Marianne Williamson Quotes
Charles Manson ate apples. That doesn't mean I'm not going to.
Williamson, Marianne. Personal interview. 2014.
This is a proverb reflecting a major difference between Arab traditions of justice and that of most Western societies where guilt is not to be vested upon family and friends of a person who commits a crime. While Western jurisprudence recognizes harboring a fugitive as a crime, it is always considered a less heinous crime than the original murderer, robber or whatever. However, in the Bedouin tradition the befriender of the criminal is guilty of the same crime and deserves the same punishment as the criminal. Ironically, Arabs are not the only people with this notion. Sephardic Jews (whose roots and origins are from Spain and the Middle East and who spent many generations in Arab dominated and controlled lands tended to use a different standard from the traditional European Jews with regard to retaliation for acts of terrorism and often used the principle illustrated by this proverb to justify bulldozing the homes of terrorists even after they were dead and attacking associates of leaders of terrorist organizations.
Without free will, it would be futile for priests, ministers, rabbis or imams to preach morality to try and get people to behave in certain ways. The concept if sin and morality breaks down, and the clerics lost most of their power and influence. Cave was very concerned with the fact that a number of scientists were arguing that human behavior is caused by neurobiology, genetics and conditioning. They question whether an individual can be held accountable for his actions by the society that raised him, educated him, influenced him, and if the individual seemed aberrant relative to all that, it must be because of his particular neurology which enables him or prevents him from being influenced by the society, or allows him to be influenced by the "darker" aspects of society.
Marianne Deborah Williamson is an American author, spiritual leader, and political activist. She has written 13 books, including four New York Times number one bestsellers in the "Advice, How To, and Miscellaneous" category. She is the founder of Project Angel Food, a volunteer food delivery program that serves home-bound people with HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening illnesses. She is also the co-founder of the Peace Alliance, a nonprofit education and advocacy organization supporting peace-building projects. She has received national attention as a result of her frequent appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show and was known as Oprah's "spiritual adviser."
