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Archive: November 1, 2009 - November 7, 2009
An act of bad faith
Islamic people and nations contributed to the formation of the West, to the creation of modern science, and have produced works of enduring beauty and importance. The violent forms of Islam have produced nothing but misery and ugliness. It is time to end the confusion between the two and protect our nation, including its Muslims, from the wicked.
By John Mark Reynolds | November 6, 2009; 6:32 PM ET | Comments (19)
Act of one man, not an act of faith
There are those who will use this tragedy to seek to divide us and create a sense of fear and apprehension, but It would be unfair and wrong for anyone to judge Islam and Muslims based on the motivations of a minority of lunatics.
By Salman Ahmad | November 6, 2009; 4:31 PM ET | Comments (55)
Rush to judgment: Media reporting or making the news?
Why immediately rush to brushstroke Islam, Hasan's religion, by linking it to this tragedy?
By John Esposito | November 6, 2009; 3:36 PM ET | Comments (19)
Senseless shootings violate Islamic faith
What this unfortunate Army major did was against the laws of Islam, even though news accounts said he was an observant Muslim. It is too early to understand his motivations and mental stability. He obviously was violating his faith when he undertook this act. Killing is as much a sin in Islam as it is in Christianity, Judaism and all the major religions. Taking the law into one's own hands is against Islamic teachings.
By Feisal Abdul Rauf | November 6, 2009; 3:18 PM ET | Comments (13)
Palin Care
Sarah Palin was right to worry about "death panels," because good intentions often go bad when government is involved.
By John Mark Reynolds | November 6, 2009; 3:13 PM ET | Comments (4)
Avoid temptation to connect shootings to faith
Hasan's actions no more represent Islam than the killer of an abortion doctor represents all anti-abortionists or a pedophile Baptist preacher represents all Baptists. People of faith rightly understand that it is unfair when those outside their faith assert that the misguided individual represents their house of faith.
By Robert Parham | November 6, 2009; 1:26 PM ET | Comments (2)
Muslims condemn violent acts at Fort Hood and offer condolences
I grieved for my community and country. Nothing is more damaging to American attitudes towards Islam and Muslims than senseless acts of violence such as that carried out by Hassan. Nothing. I am, however, encouraged by the restraint shown in the media, not immediately assuming Hassan's motives were religious per se.
By Daisy Khan | November 6, 2009; 12:55 PM ET | Comments (10)
Jewish anger management
Nahmanides recommends that when we're angry, we use a gentle and calm voice that reflects fear and awe, as if we are speaking to someone we highly respect. Not only are we then placing ourselves as equals to those who give us displeasure, we are humbling ourselves before others. Self-control expresses itself powerfully in our voice.
By Erica Brown | November 6, 2009; 12:37 PM ET | Comments (1)
Shootings will promote more bigotry
I hear people say all the time that Islam is a religion of violence. Really? Is their history of violence any more so than the history of violence in Christianity?
By Susan K. Smith | November 6, 2009; 12:12 PM ET | Comments (150)
We're all stereotypes
Not only must we be careful about stereotyping, we must also be careful about marginalizing or ignoring large segments of our population. Responding to this latest tragedy, leaders are calling for us to come together as a nation, which I support. But they need to be cautious when they claim to speak on behalf of Americans.
By Herb Silverman | November 6, 2009; 11:38 AM ET | Comments (16)
Fort Hood: Trauma is contagious
The trauma of war is like a huge stone thrown into a pool; the ripples go out in wider and wider circles, catching those who serve, hitting their families, flowing into the lives of those who are supposed to care for them and help them, and finally into our whole nation. As our thoughts go out to Fort Hood today, let us really see war in its ever widening effects and really count the cost.
By Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite | November 6, 2009; 9:46 AM ET | Comments (60)
Government should keep out of end-of-life questions
End-of-life care should be managed and decided between the patient, the patient's family, and medical professionals. Government should be kept out of the consultation.
By Charles "Chuck" Colson | November 6, 2009; 9:36 AM ET | Comments (0)
This about Islam or Islamophobia?
Until we know more about Maj. Nidal's motives we should not jump to conclusions, and certainly we should not declare that he had religious/political motivations simply because he was Muslim.
By Pamela K. Taylor | November 6, 2009; 8:51 AM ET | Comments (32)
Health care, counseling for all in the valley of the shadow of death
In some moments, it's the right time to die. In others, it's the right time to extend life. There are no easy answers. What I know for sure is that if ever there is a time when individuals and families need wise counsel, it is times like these. Everyone deserves end-of-life counseling. It is time for our nation to provide it.
By Katharine Henderson | November 6, 2009; 8:39 AM ET | Comments (3)
Fort Hood shooting a flashback to 'fragging'
If the reports are accurate, it seems the Fort Hood shooter broke, choosing murder rather than the nonviolent forms of resistance he might have chosen. In that sense he replicated the violence of the war he abhorred and the violence that kept him in the Army against his will -- replicated the violence instead of resisting it in a deeper way.
By Arthur Waskow | November 6, 2009; 8:05 AM ET | Comments (12)
Random violence, shared responsibility
We grieve today as Americans, and we have added to our national debt gratitude to the brave American soldiers of Fort Hood and everywhere. Our sorrow is boundless. But fighting a just war in Afghanistan will entail more sacrifice; we can only pray that the madness of collateral damage measured in stress, grieving families, separated families, broken homes and senseless murder will soon end.
