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Sitaram · Site Admin Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 1079

This interesting post reminds me of my very healthy 90 year old father, a veteran of the Normandy landing during WWII, who utterly despises people like Rev. William Sloan Coffin, Benjamine Spock, and Jain Fonda (of "I ain't fond a Hannoi Jane" bumpersticker fame) for their "consorting" with the enemy in North Vietnam.

Rev. Coffin passed away recently. During the last years of his life, the media and academia bestowed rewards on him for his moral courage in crawling out upon an unpopular limb for what he believed was right.

When I mentioned these awards to my father, he became livid, and exclaimed "Why Rev. Coffin is a traitor!"

I pointed out to my father that George Washington was declared a traitor by the King of England. I google searched and found the actual proclamation from the king.

Sometimes we commit a great wrong in our efforts to do right. And other times, good results from our wrongful intentions.

The Biblical midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, lied to the Pharoah, who had commanded them to kill the Jewish infants, saying "the women are too lively, and give birth before we can arrive."

The midwives told a lie. Lies are considered sinful. Lies to the ruler or government are considered sedition or treasonous. But that scriptural passage goes on to say that God rewarded the two midwives for their lie.

The brothers of Joseph came to Egypt to ask his forgiveness for their attempted murder of him, and subsequent sale of Joseph into slavery. Joseph answers, "You intended evil, but God transformed your evil into good." What Joseph meant was that his brothers' treachery lead to a long chain of events which eventually placed Joseph in a position of great power, and enabled Joseph to save his family from famine.

Idres Shah has a marvellous "teaching story" about causality. Someone comes to the Mullah Nasrudin and exclaims, "I believe firmly in cause and effect." So, Nasrudin points in the distance to a convicted killer being led to execution. Nasrudin asks, "Then what is the cause of this man's execution? Is it the person who sold him the knife, or the bystanders who made no attempt to stop him, or the fact that he was apprehended?"

In the book of Proverbs, by Solomon, it is written "there are ways which seem good to a man, but the end thereof is death."

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