How is it that the pendulum can swing so far right thanks to the bluster coming out of the mouths of those who are so sure that they are God's spokespeople? Unless you've been fully distracted by the Casey Anthony debacle (and it seems seems much of the country was), you may not know that Texas Governor Rick Perry is organizing a Christian-only prayer rally for Aug. 6 at a Houston sports stadium. Forget about questioning the fact that this is commingling religion with government, it is extremely disturbing that he is having some of the most homophobic, hate-filled speakers as part of his gathering.
What I find fascinating in all of this is that those who wouldn't be invited to this rally because they are considered "part of Satan" since they are gay, according to Michele Bachmann, still yearn to be a part of the Christian world. This is very clear in "Raw: A Poetic Journey" published by NuWine Press, edited by Aimée Maude Sims with a foreword by musical artist Jennifer Knapp. "Raw" is a collection of writing by people from a variety of backgrounds, races, denominations and (gasp!) sexual orientations. Poet Tricia Lea Douglas writes, "I have finally accepted that I can be both a Christian and a lesbian."
Well, sadly, that isn't the case with many of the fundamentalists who believe that they are the true interpreters of the Bible. Yet, while reading the poems of this collection, in which one poet writes about thinking of God as mother, I couldn't help but consider how we often create a Supreme Being in our minds, hearts and souls in order to justify what we want to believe. We often cling to the Bible verses that validate our beliefs and try to explain away the rest. The reason being is that we cannot make sense of many of these verses or cannot rationalize how they contradict each other, so we pick and choose and base our faith on what we want to believe, whether one is liberal or fundamentalist.
(Full disclosure: Aimée, the editor, approached me for help in promoting her book and then asked if I'd write a blurb for the back cover. I don't know if she'd read any of my other posts here, such as "My God Can Beat Up Your God" or "Being Skeptical," but I was cool with writing something for this book. Even though I don't claim any particular faith any longer, and even consider myself an agnostic, I take issue with those who make themselves judge and jury in the name of their God. Therefore, it was my desire to support this book's message. It's a message I'd rather share than the message of those spouting ignorance and hatred.)
Aimée writes, "Raw calls the Christian church back to its purpose as a place of healing, not wounding. It sends a message that faith trumps bigotry -- and in the process helps each of us own our identity and live with purpose."
Purpose. That's an interesting word. I suppose when it comes right down to it, we'd all like to have a purpose, a reason for being here. Yet, when some are told that they aren't what God intended, the pain is, well, raw, their purpose ostensibly less so. The poems in this book express this thought beautifully.
In the last sentence in the blurb that I gave "Raw," I write, "If these individuals can find the strength to believe -- then perhaps we all can." Perhaps, yes, but certainly not in the God that Rick Perry and his ilk believe. Yet, it does seem that no matter whom we are and what we believe -- moderate or extreme -- we tend to create a version of God to support those beliefs.
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It should be obvious to anyone with intellectual honesty and clarity of thought, that the christian god is made in man's image. Anyway, to listen to the current conservative rhetoric, he bears no resemblance to Jesus.
So what is the ego? Well it grows out of the three veils of darkness: anger, pain,and fear. When caught in any of these states, you'll notice your self slipping into darkness; separation. Those who hate are hurting, scared, angry, and blind to reality. To eliminate hate, one has to clear the veils, and in so doing one reveals the truth of who we are: For the part of us within weighed down with that ancient sorrow is our very soul; the part of us that is cripples with fear is our very spirit; and the part of us that is angry about it all is the father God. The ego is the fall of a living God: YOU. And only you have the power to remove the veils of darkness and restore your birthright. And this is known as enlightenment. The restoration of light.
As the modern son of man says, just as patriotism is the greatest refuge of a scoundrel, so religiosity is the greatest refuge of a hypocrite.
Hypocritical "Christian" extremists have ultimately been responsible for the deaths of many champions of the people -- including the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr., John Lennon, the hundreds of victims that were in the bombed Federal Building in Oklahoma City, doctors and staff of medical clinics, and the attempted murder of Gabrielle Giffords.
Why? Because misguided, spiritually blind false prophets and false shepherds lead their blind flocks astray, even into wickedness and destructive offensiveness, justified by the false idea that God is on their side and against all the "godless" people they judge who don't agree with them.
It is Fascism under the guise of Christianity, and it has now infected a whole lot of people who are thumping their bible as they wave the flag and rattle their swords -- all in direct violation of the intent of the Founding Fathers, and in direct violation of the intent of Jesus of Nazareth.
Read the truth at http://messenger.cjcmp.org
I carry all three.
How right you are, Ms. Hoenig! All of the people mentioned in your post suffer from this malady. You and I do, too. No one is an objective observer. The best we can do is try to detect our biases and consider how they affect what we believe, say, and do.
Without taking sides, I can't help but notice the contradiction in what you have written. You rail against people that you accuse of claiming to speak for God. The only way you can legitimately do this is by having knowledge of God that is sufficiently better than theirs. You claim that they are wrong. You are defending God--speaking for him, if you will--against those who believe incorrectly. This is exactly the crime you accuse them of.
Without taking sides, and in the gentlest way I possibly can, I must ask: Why should we believe your description of what God is like (or what he's not like) over anyone else's?
I'm interested in your opinion on the following statement: Saying that there is no god is a religious statement. If we back up far enough and remove the "churchiness" from the religious label, it seems to me that any belief system is a religion. Thus atheism is, by this definition, a religion. What do you think of that statement?
And a side note: I respect your belief that there is no evidence to back up God claims, but I don't agree with it. I believe that the evidence is plentiful and sufficient to build a case for God. On that point, however, we'll probably need to agree to disagree due to the limitations of this communication forum.
Anyway, from Alexander Pope, "From Nature's chain whatever link you strike, tenth or ten thousandth, breask the chain alike".
It appears that Pope thought that the more things change the more they stay the same. So much for liberal Christianity vs conservative, eh?
Gotta chuckle and keep a sense of humor about these things...........