Simplicity is Complexity

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                          by Kenneth Bagnell

 

       One of history’s greatest Prime Ministers once said: “Nothing that is morally wrong can be politically right.” His name was William Gladstone, four-time Prime Minister of Britain, in the 1800s. Little did he know how right he would be in history, when a man named Donald Trump came along, a man whose place in history is assured for being wrong and wrong and wrong again. I recently read a piece on Trump’s ignorant opposition to welcoming Syrian refugees. In the piece’s sub-head: It read: “Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist, and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S….” I venture that thus far in history, Trump is the most vivid exemplar of Prime Minister Gladstone’s wisdom and insight on about everything, especially opening his country for desperate refugees.

   Sad to say, he’s not alone. Right wingers are usually self centered , but since the dreadful election of Trump, pretty well everything is in chaos, including a reasonable accommodation of the Syrian refugees which, to its shame,  President Trump labelled as “a matter of terrorism and matter of quality of life…”  He even made the dumb explanation that he’d keep them out because “we don’t know who they are.” Neither do I but I can say that the refugee man our Toronto congregation has engaged as a staff cleaner, is doing very well thank you.  Some of Trump’s observations bring a smile, one example being, the crude and rude reference that he uttered months ago when the former President opened the nation’s doors for them. “Refugees and immigrants,” Trump said, “are pouring in and we don’t know what we’re doing.” Right on Donald,

    Oh well. Not that long ago, when Canada began welcoming the refugees, some of Trump’s admirers -– mostly fundamentalists — were bombarding Canadian Christian and Jews with messages that were written with subtle distain. Last January, for example, our former, Governor General, Adrienne Clarkson, saw the American ugliness in the very ugly Mosque attack in Quebec when, Ms. Clarkson dreadfully sensed the possibility of Canada being overtaken by the dreadful racist sentiment that exists in the US public culture. (Several Islamic worshippers were shot dead while praying in the house of worship, the Mosque.) It was followed, she also added, that Trump, by his own order, banned Muslim travellers in seven countries from travel to the US. (That was one of the many errors Trump makes.)

        The fact, very sad to say, is that hatred not goodwill is on the march. Just a day or so ago, The reliable Toronto Star, in its lead editorial, said that ever since 2015, the broad social culture, is growing bleak rather than optimistic: “The statistics, from  2015, paint a bleak picture. Hate crimes were up 5 percent that year over 2014, to 1,362 incidents. Particularly worrying is the rise in crime directed at Muslims. These were up 61 percent over 2014, accounting for 12 percent of all hate crimes.” In turn, this calls for an attitudinal study which, over recent years, Pew has done, and is worth reflecting on, especially given its high respect. Overtime it has taken its expertise and integrity to matters of science, finance, climate, and social trends, especially dealing with the future for children. given that violence has become more common.

     For our current subject, Pew Research has, among its numerous inquiries, sought recently to clarify the views of Americans of many religious groups, an exercise which unfortunately revealed lots of reservation from our neighbors. One example: last January, Trump issued a decree called, “Protecting the Nation for Foreign Terrorism…” Thereby his first step was to suspend the resettlement of Syrian refugees and ban all citizens from seven predominant Islamic nations from entering the US. (The sensible New York Times immediately slammed him by calling his actions: “bigoted, cowardly and self-defeating.” As for Canada, it was not without its own fearful bigotry, which in large part, was revealed in the political world of the Conservative party, and one of its leadership candidates, Kellie Leitch, and many of her supporters. Her initial statement was quite insulting to refugees:     “Screening potential immigrants for anti-Canadian values that include intolerance towards other religions, cultures and sexual orientations, violent and /or misogynist behavior and/or a lack of acceptance of our Canadian tradition of personal and economic freedoms is a policy I feel very strongly about….” (It also envisions simply imprisoning terrorists and not providing them with any counselling.”

  A  further  — if general — overview of the sentiments of Canadians on the subject, reveals that, while a majority are not inclined to Kellie Leitch’s philosophy, those of us who are inclined to ethical commitment and religious affiliation may find the surveys disappointing.  For example: the CROP pollsters revealed last spring the good news that Canada’s culture is humanitarian, thereby open to refugees; but at the same time, the culture appears to have skepticism, about our having religious faith, institutionally in decline or not. The firm, CROP, had its spokesman, President Alain Giguere, reflect on religion and he said: “If you don’t talk about religion, there’s an overwhelming human side to us… the minute you introduce religion it’s gone…” His view, I sense, is that Islam, as an institutional faith, provokes and, right or wrong, creates tension.

       So it is and so it will be forever. After all, philosophic aspects of human life, bring complexities and with complexities come huge and difficult aspects of the culture of institutional religion. What further can I say? All that comes to mind is that we all must act with integrity. After all, Confucius, the philosopher, was correct back in his distant era, the fifth century: “Life,” he said, “is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”  Confucius is not only right. He’s very right!

 

 

 

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