Mike Ghouse Honored by RCC

RELIGION COMMUNICATORS COUNCIL HONORS THREE DALLASITES.

Mike Ghouse accepts the recognition with humility.

Mike's 5 Minutes Speech at the event

I want to thank the Religion Communicators council and Ms. Slater in whose husband’s name this recognition was initiated in 1929. I appreciate my friends for their support; particularly I want to thank Bill and Norma Matthews, Mary Ann Thompson-Frenk and John Shore with their presence. And I am pleased to congratulate the other two individuals who are recognized today;
- Religion Communicator of the year goes to a church or a religious organization or a person in such an organization effectively communicating faith values. (This year's awardee is Larry James, Central Dallas Ministries)

- Communicator of the year is given to a secular/media organization or a person in such an organization that effectively communicates faith values. (This year's awardee is Mike Ghouse)

- Lifetime Communicator of the year is presented to a person whose lifetime career has effectively communicated faith values. (This year's awardee is John Lovelace) http://www.rcc-dfw.org/awards.html

Thank ya’ll again.
Living a Safe and Peaceful life is my responsibility, your responsibility and every one’s responsibility.

You cannot be safe as an individual or a nation when others around are not. It becomes our duty to consciously create better societies to live and let live.

Communication is the key for a successful relationship between family members, friends, associates, co-workers, and even an event like this. It is important to communicate the right message be it your business or world peace or religion.

So what is our role as religious communicators? I believe it is to mitigate the conflicts and nurture goodwill for peaceful co-existence of every one, indeed it is the un-stated purpose of religion, any religion; it is to mitigate conflicts and nurture goodwill among different peoples and nations.

Life and matter is about balance; every thing that came out of the big bang theory or through intentional creation seeks its own balance. Everything be it matter or life, has a built-in mechanism to seeks its own balance.

When it comes to matter, there is something that keeps the planets circumambulating around the Sun, that there is something that keeps the stars hung in a place. There is something that keeps the earth have its own precise balance. They are all put on a trajectory, they don’t have to think or work for the balance. Do we have a precise word to describe that 'something', for the sake of convenience and for a greater acceptance, can we call that 'something' a God?

Unlike the matter, human life was not put on a trajectory; we were not put on a plan to circumambulate around something, or hung in one place. We were given the freedom to create our own balance. Whether we believe in God or not, we still seek that balance.

Friends, God loves his creation just as each one of us loves what we create, be it the food we cook, the clothes we wear, the paintings we paint or sculptures we sculpt.

It is the love of the creator that gave each one of us, each community, each nation and each tribe a “formula” to live in peace within ourselves and with what surround us. He, she or it communicated that formula through the spiritual masters in the form of scriptures like Torah, Bible, Quran, Bhagvad Gita, Avesta and other scriptures including the oral traditions. Please remember, God has reached to every one of us and has offered that formula – to seek a balance for ourselves and a balance for what surrounds us; life and the environment.

God is about love, kindness and justice.

Hate is one of the few sources of disrupting peace in a society and it is our duty to track down the source of such hate and work on mitigating it. We have an obligation to maintain a balance in the society for our own individual good.

In your solitude, it is you who personally feels the anxiety, apprehension, fears or the joys of life for the actions you take in your life. Your Pastor, Pundit, Rabbi, Imam or Clergy are not responsible for it, even if they were; it is you who has to live with yourselves, so finding the truth is your own responsibility.

Prophet Muhammad once said to his associates that if some one uploads you with words that will cause you to have ill-will, malice, hate, anger towards other beings, you have to investigate before you believe, you should do your best to live a regret free life, you should not hate or pre-judge negatively any one without finding the truth.

We lose that balance when we let hate mongers, hate sermons and hate lectures creep in our societies, much of it is product of insecure men and it breeds arrogance. Arrogance that my way of life is superior or my religion is the only way to heaven. Arrogance is the source of most of the conflicts and much of the evil.

I am a Muslim and Islam works for me, just as Christianity works for you, Judaism works for you, Hinduism or other faiths work for you. And further I am humbled to say that my religion is not superior to others, that claim would be a sheer arrogance. There is a beautiful chapter in Qur’aan about it. http://quraan-today.blogspot.com/2008/07/sura-kafirun-un-believers.html

As religious communicators we need to explore and communicate that God has not signed up a deal with any religion behind our back, he just cannot do that. Let’s honor every tradition and faith whether they believe in one, multiple or no God. The essence of the creator and causer of the universe does not change with our beliefs.

Let’s learn to accept the otherness of other and respect the God given uniqueness of each one of the 7 billion of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge.

Thank you.

Pictures from the event are at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeghouse/sets/72157616859531207/show/

BIO OF MIKE GHOUSE

Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker and a Writer.

He is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing Pluralism, interfaith, Islam, India, Multiculturism, Terrorism, Peace, Politics and Civic issues. He co-chairs the center for interfaith inquiry of the Memnosyne Foundation and presides the Foundation for Pluralism. He is the president of World Muslim Congress a think tank with a simple theme: Good for Muslims and good for the world and vice-Versa.

His comments, news analysis and columns can be found on the Web sites and Blogs listed at his personal web site http://www.mikeghouse.net/ . He has authored over 600 articles on Pluralism, interfaith, Islam, India and peace.

His life mission is to open people’s hearts and minds towards fellow beings by mitigating conflicts and nurturing goodwill. He is a peace maker and an educator with two Master degrees and working on his doctorate in Psychology. He has two books on the horizon ; Basic Islam- everything you want to know about Islam and Pluralism, a text book on Pluralism 101. Mike is a Neighborhood Commissioner at the City of Carrollton, and a Board Member of Dallas Peace Center. He is an Ambassador for Peace for the Universal Peace Federation and a member of the International leadership council. He has initiated the annual events like the Annual Thanksgiving Celebrations in its 12th year, Unity Day USA in its 5th year, Holocaust and Genocides, event just finished its 2nd Annual event. Mike Ghouse Cricket Gold cup and several other initiatives were taken. He was Past President of Indian Creek HOA and North Texas Cricket Association and has been a member of several Boards.

Mike is a Dallasite for three decades and Carrollton is his home town.