I am a lifetime member of The Ruff Times and have been reading your newsletter for years. I've enjoyed your newsletter and I like what you stand for. I find your analysis excellent and your attitude kind and well-meaning and I believe you are generally correct in your assessments of what is actually happening in the USA in the cultural-social domain. I will not discuss your economic opinions.
In regards to your article "Court's Prayer Decision A Supreme Shame", in the July 20, 1992 issue of Ruff Times, you state that "rather than freedom of religion, we have freedom from religion".
As a self-proclaimed philosopher (I consider myself both a physician and a metaphysician), I would like to clarify something and I hope you will understand this and take it into consideration in your thinking.
Philosophers over the centuries performed the task of CREATING LANGUAGE SYSTEMS by means of which we understand and talk about the world. You should realize that philosophers created the language systems of Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Economics, Sociology etc. Theologians (religious philosophers) created the language systems called Christianity, Islam, etc.
What is being beaten down and battered today in regard to religion is THE OLD LANGUAGE SYSTEM. The historical ways of talking "about" God, of talking "about" God's nature, "about" our relationship to God, and "about" how God want us to behave, is changing. Why? Because LANGUAGE is a living thing. Languages exist in Reality. They are born, they develop and grow, they give birth, they have offspring, they whither and they eventually die. Old languages no longer suffice to convey the truths once couched in them. Old ways of talking no longer carry the message, convince the listener, have the power to move, as do newer languages. What is being limited by new laws, customs, or beliefs, are the old ways of relating to the Deity through LANGUAGE & SYMBOLIC BEHAVIOR. WHAT-MAN-CALLS-GOD varies with the ages and the language. In fact, it varies with time, person and place. We, however, can rest assured that WHAT IS GOD, IS NOW, WAS, AND WILL ALWAYS BE, regardless of what we think or say.
What we are all witnessing are the death throes of the old language, the old language system, the old allegories, metaphors and symbolic behavior (rituals) by means of which we thought about and related to The Greater Power. This is the painful period, when the old, the familiar, the loved, is dying and the new is not yet fully born. What we are all waiting for is the development of the NEW LANGUAGE, THE NEW CUSTOMS, THE NEW SYMBOLIC BEHAVIOR by means of which we will again "talk about, think about, and understand" the nature of the Greater Power and our relationship to It.
Christianity and its branches are a LANGUAGE SYSTEM, a language tree, developed by natural philosophers and theologians over the centuries. And, just as Latin is just about dead, so Christianity, as a language system by means of which we think about and talk about God, and as a system of symbolic behavior through which we relate to God, is also dying.
I happen to agree with you about the disturbing nature of the suppressive forces acting on our desire to show respect and deference to THE GREATER POWER OR GOD, openly and as we have done for years and probably centuries. These forces are entirely too conscious and expedient. They are outside of the more natural evolution to new languages which have characterized our history. They seem to point to a veiled purpose! I too like the old ways. They are familiar and comfortable. They are imbued with history, mystery, authority and even security. It is a shame they are withering.
We are waiting for THE MAN, Mr. Ruff, we are all waiting for THE MAN! He will come with a new way of thinking and talking, with a new use of the WORD. Just as before, it will be a moving experience.
Cordially,
Dr. Albert M. Iosue
Founder & Chairman of the Board,
The Institute For Applied Philosophy