Do Catholics support the re-building of Iraq?

[Hastrman]

You’re confusing us. Which is it? Am I not reading and doing enough about the Tao, or is reading anything at all about the Tao in a book not knowing the eternal Tao? Or should I learn about the Tao through instructors?

If you’re going to base your life on it, you need instructors, and I’d say East Asians only. And typically, no layman would call himself a Taoist exclusively–that’s a Western approach. Unless you devote yourself full-time to the Tao (which pretty much means becoming a monk), you’re “Taoist influenced” and probably mix in Buddhism, Confucianism, and some folk religion. In practice, most laypeople call themselves Buddhist, because Buddhism is the most “ultimate” of the belief systems involved.

My point was that appealing exclusively to the authority of the Daodejing was not the approach associated with Taoists–it’s more like Confucianism or Buddhism (mostly the former), or especially like Protestantism. Taoism’s approach is, like Catholicism, “Scripture and Tradition”. So there is, in a sense, a Catholic movement in Taoism.

One must be able to read about the Tao otherwise you would not continue to describe how to achieve it. Aside from the Japanese martial art of Jiujitsu, how else have you learned about the Tao? I admit you have a good grasp of it, and I’m happy to have someone who understands it, and thus me, rather than the normal dismissal someone in this environment would receive who is not Catholic.

Thank you for the compliment. Religions (and Taoism’s called a religion in Chinese, although that character’s used for other things too) are one of my many, many hobbies. What I know about the Tao I know from books–I wasn’t saying you shouldn’t use books, just that books alone (especially books as confusing as the Daodejing) can easily lead to misinterpretations. I find it extremely helpful, also, to get information on things like that filtered through something else–how does Taoism apply in, say, the martial arts, or folklore, or literature? That’s helped me understand the interpretations.

You are correct again. However, where I offered an opinion you offered an observation. Are you willing to offer your opinion on the war and re-building?

Come to think, I haven’t said what I thought, have I? Sorry! I support the war in Iraq because I think the Saddam regime had no right whatsoever to rule–removing an unjust ruler makes a war just; whether removing him is prudent is a judgment call for the leader considering a war. And, though the war has gone poorly (mostly due to Rumsfeld’s mismanagement), we’re obligated to restore the stability we removed–even if it was just the “stability” of a boot on the Iraqis’ necks.

I think the Church, however ambivalent she was about the war, supports the rebuilding wholeheartedly.