Thor's Day: Suffer the little children

Thursday of the week is devoted to airing out religion and religions. The column's title, "Thor's Day," comes from the etymology of the word Thursday, literally "Thor's Day."

The Apostle Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians (about 1,950 years ago):

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Luke reported in his Gospel (about 1,925 years ago) that Jesus said:

Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not.

And the Dalai Lama said in Budapest (two years ago)::

I have great hopes that the world may become a better, more peaceful, more equitable place in the twenty-first century. From my own experience, at 16 I lost my freedom, at 24 I lost my country, and for the last more than 50 years have faced all sorts of problems, but I have never given up hope. We have a Tibetan saying, "Nine times fall down, Nine times pick yourself up."

I myself would like to believe that it is possible for the world to become a peaceful and equitable place. I had rather believe that than think that it is not likely to happen.
    For there are people in the world who can and do practice love. They suffer in marriage, out of love for their spouse. They strive with people in need, out of love for those who have less than they do. They bear their bad jobs, out of love for their family, which needs their paycheck. They find beautiful the least comely of men and women, out of love for mankind. They take the time daily to put out seeds and nuts for wild birds and they speak up for animal rights, out of love for their fellow creatures and a feeling of oneness with them.

And yet, the majority of men act to secure their own advantage. Stronger birds drive weaker ones away from the feeder. Wolves gang up to separate a weaker bison from its herd (photo from Frozen Planet). Jesus may not have included "our fellow creatures" among his "little children," but certainly still today, few other men do either. They set hard-edged machines to raise and slaughter animals on factory farms. Wealthy men strap their dog to the top of their car for convenience; poor men abandon theirs beside a freeway.
    Employees strive for a six-figure income not only because it feeds their family but also because it sometimes comes with the power to dispose of other people's jobs while securing their own.
    People even choose their ideology on the basis of self-interest. Lop off the hands of thieves, so long as I am a member of the power structure that runs the justice system. Success expert Napoleon Hill posited a "master mind" to explain creativity; it seemed to provide evidence that he would live forever.

We may hope that peace will come, but I find it difficult, in the face of the evidence I see, to believe that it is even possible.
    Peace seems not to be the way of the world, and love seems destined to endure as a lonely and unrewarded virtue.