confession

I'm a soft American.

A rare occurence for me, this post is slightly political in nature. Usually I avoid politics in general. But Anissa sent me this article and its made me think.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050516/ap_on_re_us/newsweek_quran

Sorry to let some of my more political friends down, but I'm not going to debate it. I'm going to state my reaction, which, because of who I am, will naturally take a religious twist.

I'm a soft, complacent American. I don't have a clue, because even America's homeless are better fed than some people in the world. I don't know what its like to live in constant fear for my life, in constant fear that someone will discover my religious beliefs. As hard as it is to be daily surrounded by people at school who don't understand or give a darn why religion is so embedded in my life, this is cookies with sprinkles compared to people who are persecuted for it elsewhere. It raises questions in me.

What is it about Islam that makes its followers so zealous? Why is it that they hold holy things as holy, the way they should be, sacred? Why don't I see American Christians give more respect to their HOLY Scripture? Why have I seen the Bible tossed on the floor, kicked, buried under piles of other things in a person's bedroom? I know that same fervor is in there, somewhere. But what is it about the Middle Eastern countries that their people can dig into their hearts and find that fire, that holy fervor for sacred things that I think some people in America (I at least) have been too lazy to dig for? I know its there, somewhere, in my heart. But I've lost that flame somewhere along the line. And its bothering me tonight.