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=> Re: OOPS-Let's try again-Easter Message

Re: OOPS-Let's try again-Easter Message
Posted by Maggie (Guest) - Monday, April 17 2006, 22:10:36 (CEST)
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Dear Pancho, Emil, Kris, Jeff, Don,

I miss you very much and love each and everyone of you.

I spent the entire day Easter Sunday, crying. Although I was with family and friends all day, I cried continuously. I cried for the loss of the Iraqi people, I cried for all the people at my parent's church, I cried because I missed your company, I cried for all the misunderstandings we had amongst ourselves, I cried for all the opportunities we may never get in the future, I cried for all the times Pnacho and I argued. I even carried out till Monday morning when I answered a nasty e-mail with an equally nasty e-mail from me.

On Saturday morning, it was my turn to do my Good Morning Assyria show. I had done an Easter show some years ago and some "Christians" didn't like it because they see my shows as attacks on Christianity. Nothing could be further from the truth, as I am a person who does NOT attack anyone's faith. Anyone in the world can believe in and worship god any which way they sit fit, and I will still respect them as human beings. I cannot change them by attacking their religion. I can only change them by loving them as part of me, the ugly part, the un-volved part, the freightened part, the supersticious part, the rude and abnoxious part, the racist part, the bigoted part, the ignorant part, and yes even the unaccepting part. Because of the fact many young Assyrians pleaded with me to do it again, I decided to do it just for them, even though I would get attacked AGAIN. Here are excerpts from the show:

"The word Easter comes from the word Ishtar the Assyrian goddess of love and fertility. Ishtar was the symbol of love (of nature and mankind). During The Akitu festival, (which means building life on earth), the Assyrian king would initiate the union between Ishtar and Tamuz in temple ritual, signifying the coming together of two energies to give life. The Akitu ushered in the Ishtar Festival, celebrated by the Assyrians to signify fertility and fruitfulness, and the resurrection and renewal of nature.
During the Ishtar Festival, Assyrians would dye eggs in various colors and hang them on the temple walls to symbolize fertility and birth. They would also light candles in the temple and pray for a fruitful Assyrian nation. Assyrians would bake sweet breads in honor of Ishtar and to show the fruits of their harvest. They used barley and wheat to bake these sweet breads because those two plants ripened first.

Centuries later, the Celtic Hittites leaving Assyria and settling in Europe, took with them these traditions. They called the Spring goddess Estarte, and the fertility celebration as the Festival of Estarte. This festival spread to other European regions and the name of this festival became known as Easter.
Around the 7th century BC, the Jews started to commemorate the Passover pascha, a Jewish Holiday beginning on the 15th of Nissan. There is no doubt as to wherein lie this Jewish tradition, but for some reason it later came to be known as the day the Jews left Egyptian bondage, (which we realize now an exodus of the Jews out of Egypt never took place.)

Many, perhaps most, Pre-Christian religions in the Mediterranean area had a major seasonal day of religious celebration at or following the Spring Equinox. Cybele, the Phrygian fertility goddess, had a fictional consort who was believed to have been born via a virgin birth. He was Attis, who was believed to have died and been resurrected each year during the period MAR-22 to MAR-25. "About 200 B.C. mystery cults began to appear in Rome just as they had earlier in Greece. Most notable was the Cybele cult centered on Vatican hill ...Associated with the Cybele cult was that of her lover, Attis (the older Tammuz, Osiris, Dionysus, or Orpheus under a new name). He was a god of ever-reviving vegetation. Born of a virgin, he died and was reborn annually. The festival began as a day of blood on Black Friday and culminated after three days in a day of rejoicing over the resurrection.
Wherever Christian worship of Jesus and Pagan worship of Attis were active in the same geographical area in ancient times, Christians "used to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus on the same date.
Around the second century A.D., Christian missionaries seeking to convert the tribes of northern Europe noticed that the Christian holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus roughly coincided with the Teutonic springtime celebrations, which emphasized the triumph of life over death. Christian Easter gradually absorbed the traditional symbols."

Well, you can imagine what some Christians thought of this! But ask me if I care?

Now I didn't come here to tell you all this. This is just a side thing. Nor did I come here to tell you what happened on Easter Sunday, but as a side note, I will tell you, because it really explains WHY I'm here, on the INSIDEASSYRIA.COM:

As usual, the day started out with my family asking me to join them in church. Now Im not a church goer, NOT because I don't believe in god, but because of the "Smoke N Mirror" show. You see, the way I believe in God and Jesus, is in COMPLETE OPPOSITION of your average priest or average "Christian" worshipper out there. I don't believe I'm a SINNER and need to be cleansed in the blood of Jesus to be SAVED. I don't want ANYONE to die for me, or be murdered for me, or SAVE me. I want to save MYSELF. By that I mean the way in which Alaha Ashur inspired me to think, to make the mistakes I NEED to make, to learn what I NEED to learn, through living, through experience, and through the search of the god within ME. And NO I don't want Jesus to come back again and SAVE me, because I will NEVER learn ANYTHING that way. I will always wait to be rescued, I will always NEED to be SAVED that way. It's like asking a baby NOT to try to stand up and walk for themselves, because they will stumble and fall. It's the stumbling, falling, and getting up that's important, in order to learn WHAT it takes to stand up and walk. I don't believe in ANYONE doing it for me, and I don't care WHO that person is, whether it's my father, a priest, a teacher, a friend, or a mentor. I want to learn it on MY OWN, because otherwise I will NEVER learn. Those who try pounding it in my head, attacking me through words, punishing me with punitive measures, making it a life-long task to teach me lessons, or trying to humiliate me in public, I say to ALL of you, YOU DON'T MEAN A HILL OF BEANS TO ME!

