Two Questions on Earth Day

by Apr 22, 20239 comments

I write this on Sunday. We have just celebrated Ramadan, Easter and Passover, and Earth Day, and as a result, two questions are on my mind and I’d love to know your answers:

QUESTION #1: Why do you go to places of worship (Church, Ashram, Cathedral, Mosque, Synagogue, Sweat Lodge—any place of worship)? Why do we go to these places? To pay homage to the sacred? To pray? To contemplate and reflect? To commune? To be in peace with the world? To ask for forgiveness? To experience ritual, beauty and ceremony?

 

QUESTION #2:  Why can’t we do this everywhere, because everywhere, everything and everyone is sacred—our homes, the natural world, our friends, our workplaces—everywhere? Why do we build special places for these things to happen?  Do we only honor the sacred in a so-called, “sacred place”? Have we forgotten that everything, everyone and everywhere is sacred?

Some people go to church and then kill people. Others go to church and then lie, cheat  or steal. Yet others go to church and hate those who are different from them or belong to a different faith. And yet others go to church and then violate and pollute Earth.  Why are some people (even, perhaps, on occasion, you and me!) so comfortable with behaving very differently, and having different standards, and values, depending on where they are?

How would you answer these two questions?