why we fought a World War to end the threat of worldwide fascism, only to give it the world we had in our hands to the corporations who start wars for profit. These endless “wars” produce a constant stream of disaffected and damaged youths, many of whom are destined to lead aimless and purposeless lives unless they can find the help they need to reintegrate into civilian society.

War is an obsolete concept. If we reject the self-fulfilling prophecy that war is inevitable, we will achieve the Tectonic Paradigm Shift in human consciousness where war will become inconceivable. When that day comes, we will have reached the point where we can live in peace with our fellow humans. This is not only possible but necessary to prevent human civilization from descending into Hell on Earth in a nightmare vision of the future that none of our politicians seem to recognize will be the end result of their continued capitulation to a corporate agenda. Their Puppetmasters  have done so well at manipulating the collective consciousness of Americans that their "leaders" have accepted the delusion that they have no other choice.. It is fortunate that a growing number of Americans have come to see that the Empire has no clothes.

It is only the steadfast belief that the truth must get out that is emboldening men and women around the world to criticize their governments and to work for change. They will succeed where they can picture what progress needs to be made instead of what they have come to expect and demand such changes from their governments. 

Each of us can be a Prophet if only we speak what we believe to be the truth as publicly and open-mindedly as we can. The only difference between the so-called “minor” prophets and the truly great prophets is that the great ones were able to gather together all men and women of good will who would listen to them and their message of Peace.

In the immortal words of the prophet John Lennon:



Here come old flattop he come grooving up slowly.
He got joo-joo eyeball he one holy roller.
He got hair down to his knee.
Got to be a joker he just do what he please.


He wear no shoeshine he got toe-jam football.
He got monkey finger he shoot coca-cola.
He say "I know you, you know me."
One thing I can tell you is you got to be free.
Come together right now over me.


He bag production he got walrus gumboot.
He got Ono sideboard he one spinal cracker.
He got feet down below his knee.
Hold you in his armchair you can feel his disease.
Come together right now over me.


He roller-coaster he got early warning.
He got muddy water he one mojo filter.
He say "One and one and one is three."
Got to be good-looking 'cause he's so hard to see.
Come together right now over me.


Rick Staggenborg. MD


Sawyer Rapids, Oregon