You are all the same in my eyes: LACKING the humanity with which you can impact or change things. YOu see, it's not the clever words, intellectualism, or political savvyness, or any such crap that makes the difference. It's the kindness, the respect, and the tolerance for one another and each other's ways and beliefs that makes humanity.

Nothing we can say or do to each other can contribute to "change for the better" if there's no humanity in it. That's why our ancient people always knew that if you don't have humnity in you, then all the cleverness, intellectualism, the smoke-n-mirror is CRAP. And this is the reason they coined the old addage: "RABA QIRYA, KHAJA GOOBYA".

I don't care how sophisticated, educated, savvy, clever, and intellectual you are, if you don't know how to DEAL with people, how to give and take, how to LOVE those you find HARD TO LOVE, then you are basically nothing!

If a priest cannot love me the way I am, or can actually see me as a threat to his existence, is he a man of god? He may create an entire sermon to attack me when he sees me in his church on Easter Sunday, but does it mean that he is an actual minister? If he can use his smoke-n-mirror act to actually tell his audience that the reason "our kind of Christianity is under attack is because these people are under Satan's influence" does it actually please god and save his congregation and church? The answer is NO. Just as god ISN'T saving the Christians in Iraq because they believe in Jesus, and because the Muslims are thought of by Christians as the sons of devils. No, it is devilish to hate someone and attack their beliefs because they don't think like you, or believe in what you believe, or worhsip the way you worship. You priests and ministers will be the first NOT to enter paradise, (even if there is one and Jesus is waiting for you at the gates) because it was YOUR job to explain what Jesus and Christianity is all about, but instead you blamed everything on the devil. It is SO EASY to blame everything on the devil, that's why you are getting paid $4,000.00 per month for your smoke-n-mirror act and filling the house of god with your lies, hatred, deceipt, hipocracy, and bigotry.

But guess what preachers, the teenagers and the young married couples,after listening to your stale sermon, all came to me and THANKED me for doing my 10 shows on the Myths and Deceptions of the Bible. Do you want to know what they said to me? Well, I'll tell you anyway.
1)Thanks for opening our eyes.
2)Thanks for helping us believe in Alaha Ashur.
3)Thanks for helping us see what god is really about.
4)Thanks for helping us to NOT fear god.
5)Thanks for helping us to accept ourselves.
6)Thanks for helping us gain self-esteem about being Assyrians
7)Thanks for helping us to NOT be ashamed for being an Assyrian
8)Thanks for helping us realize as Assyrians, we were never barbarians
9)Thanks for helping us realize everything in life started with our great ancestors.

I should actually charge you a commission, Mr. Minister, for helping your flock love god, and not fear god and run away from god. But as you know, my services are FREE, and even though I don't hide behind a robe and a collar, and don't charge $4000.00 per month, I know how to love, unlike YOU who cannot and will NOT unless you are paid for it!
So you see, it is NOT you and your circus show that is making young Assyrians go to church, it is ASHUR, because they finally realize what god is and that god was within them all along, and they didn't need YOU to find Ashur, but out of respect for their elderly parents they go through the Sunday ritual, and it is their way of accepting them for what they are and still love them inspite of it!

Now I come to the part why I'm here. Although Pancho and I can disagree, argue, and hurl insults at one another, or have misunderstandings, but the fact that we can still love one another as human beings and still can wish each other well, and forgive each other for whatever "evils" we are capable of doing to one another is what matters in life.

I finaly realized why I was crying all day Sunday and this morning, Monday.)

Life is too damn short, (as Fil Isaac) will tell you after having burried his 24 year old son. We have to appreciate each other while we are alive, not pay odes to each other after we are long dead. That is the real meaning of resurrection. That we can renew our bond with one another, and our faith in one another is the real living, reincarnation, and resurrection.

So, Pancho, I do apologize to you for whatever misunderstandings we had. I am not interested in Dadesho's diploma, or your investigative reporting, or your intellectualism, or even your great wisdom, because these are things YOU own. That's not why I cherish you. Why I cherish you is a mystery, a process, that I hold dear to my heart, cherish everyday, and renew each time I have an epiphany as to what RESURRECTION really means.

Why I cherish you and everyone else is the cherished mystery, my mission, and quest in life.

When I die, no PHD or cleverness will ever mean anything to anyone. Only our ability to love something we despise, for in the end that's what really great about humanity!

Happy Ishtar Spring Festival everyone.



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