Great religious minds reflect on tragedies surrounding September 11, 2001. As America moves beyond raw emotion and religious sentiment, this show explores theological and spiritual reflection for the long haul. We examine provocative reflections across a broad spectrum of faith, woven together with evocative sound and music. Listen

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An Alternative (December 2, 2001)
I was listening to NPR Sunday evening while washing a few dishes and your program about "Where is God," came on. This was the first I had heard of 1st Person, but let me say that it was so good I had to stop what I was doing and listen to it. It was beautifully put together - as if I'm an expert! Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I have spent most of my life searching for insight into the questions of Where and what is God and it seems to me that we will always be led to a blind alley on this subject as long as we take an orthodox approach to God, his relationship to us and the source our salvation. By that I mean God is not a mega-being who actively runs the universe like a wizard cum CEO, nor does he grant rewards and inflict punishments based upon his observation of our behavior. Finally, he has not sent someone or himself to earth to save us.

Myth (other peoples' bibles), the Bible of Judaism, Christianity and Islam when looked at as literature and not the dictated word of God, and that great mystical teachers throughout the ages would say something different. I think it might come out something like this: God created this universe and the principles that run it. All of humankind was created in It's same form, "image and likeness," i.e. spiritual/non physical and as such, each of us has access to the creative power of the universe to use in accordance with our own consciousness and understanding, - "the rain falls upon the just and the unjust." The caveat is that there is a companion law that governs the use of this power; as we sow, so we reap or the "Golden Rule" that we find in everything from the Hebrew Bible to Confucius. So, love begets love, destruction begets destruction. It explains the power of a Mother Theresa or the misuse of power of a Hitler or an Osama Bin Laden. Each received or is receiving what was given out. Finally, all the great teachers taught that the place to connect with God was within our own depths and that whether we attain salvation, i. e. come to a direct connection to God, or not is based upon our own actions. It's up to us to create a heaven or hell right here and now where we live. We must save ourselves.

Naturally, we could spend dissertations on the subject of presence God and the problem of the apparent good and evil in the world. None the less, I hope this contribution was of interest or might provoke a program that compares orthodox versus mystical traditions or perhaps looks at what Jesus, Mohammed, the Hebrew prophets, and Siddhartha Gautama et. al. taught and not the religions and their subsequent reductions to icons that followed them.

Whatever the case, keep up the good work and I look forward to your next edition.

Blair Steelman
Miami , FL

We welcome your reflections on the topics of this program.
Please share your thoughts.