In both plant and animal life diversity is not an option, it is an intrinsic law of nature! Flower and vegetable gardens, as with all forms of plant life, are glorified in their beauty and diversity and every species of animal is greatly admired in its respective category of excellence.
Mankind alone, created supposedly the most noble and intelligent of all beings, uses that intellect instead to divide himself racially, socially, economically, politically and into a multitude of age, gender, religious or other fragmentations, easily pit against one another as necessity dictates to–“divide and conquer.” How else can a chosen few continue to control the masses throughout the annals of time as history clearly records?
Infants are easily controlled with childhood fears and fantasies as was mankind in its infancy. The adult, however, must be controlled by more progressively mature fear for, in the absence of love and mutual respect of differences, hate literally “Trumps” the deck.
True unity in diversity was first epitomized for me in a simple Baha’i children’s book that emphasized the many parts of the human body (ie. skin, hair, eyes, nails, arteries, fluids, flesh, blood, bones, etc.) all differing widely in shape, substance, color and function with none being superior to the other but instead, each dependent upon the proper function of the other to produce a perfect whole. This is how mankind must be viewed in the aggregate if we are to purify the motives and maximize the results of continuously advancing science and technology.
Also in man’s young adulthood it was easier to keep “top secret” and otherwise “classified” information than with today’s literal World-Wide-Web! We need likewise to tighten violation of existing laws to be more applicable to the crime than to the status and/or nationality of the criminal. By so doing, whether laws of man, nature or gravity, those who persist in violating them should be prepared to suffer same consequences.
As one minister put it: “If you jump from a window several stories high, it really doesn’t matter if you don’t believe in gravity. The law of gravity is going to automatically kick in and you’re going to automatically get hurt-–or killed! Whether the laws of God, man, nature or gravity, those who persistently defy them should be aware of and prepared to suffer the consequences.
Nature, too, has many laws that, when defied can create untold havoc and, like the laws of gravity and nature, God is no respecter of persons and positions when His laws are persistently broken–someone is going to get hurt. This is not to imply that those living within His laws are safe from trial and/or ill fate. It simply means that there is a big difference between tests and punishment that a true believer can tell by the weight of it-–for the weight of punishment you carry alone!
A favorite Baha’i prayer begins: “I have awakened in Thy shelter, O, my God; and it becometh him that seeketh that shelter to abide within the sanctuary of Thy protection and within the stronghold of Thy defence!..” You cannot stand outside in a rainstorm and not get wet–no matter how perceived sanctified or spiritual!
Regardless of what pathway one chooses to the ONE GOD (by Whatever Name!) if we wish to remain protected and shielded from the darts and acids of today’s perpetually maturating society (especially in the perceived name of “defence”), as men and nations we must “..abide within the shelter of our spiritual as well as military defense and (in the words of President Bill Clinton) learn to, “…lead by example and not by force!”
As slow learners and fast forgetters, once we recognize and acknowledge the fact that, rather than a Kingdom of Names, “God is ONE, man is ONE and all religions are ONE (as with the diverse members and faculties of ONE human body–we will not have world uniformity as perceived, but true World Unity! (Investigate! – 1-800-22UNITE)
