Urban frontier; On the seventh day

Where am I. Who are you dealing with. What would be become of me. The National Association of educational broadcasters presents on the seventh day an examination of the role of the worshipper in the modern American city. One in a series of programs titled The Urban Frontier produced by the Community Education Project at San Bernardino Valley College under a grant from the National Association of educational broadcasters. These transcribed programs were developed in consultation with faculty members of the University of California at Riverside University of Redlands and Valley College as well as a core of professional sevak and business leaders of the San Bernardino Riverside metropolitan area. Each program is designed to raise some of the issues facing the

individual who lives in or near the city. And now on the seventh day I look at some of the problems and opportunities of the worshiper. Portrait of a man on his way to a place of worship a man of the city an American city not unlike your own. It can be a Christian a Jew a moslem a Hindu a Buddhist. The hours the days of his worship these will differ from the words the practices the separate articles of faith. These exist in a rich variety in the American city of today. Yet in each case the test that the city brings to his worship will in some things be the same for

six days. Our worshipper has watched it move and function as one among thousands of other humans some of whom he knows but most of whom he doesn't. They are and will remain unknown and unknowing people of the crowd. The city has a way of making people important to each other not for what they are but merely for what they can do. Say what you want to about where that man can self. Well he may have his troubles maybe he is always in hot water with his wife. From what I've seen of him I wouldn't blame her if she walked out on me tomorrow. But the main thing is he's a salesman I've got one and that's the only kind I can afford to have working for me. The city they say is a tolerant place and it is. But among the kinds of tolerance it breeds is the tolerance of indifference.

The city asks that I worship or look out upon the world of people around him and see only those useful fragments that can be fitted together to serve his own ends and purposes. The rest he need not he cannot see the fragments are important not the people. The function not the man. The job that needs doing not the living feeling fearing hoping fellow human who may eventually get that job done. This then is the lens that the city has given our worshipper to look out upon the world of people around him. With it he needs to see only a few people and then to know them only slightly less it is that the city can isolate man from man. Who when. Where and how. Who are you kidding me. What would be

coming me. Wrong. If the modern city gives our worship or a way of looking at other people. What else does he come by in the six days that he labors as sales manager of this organization. It's my job to help you make more money honey your family will just have to wait. I can't get there before seven I'm sorry. No I think of myself as a member of the team. This is company policy. Well that somebody but how I'm your friend. We've never kidded each other about these things and I'm not as a tax payer. I'd like to be you heard the modern city gives I worship or a collection of rules to feel very much like parts in a play. The trick is to be the right person at the right time. This is difficult. Look Bob I'm married to two kids but when I'm on the job I just don't

think about. Sure we've been friends a long time now but but believe me B.J. says you have got to go. And that's why I'm so so he's already well he hasn't got any he hasn't got it there's nothing I can do all right. I do believe in God. What policy. It doesn't make any difference how I feel I've got a job to do that's why I'm here. That's what I get paid for. To succeed in some cases just to survive. I worshipper finds it easier to live his life in pieces to play each role separately one for the office one for the apartment one for the club still another with close friends. He responds to each situation a little differently and these separate parts these differing pieces of his life he can seldom fit them together. So much of his time is spent in keeping them apart and preventing the conflicts and the clashes that would arise if in all situations he would be merely himself. Thus it

is that the city can not only isolate man from man. It can also isolate man from himself who will be. Playing around him. Who are you kidding me. What would be common to me. For six days his life in the city has tried to isolate i worshipper from all but certain immediate utility values of the people around him. Then too he has lived by these values himself. He too has been a changing and useful fragment in a variety of situations. And on this this seventh day in large measure or small man of the city goes to his place of worship

isolated from the people around him alienated from himself and now those things which the city has taught him for six days. These are to be undone or checked or altered on the seven. As the city has separated him from those around him. So now he must be joined as the city has denied him a single identity acceptable and significant in all situations. So now he goes to seek one for his questions. The city now has answers. Who when. You are a child of God. Where am I. You are the central object of the universe. That is the creation of God. Who are you to believe me. They are your brothers. What would make me come to me. Your fate will be determined by God.

