The Tennessean recently ran an article entitled, Is Islam A Threat To America?. The article says that some churches are promoting the belief that "Muslims are out to destroy the American way of life." The Tennessean says: "The movement spreads its message through films, books and the Internet. Its sentiment: Islam is an evil religion rooted in hatred and nurtured by violence."

Both institutional Christianity and institutional Islam have used coercion and violence to expand their influence. Just look at history. Even nowadays, both churches and mosques support and/or promote war as a means of settling disputes between nations and as a way of compelling others to bend to their will.

The idea of forcing somebody to do something always reminds me of the story of a boy who loved to stand up in class. He refused to obey the teacher's commands to sit down. Finally the teacher threatened him with physical violence. The boy sat down, turned to another boy beside him, and said: "I'm still standing up on the inside!"

That is the problem with coercion. It doesn't really work. People can be forced to act a certain way and compelled to say certain things, but they cannot be made to believe something. A person who outwardly submits to and affirms either Islam or Christianity, yet disbelieves in his or her heart, is still an unbeliever (regardless of outward appearance).

Mystical Christianity and mystical Islam are different than their institutional counterparts. They believe that God can and does reveal Himself personally to individual human beings.

God doesn't want or need human coercion in order to get people to believe in Him and obey Him. God wants people to believe and obey Him because they are sincerely convinced that He is real.

When Christianity, Islam, or secular humanism (as in the former Soviet Union), try to control people's beliefs with insult, threat, coercion, or violence, they are doing a great disservice to humanity and to God. God gave people free will. What right does any institution have to deny people of their God-given ability to sincerely choose their own beliefs?

There is a big billboard on Gallatin Road in Nashville that shows a bottle of a particular soft drink (soda, if you prefer) on its side and has a caption of two words: "Open happiness." What a claim!

The Declaration Of Independence says that our Creator has endowed us with inalienable rights and that one of those rights is "the pursuit of happiness." Now, according to a billboard, that pursuit has been simplified. All you have to do is unscrew the top of a bottle of a particular brand of soft drink. Wouldn't it be great if that were true?

However, happiness doesn't happen so easily. In fact, happiness doesn't happen at all. It must be pursued, cultivated, developed, learned, engineered.

Happiness is a sense of joy and well-being. It is a feeling. Our feelings are created by the programming in our brain. A man programmed with negativity, guilt, rebellion, obsession, fear, anger, frustration, disappointment, worry, addiction, will seldom feel happy, no matter what kind of soft drink he opens.

Genuine happiness, the real thing, comes from a well programmed mind. Real happiness requires the training and hard work of developing your own personal uplifting mental software.

Begin to daily install peace, contentment, forgiveness, acceptance, hope, confidence, love, satisfaction, trust, righteousness, harmony. Establish and maintain a positive mindset. Remove and shut out the negatives.

Before a mental software program can be open, it must be installed. Have you personally built happiness into your thinking? If not, a soft drink, or nothing else can provide it for you.

"Write me something to chase away my idle fears and to strengthen hope." --Ignatius Sancho

"What a blessed thing it is to read spiritual books. They can cool and refresh one's whole life." --Archimandrite Cherubim

"Bring peace to your thoughts." --Theoliptos

"No evil is honorable." --Citium Zeno

"When the legends die, the dreams end; there is no more greatness." --Tecumseh

"The great virtue of man lies in his ability to correct his mistakes and continually make a new man of himself." -- Wang Yang-Ming

"We know many things by experience which we never should have understood by science only." --Juan de Valdes

"We must make our spiritual eyes lucid and ever light filled." --Nikitas Stithatos

"No trait is more likely to improve the quality of life than the ability to transform adversity into an enjoyable challenge." --Mihaly Csikszentmihaly

"Violence is necessary and costly. Peace is the only way." --Julius Kambarge Nyerere

"Whatever separates you from the truth, throw it away." --Yumus Emre

"Reason is the shadow cast by God." --Jalal-Uddin Rumi

"Even on the most exalted throne in the world, we are only sitting on our own bottom." --Michel Eyquem do Montaigne

"Those who draw water from the wellspring of meditation, know that God dwells close to their hearts." --Toyohiko Kagawa

"Get rid of the tendency to judge yourself above, below, or equal to others." --Abhirupa-Nanda

"There is no greater trouble for you than your own self." --Abu Sa'id

"Awaken, take heed, do not squander your life." --Dogen Zenji

"All know the way; few actually walk it." --Bodhidharma

"If you are posing as religious and are not living the life as stressed by God, you should wake up." --Paramhansa Yogananda

Acquire the courage to believe in yourself." --Ning Chu Ching

"Behavior influences consciousness. Right behavior means right consciousness." --Taisen Deshimaru

"Let a good person do good deeds with the same zeal that an evil person does bad ones." --Shalom Rokeach

I've heard quite of bit of dogmatic denial of global warming. Some people even angrily, aggressively, and adamately deny it. I wonder why?

The idea that we humans are damaging our planet through gasses that we are releasing into our atmosphere seems very reasonable to me. I am not convinced that man's activity is the only cause of climate change, but I have to admit that it is probably a contributing factor.

Some people and groups are even protested the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. To bring almost 200 countries together to talk peaceably about their responsibilities to our environment seems like a wonderful thing to me.

The idea of global warming has motivated many millions of people and almost 200 hundred nations to discuss and consider how we are treating our planet. We humans have been abusing our atmosphere for generations without regard for consequences. Isn't it appropriate that we begin to consider future generations and how we can clean up some of the mess we have made and continue to make?

Whether global warming scenarios are 100% accurate is not the issue. The issue is whether we humans are going to take care of our planet or continue to pollute with disregard for consequences. Isn't it time for us to begin to cut back on emissions and other pollution? If not now, when?

Why would people resist a move for cleaner air and taking responsibility for human pollution, just because they may not agree with the science of global warming?

Hope extravagantly -- without restraint. Restraint is for painful, destructive attitudes and emotions -- not for hope.

Let hope soar to the heavens. Unleash joy and let it run free, frolicking unashamedly in daily life.

Release peace of mind, contentment, to fall like the morning dew over all you can see. Spread love, like confetti filling the sky in a ticker tape parade.

No need to hold back the unlimited supply of positive thoughts and emotions. Scatter them freely and enthusiastically in your own mind and heart. Then spread them to everyone you encounter.

True treasures, untold riches of emotional well being, surround us -- waiting to be recognized, embraced, appreciated, and enjoyed. Look what is offered to us all -- all the hope, all the contentment, all the love you are willing to receive. Why hold them back?

Here are some words that will generate positive and uplifting emotions:

"Life is a joyful expression of love, praise, and thanksgiving instead of a hopeless struggle. We put love at the center of our universe and we are lifted beyond the world of limitation, doubt, and fear into the realm of love, hope, and eternal happiness." --Robert Shield

"Be filled with hope -- not just because it points us to a brighter tomorrow, but because it changes the quality of our lives." --Dawn Jacobson Young

"Lift someone's spirits by giving a word of hope and encouragement." --William Arthur Ward

"There is a deep longing for the bread of hope." --Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Love and hope are twins." --Maria Brooks