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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: James R. Barrett who wrote (24009)	7/30/1998 3:59:00 AM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

Less a thought than an observation: Four years ago, living in polluted Manila and suffering from deteriorating asthma, I decided to toss it all, packed up the family, and spent 3 years living in a remote mountain region of northern Luzon, chiefly populated by pagan tribes. (In a fit of profoundly ignorant luck, bought Dell, LU, and WLA before departing, but that's another story). We lived with and among the tribes, learned their language; our children played daily with theirs. The nearest phone was 6 hours drive away over vertiginous roads, so we seldom bothered to contact the outside world. These people worshipped their own God, a God of healthy babies, bountiful crops, running streams, and all things that live and grow. No police, no judges, no courts. Disputes were called in for judgement by a group of elders, who were given respect according to what they had done in their lives, and who had known the disputing parties since they were infants. I have never seen a society with less internal conflict and with better relations within families. I often wondered why the pagans seemed so much more christian in their behavior than the christians did. I suspect because their beliefs came from what was inside them and around them, not from contradictory interpretations of an ancient and musty book. Once a Christian missionary came through, threatening all with hellfire and damnation if they didn't stop thinking what they thought and start thinking what he thought. They listened politely, and went back to their own ways. They dragged me over to talk to the missionary, assuming that because we were both white we must be in some way interested in each other. The fellow was convinced, absolutely and beyond reasoning, that every person in that village was headed for eternal damnation - because they did not give God the same name that he did. Christians can be very strange. Steve