As you love or hate as you observe or transgress God's laws. So you will deserve His mercy or his wrath. This much our worshipper will be given no matter whether he goes to a church or synagogue or a mosque and beyond this. As a Christian a Jew or a Moslem he will learn the words of Moses. Oh really. Thank you so much. Speak in your ears and do it with Austin saying I am right God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. Other gods before me shall not make

graven image or any likeness of anything that is and I have one of our that is and they are our That is in the waters under the yard shall not bow down by self on the North Star for I had a lark by God I'm not jealous God. I shall not take the name of the large side God in six days I will shout labor and do all my work but the seventh is a Sabbath of the law or die God on Earth and I father and father that died days may be prolonged and that it might go well but be on the line and watch the large die God Given the shalt not hero. Neither shalt thou commit adultery neither shall neither shall shall bear false witness against my neighbor neither shalt thou desire and I

neighbor's wife neither shall talk but by neighbor's house whose field is ox already that is by neighbors. This much is common to the heritage of Christian Jew and Muslim alike. The words of Moses spoken in the wilderness of Israel and there are still other words that I worship or will come by in any of the Western phase. And these were spoken on a hill outside the ancient village of Capernaum. Blessed are the poor in spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Bless it all the meek. For they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. Bless it are the merciful. For they shall obtain mercy bless and all the poor and hard for they shall see God.

Bless and the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. I think not that I am come to destroy the laws of the prophets. I am come not to destroy but to fulfill. You have heard that it was said by them of old time that I shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment ye have heard that it hath been said An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you that he resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek turn to him the other also. You have heard that it has been said Thou shalt love thy neighbor

and hate thy enemy but I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven for he make of his son to rise on the evil and the good and send of the rain on the just and the unjust. For if he forgive men their transgressions your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if he forgive not men their transgressions neither will your Father forgive your transgressions. Judge not that she be not judged for with what judgment you judge you shall be judged and with what measure he met it shall be measured to you again. Ask and it shall be given you

seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you. Therefore Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them. For this is the law and the prophets. In his parables in his teachings in his actions Jesus of Nazareth added another commandment to the ten that Moses had spoken. Eventually he put it in a phrase. A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you so you shall love one another. By this show all know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Who when.

Where and. Who are you dealing with. What would be common to me. One of them. On this the seventh day of his week our worshipper goes also to keep a rendezvous with the words of others. If he goes to the Christian faith eventually he will come to a meeting held high on a hill that overlooks the city of Athens. It was on a spur that juts out from the Acropolis a gathering of philosophers to hear a Jewish scholar up from Jerusalem who had been talking of a Messiah in the synagogues and in the marketplace. I see everywhere in your city an obsession with religion. Gentleman I perceive in all things that you are too superstitious. For as I beheld your devotions I found an altar inscribed to an unknown god whom you ignorantly worship

so far. God has winked at this ignorance. But today he is commanding. Oh man kind everywhere to repent for he has selected a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness in the person of a man appointed by him. And he has offered proof of this for all mankind by raising that man up from the dead. Abraham told of a tribal God the God of vengeance Moses told of a God of justice and the law. Jesus of Nazareth told of a loving God. Paul noted that this was a God for all mankind and that a day of judgment was coming a day which none could escape. Who when. Where and who are you

kidding me. What would be coming home to me. While. Elsewhere in the city or worship or can find bits and pieces of this same discussion ritual symbols practice is still differ but the central questions concerning the nature of man and the nature of God be so much the same. Say. Well no I mean we believe in Allah and that which is revealed unto us. And that which was revealed unto Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes. And that which was delivered unto Moses and Jesus and the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinctions between any of them and unto Him we have surrendered. These are the words of Mohammad the Prophet of Islam. This is a portion

of a lecture revealed unto Muhammad. So the Muslim believes by the angel Gabriel a lecture delivered in the city of Medina Mohammed's lectures make up the Koran the word Muslim means one who surrenders means we have surrendered. In the name of Allah. The Beneficent. The merciful. This is the scripture whereof there is no doubt. A guidance unto those who would ward off evil. There is no compulsion in religion. The right direction henceforth is distinct from error and he who hath rejected false deities and believe it in Allah grasp off firm handhold which will never break. Allah is here or no or I lie is the protecting friend of those who believe he bring at them out of

darkness into light. As for those who disbelieve their patrons are false deities and they bring them out of the light into darkness. Such are the rightful owners of the fire and they will abide there in giving glad tidings o Mohammed unto those who believe and do good works that theirs is the garden beneath which rivers flow. Lord condemn us not do we forget or miss the mark. I would impose not upon us that which we have not the strength to bear. Part and absolve us and have mercy on us. Thou. Are protected. By us. The words of the prophet. The man Mohammed who sought and

found answers to his questions in the cities of first Mecca and then Medina through twenty three tempestuous years nearing the end of his time Mohammad left with Moslems an injunction that lives to this day I would have surrendered unto the will of Allah. Hearken unto my speech and keep it. You know that every true believer in the faith is the brother of every other true believer. All of you. Are of the same equality. You are all one brother. There are other answers other words that our worship or may find in the city.

