by Marty Coleman | Oct 31, 2014 | Conscience - 2014, Lillian Hellman |
Let’s cut to the chase, it’s day #4 of my Conscience series.
Moral Fashion
Is this about fashion? Maybe, if you are a young woman who isn’t comfortable wearing short shorts. But ‘fashion’ comes in many forms. There is moral fashion for example.
This quote actually came from a fight about communism here in the US back in the 1940s and 50s. The House of Representatives started to hold hearings trying to get citizens to tell on their neighbors, co-workers and friends as to whether they were communists or communist sympathizers. When they brought Lillian Hellman, a play and screen writer, to testify she refused, using this quote to rebuff their attempts to coerce her to tell.
Heart
The reason I used the image of a heart being cut out is that more than any other element (besides perhaps one’s romantic entanglements) our conscience really is the heart of who we are. Take away our morality and our conscience and you pretty much leave an empty shell behind.
Pride
I am always proud of my friends, family and even people I only know online, who find their moral boundaries and grow in them. Don’t get me wrong though, I am not only talking about the ‘traditional values’ idea. I am also talking about the radical, or the nudist, or the person who foregoes the traditional life of the middle class for a life serving others in Africa. I am talking about the child of doctors who expect their child to follow in their footsteps but instead they incur the wrath of the family by deciding to be a singer, or artist. This is true of the children of artists who want to be doctors too of course.
I am talking about those who have courage to say, ‘This is me.’
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Lillian Hellman, 1905-1984, American playwright and screenwriter. Look her up to find out more about her courageous stand against the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
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by Marty Coleman | Dec 3, 2010 | Lillian Hellman, Tulsa |
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Times change, and some things become accepted wisdom, the uninvestigated way of thinking.
Here in Oklahoma it is fashionable recently to have a hissy fit about how the majority religion, Christianity, is being sidelined. A current example of this is the hissy fit our senior Senator Inhofe is having over the annual parade that occurs this time of year. In the past it was called the Christmas Parade of Lights. Last year the name was changed to the Holiday Parade of Lights. Sen. Inhofe has made a grand proclamation this year where he says he will refuse to ride his horse in the parade unless the name is changed back. We also have a City Councilman and others threatening to not allow a parade permit unless the name is changed back. The argument is that ‘Jesus is the reason for the season’ and so it should say Christmas in the name of the parade.
The reason given for changing it from ‘Christmas’ to ‘Holiday’ is one you have probably heard before. It is that many people in the community are not Christian, they celebrate other religious (or non-religious) events during the same time frame and in the interest of having them feel included in both the parade and the seasonal atmosphere the word Holiday is the better word to use.
But there is another argument that I have not heard. It is more Christian to have the parade name include ‘Holiday’ than it is to have ‘Christian’ in it.
The essence of the day-to-day practice of Christianity is love. Love is made manifest by, among other things, kindness, gentleness, thoughtfulness, patience, selflessness, sacrifice, and inclusion.
If I know that some in my community are celebrating holidays other than Christmas, then why would I not want to reach out to them and find ways to include them in the community wide celebrations. If by one simple word change that doesn’t affect my religion, doesn’t affect my worship, doesn’t affect me being ‘Christian’ in any way I can reach out a hand of love and joy to Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and those who don’t believe anything in particular, then why wouldn’t I want to do that? Why woudn’t that be the Christian thing to do?
If I do so, then my church is still intact, my worship is still secure, my example is still as it should be, Christian.
That’s my conscience speaking to me. What is yours saying to you?
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Lillian Hellman, from a letter to the chairman of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, May 19th, 1952.
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