By Aseem Shukla | November 6, 2009; 1:15 AM ET | Comments (6)
End of life decisions are a personal choice
Would counseling have helped those of us who loved him cope with the horrible choices my grandfather had to make? Absolutely. We were reeling with shock and loss, devastated by the rapid deterioration of a beloved relative, and the sure knowledge that we had a very short time to be with him. While we honored and respected his choice, that did not make it easy to live with. (Again, much the same could be said if he had chosen to prolong his life).
By Pamela K. Taylor | November 5, 2009; 10:49 PM ET | Comments (0)
Die with dignity or anguish: The choice is yours
We have built a narrative where not giving up, holding up hope is heroic, and capitulating to death is cowardly. And indeed, we must face disease courageously, trust our physicians, maintain a positive attitude and pray. But there is a time for battle, an age for battle, time for prayer and then an acceptance when the outcome is certain.
By Aseem Shukla | November 5, 2009; 5:16 PM ET | Comments (2)
Preparing for death is not the equivalent of terminating life
End of life counseling may take two different forms, in almost opposing directions. One kind of counseling assists elderly people (or people with terminal illnesses of any age) to prepare themselves for death. This may include psychological support, palliative care and legal preparations. In theory, no one can be against such help.
By Adin Steinsaltz | November 5, 2009; 3:05 PM ET | Comments (0)
Mindful living, mindful dying
1.... .End-of-life physical-health care can prolong both life AND suffering, depending on the kind of care given. Over one-third of the residents in our retirement home are 90 or older, and none of these (including myself, nearing 92) is without at least one major health issue involving some degree of suffering. When the facility opened eight years ago, few were that old. The wave of the truly old has hit, and it's a tsunami of Medicare-Medicaid costs. Not far out to sea is an even greater wave, the baby boomers beginning to qualify for Medicare.
By Willis E. Elliott | November 4, 2009; 9:20 PM ET | Comments (2)
Death panels? How about compassion panels?
Whoever called it "end-of-life" counseling made a terrible mistake, not only from a marketing perspective, but from an ethical/spiritual one. By ceding values-laden language to their opposition, and failing to approach this issue from a values-driven perspective, they opened themselves, and all those who support this much-needed aspect of health care reform, to the death panel crowd and their charge that such counseling is about nothing more than cost-cutting. Nothing could be further from the truth
By Brad Hirschfield | November 4, 2009; 8:03 PM ET | Comments (1)
Reality check on our finitude
My father died in a hospice. I loved the quiet room where he lay unconscious, freed from feeding bags and transfusions and from the noises of a busy hospital. I could sit and sing to him, talk to him, say goodbye in utter certainty that he was at peace and so was I.
By Margaret O'Brien Steinfels | November 4, 2009; 12:49 PM ET | Comments (0)
Pagans and end-of-life care
Providing counseling as part of end-of-life care is good medicine, good religion, and good sense.
By Starhawk | November 4, 2009; 11:42 AM ET | Comments (1)
Health care bill's end-of-life counseling has moral value
Making decisions about the end of life makes more sense when the living can discern their choices in consultation with their family doctor. That's a better course than making decisions in the midst of an emotional crisis at the end of life.
By Robert Parham | November 3, 2009; 5:29 PM ET | Comments (1)
Preparing for a 'good death
Many of us believe that proper terminal care is the best answer rather than encouraging people to kill themselves, which for all sorts of good reasons strikes many of us as deeply wrong.
By Nicholas T. Wright | November 3, 2009; 3:27 PM ET | Comments (3)
Can dying be a peak experience?
In the Judeo-Christian tradition death has become a kind of risky lottery where the soul discovers, to its delight or horror, that it's headed for heaven or hell. But many wisdom traditions around the world make a different argument, that the afterlife is an extension, in non-physical terms, of present life.
By Deepak Chopra | November 3, 2009; 2:03 PM ET | Comments (13)
Avoiding end-of-life chaos
Death will come. We ought to be ready for it, in as many ways as we can.
By Susan K. Smith | November 3, 2009; 1:58 PM ET | Comments (0)
Quality of life panels
Today's 'end-of-life care' controversy didn't exist 1000 years ago, when most believed that the terminally ill were in "God's hands." With scientific breakthroughs, the terminally ill are often in technology's hands, and it's up to humans to decide the extent to which that technology should be used.
By Herb Silverman | November 3, 2009; 12:18 PM ET | Comments (16)
The right to quality of life
More than 20 years ago, my mother and my mother-in-law both requested that we not to prolong their lives, if they ever had to go into hospital. Both had strokes, both could have "lived" a vegetative life on life support, but I honored their wishes and refused to put them on life support. This is my wish too.
By Arun Gandhi | November 3, 2009; 11:08 AM ET | Comments (2)
Death with dignity: end-of-life counseling helps
End-of-life counseling is a way for seniors to keep some of their dignity, because it can help them and their families make some purposeful choices about this important time of life--a time of life that comes to all of us.
By Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite | November 3, 2009; 10:04 AM ET | Comments (2)
On the avoidance of death in life
The reason why this issue has become another attack point for the religious right is not, as conservatives contend, fear of government control. It is, rather, the belief that only God has the power of life and death. That's one reason why the right regards assisted suicide with horror.
By Susan Jacoby | November 3, 2009; 9:18 AM ET | Comments (100)
Why bad people do good things
Even those who do not believe in a god, or worship Jesus as the only God, cannot altogether erase the deep imprint of right and wrong because God stamped it on their very nature so that, despite being marred by sinful rebellion, it cannot be denied or ignored.
By Mark Driscoll | November 1, 2009; 2:24 PM ET | Comments (49)