Other paths that men have followed in their quest to know of Man of the creation of man and of God. It is possible today that I worship or may learn of a conversation outside the Old City of binaries in India. I do not believe that Brahman created anything. Then who created the world. I believe that the world is going to exist for ever and ever. And that which has no ending also has no beginning. The world was not created by anyone. The world has always been these things which you speak. They differ too much from our teachings. Too much too much. There are two extremes. Monks. You do well to avoid them both. One is the life of pleasure. This is selfish. This ignoble The other is the life of utter self-denial. This too is less than worthy.

Neither of these roads lead you to the good life which world would you have us fall. Take the middle path the middle path and how does one find it. One learns the eight rules of life leads a group of angels of life totally one out of the way. Right Belief which means that you believe that truth is the guide of man. Right resolve which means that you will be calm and do no harm to any living creature. Right Speech which means you will not lie nor slander anyone nor use coarse or harsh language then to monks. There is the rule of right behavior which means you will never steal never kill and that you will do nothing of which you may later be regretful or ashamed. Your right occupation which

means you will avoid a career in such things as are of themselves bad such as forgery dealing in stolen goods are usury and there are others then to the middle path. Asks that you should observe the right effort which means always in all things to strive toward that which is good and always in all things to avoid that which is evil. Right concentration which means always to be calm and thoughtful and never to allow your thinking to be governed by either joy or sorrow. And finally there is right contemplation which is to be found when you have mastered and followed these rooms and which can lead you to peace within yourself. These monks are the eight rew of the middle path.

Thus the beginning of the Buddhist religion. The sermon that binaries spoken some twenty six hundred years ago. Who is with me. Wherever I am. Who are we dealing with. Why would we come to the ME. Portrait of a man on his way to a place of worship. A rendezvous that he will keep with others and one which he will keep with countless millions of his fellow men who have walked the same earth and ask the same questions. His city will provide him with answers answers worked out by those who have gone before. Answers which may or may not serve to quiet his longing his longing for a single illuminating knowledge of himself

and his place in the universe his place among men and his place among the stars. But we have heard only a small portion of the words. The ideas the judgments the discriminations that can be given to our worship are in the modern city. We would offer one final view. Again it is from India. The words are those of Sri Ramakrishna as he sat among his disciples in the dock temple on a December night. Wherever I look I see men quarreling in the name of religion and those Muslims Rama's novelas and the rest. But they never reflect that he who is called Krishna is also called primal energy. Jesus and Allah as well. For example a lake has several docks at one Hindoos take

water and pictures and call it Joe at another. The Muslims take water in leather bags and call it a pony at a third. The Christians call it water. Can we imagine that it is not Joe but only honey or water. Ridiculous. The substance is one under different names and everyone is seeking the same substance only climate temperament and name create differences. Once some blind men chance to come near an animal that someone told them was an elephant they were asked what the elephant was like. Blind men began to feel its body. One of them said that an elephant was like a pillar. He had touched only its leg. Another said it was like a winnowing fan.

He had touched only its ear and this way the others having touched its belly or its tail gave their different versions of the elephant just so. A man who has seen only one aspect of God lets God do that alone. That is his conviction that God cannot be anything else. But each man follow his own path if he sincerely and ardently wishes to know God. Peace be unto him. He will surely realize him with sincerity and earnestness. One can realize God through all religions. Who. Want me to

come to me. You have been listening to on the seventh day an examination of the role of the worshipper in the modern American metropolis. This has been one and a transcribed series entitled The Urban Frontier. Produced by the Community Education Project at San Bernardino Valley College under a grant from the National Association of educational broadcasters. These programs were developed in consultation with faculty members of the University of California at Riverside University of Redlands and of San Bernardino Valley College as well as a core of professional business and civic leaders of the San Bernardino Riverside metropolitan area. This is the an APB tape network.