I have a question.<\/p>\n
Can you question an action or a motivation without having your loyalty questioned?<\/p>\n
I suppose I should be a bit more specific, although I think this is an appropriate question for any organization or situation. I have been known to question what my family was thinking when they decided to do something, to question the direction my company was taking, to question why one of the nonprofits I support start \u2013 or stop \u2013 a particular program.<\/p>\n
There might have been some questions about my loyalty to the cause, but I\u2019ve never been drummed out of the family, company or charity.<\/p>\n
That attitude has come into question recently in our country. Obviously, I\u2019m asking the question now because of the bombing in Iran and the rest of the Middle East.<\/p>\n
I know that this isn\u2019t the first time loyalty to the country or the depth of our patriotism has been questioned to the exclusion of any rational debate. \u201cOur country, right or wrong,\u201d \u201cAmerica, love it or leave it\u201d and similar bumper sticker slogans have been around long before bumpers were available to attach them to.<\/p>\n
The blind loyalty approach reached fever pitch a quarter century ago, ironically after an attack originating out of the same Middle East. If you weren\u2019t waving an American flag from your front porch after the 9-11 terror attacks, you were in danger of being ostracized from the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
Even so, there seemed to be some room for debate. Legislators who questioned the response to the crisis weren\u2019t immediately branded as enemies of the state. Oh, there were a few echoes of the McCarthy era, but they were relatively muted.<\/p>\n
Sadly, that\u2019s not the case today, at least according to those in power.<\/p>\n
For the last 15 months, the one criteria for \u201cproper patriotism\u201d has been fealty to a single individual. This individual has said that only one thing limits what he can do. And I quote, \u201cYeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It\u2019s the only thing that can stop me. I don\u2019t need international law.\u201d<\/p>\n
So it comes as no real surprise that explanations for attacking Iran have been vague and variable. It comes down to that old saw my parents sometimes used when explaining why I couldn\u2019t do something as a child \u2013 \u201cBecause I said so, that\u2019s why.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you want to keep the peace, you nod and do what you are told.<\/p>\n
But that seems a slippery slope to me \u2013 leaving the decision as to what\u2019s right or wrong to someone else not only abdicates your responsibility but allows that someone else to act without justification. And those actions have ramifications.<\/p>\n
I have to admit, I\u2019m simply a questioner at heart. I\u2019ve wanted to know the why of things ever since I could remember. I think that desire is why I managed to be a pretty decent journalist for more than four decades. I become suspicious when a why question is answered with \u201cdon\u2019t worry your pretty little head about it.\u201d And I\u2019m suspicious a lot these days.<\/p>\n
This approach has made my faith journey interesting, as well. The very definition of faith would seem to preclude questioning.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been blessed by a church and community that is not just tolerant of questioning, but encourages it. That helps to resolve at least some of my doubts living in this flawed world of ours.<\/p>\n
Of course I question why God allows the pain and suffering of simple people caught in these man-made wars. I have to ask why children are afflicted with disease, why parents must find ways to deal with their offspring in pain and\/or dying and vice versa.<\/p>\n
No, I haven\u2019t found any answers to those questions. Through a lot of study and more than a little prayer, I\u2019ve come to the conclusion that I wouldn\u2019t understand God\u2019s grand plan even if He deigned to try to explain it to me. It truly is a God thing, and I guess that\u2019s why it is called faith.<\/p>\n
But God also understands that I, that we, have doubts. We have questions, and minds (which He formed) like mine persist in asking.<\/p>\n
Doubting, questioning, doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t believe. On the contrary, the study required to seek answers has strengthened my belief.<\/p>\n
God doesn\u2019t brand me a traitor for asking why. So why, I ask, do you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I have a question. Can you question an action or a motivation without having your loyalty questioned? I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,8462,8461,131,133,132,137,3738],"class_list":["post-218377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-california","tag-grunion-opinion","tag-grunion-pinch-of-salt","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-the-grunion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}