What Do Jesus Christ and Rudoph Have in Common

t do Rudolph and Christ have in common? They were both mavericks. They had the audacity not
to conform, and be leaders. In seeing the old show that I have watched many times and will not
get tired of it (along with I Love Lucy, Charlie Brown and Frosty the Snowman), I was touched
and saw newly the message of the importance of individuality. I had forgotten about the island of
misfit toys, where a train, for instance, had square wheels, and a bird swam like a fish. Yet, like
even a shabby dog, or handicapped person, or someone with a voice to say something
DIFFERENT may at first be shunned, EVERYONE deserves love and EVERYONE can make a
difference.

Christ loved everyone, even lepers, prostitutes and the poor, and did not like the tax collectors,
that, as it seemed in the Bible, that were perhaps 100% selfish. I believe in balance, which may
be different for each person, and that even ego or selfishness are good and needed at times, but
not at so high a rate. We saw what happened on Wall Street. Many people discard organized
religion for spirituality, and other discard spirituality for organized religion. I believe that they,
and art, science, etc. can co-exist. Sometimes things are black and white and modernistic, as
Father Frank says. Usually they coexist, as in Taoism, and they can in a context of God. In
quantum mechanics, an electron and light are particles and waves. Which is correct. It’s not
black and white. In fact, both church doctrine and legal laws have been changed over time. And
so have even medical and scientific theories, and thanks God for that! We live and learn! For
instance, he thinks some people over-intellectualize and some things taught in universities can
contradict religion. Yet he has two PhDs. (This no doubt is to get credibility…and thus power in
speaking. Most people want that.)

The Church is important, yet everyone makes mistakes, I believe, besides Christ. Didn’t the
Church, at least the Catholic one, believe that the Sun revolved around the Earth? To me no
Saint, Gospel writer, Pope, priest, etc. is infallible. That’s why you have to balance what you
believe by your intuition, that can grow if you intend it and common sense, and not have fear of
mistakes and ridicule, lead you to use Church as a crutch, as food, drugs, hard work or anything
can be used – again, balance. We see what happens in societies where people are fundamentalist.
Priests, rabbis (as Christ pointed out in the Bible), doctors, parents, all of us, are human and will
sometimes always go to the dark side of our personalities (like the enneagram) to seek power,
praise, domination and celebrity. As with the middle road, balance, yin/yang principles, there is a
time to conform and a time not to conform.

Prayer and Church reading/attendance is important. But why make a cross or fast if you don’t’
get the mature spirituality…If you have that, it is not that important to make the cross, fast, etc.
For instance, if a writer knows the grammar rules well, they can be creative and change them
around like some poets and produce a masterpiece. More important that prayer is finding
something for which to take a stand and make a difference. I quickly thought of many
outliers/mavericks, but can’t think of one de facto person besides some with chemical
imbalances (too bad there is such a stigma – other email) who took a chance and revolutionized
the world: Christ, Socrates, Freud, Jung, Einstein, Graham, Mandela, Gandhi, Washington,
Susan B. Anthony, Dr. King, to name a few.

I was reminded on Oprah’s show on Monday that many women are victims of being thought of
as less valuable than men, or of some cultural standards such as virginity. She gave an appalling
statistic that in about 10 years, more girls/women in the world have died than men the whole
century in warfare! This is due to mothers and fathers giving less food and medicine to girls,
sending them to sexual slavery or prostitution, men killing wives who can’t have sons or are
accused of eating etc. in certain African places, women are often raped and then are not valuable
(not virgins) and are left to die as rubbish on the road! People are killed in racial, sex-based, and
ethnic violence daily, even in this country. Is it more important to stress that the Virgin Mary
was a virgin, for instance, or to create a charity in her name for these women? Is it more
important to moralize or to be a stand that everyone has precious civil rights?

I did not know her so maybe she was a jerk in her personal life, but someone like Mother Teresa,
who not only prayed, but got in action to make a difference for the overlying values of love,
peace, integrity is worth more than many people who “only” pray or blindly attend Church. So
let’s all move our butts and do the same for everyone, Greek or not, Christian or not, black or
white, male or female, gay or straight, rich or poor, ugly or pretty, etc.