Demand that there be only one way to find Him? With all the different cultures of man, all the different ways of seeing beauty, of expressing joy, of loving, why would there be only one way?
In the United States we have existed in a religious calm with thousands of different churches side by side for some time. This in itself is amazing. We have been spared the unsolvable quarrels over whose God is better by the Constitution and the separation of church and state. But not only are there some who insist that their way is the only way, all other religions are not only wrong but satanic.
There are fundamentalists who wish to change our Constitution. There are those who have tasted power, have been allowed into the Bush administration with the 'faith-based initiative programs', have received federal monies and have decided that now is the time to grab for more.
There are those who are working diligently to bring about the second coming, the rapture. If you go onto the rapture sites, you will see people rejoicing when Israel attack Lebanon, or bombed Syria. They are waiting with bated breath to see the world destroyed.
These are the people who attack education, evolution, and science. These are the people who are owners of Blackwater, the mercenary group. These are the people who have tried to make the Air Force Academy and the military a religious force. These are the people who have decided Iraq is the beginning to a religious war against Islam, a true crusade.
These are the people who wish to take over the government. They do not hear your demand for your right to live with or without religion. They do not consider your wishes for personal choice. They see themselves as righteous and spreading God's love throughout the world.
But what they are actually spreading is hate. Hatred of other religions. Hatred of other cultures. Hatred of history. Hatred of government. Hatred of individual thought.
What they hate most is having their plans for world domination foiled by people who watch their every move.
So say no to theocracy. Say no and say it loudly.
Say yes to religious freedom, to believe in whatever you so choose and to keep it your personal business.
God is love, and that is enough for the entire world and for everyone in it.
crossposted at Mock, Paper, Scissors
10 comments:
ellroon
beautifully stated
why cant the adults be in power for a change
I wait with Bates's breath to see the world destroyed, but I do not wait in joyous anticipation of the event. Send these nut-cases to one of those bodies newly discovered or proposed in the Oort cloud and let them destroy their own damned world... and leave ours alone.
Religion in government is bad for everyone and everything, including government and, yes, religion. I am, however, willing to allow Katherine Harris her face-paste initiative. <grin_duck_run />
*erk* Should never laugh while eating corn nuts.... Harris qualifies, Steve, but the one who really took the pancake makeup was Tammy Faye....
Do we own the Oort cloud? I don't think they'll let us dump trash off in outer space without a license...
And thanks, Dcap. I was raised in a religious home and stayed in the religion for a large section of my adult life. Now I have grown up and out and can never return to that almost incestuously inturned thinking. So I recognize the unawakened thought. I recognize the commandeering of scientific language to claim as the religion's own, thus distorting it. I recognize that in trying to do good one is blind to the harm being caused.
To me, God is an individual connection and a private affair. No church, no middle man needed.
We're all God. Each of us and all of us together. We are all one connected consciousness, and when we awaken as one humanity we will still be ourselves as well.
Amen, Michael!
I have a bumper sticker (well, actually, it's on the refrigerator door) that says, "God bless the whole world / No exceptions," and provides the address of a web site.
Apparently that's a very unpopular sentiment. The friend who gave me the sticker says that the woman who created it has gotten unbelievable amounts of hate email.
Thank Dog I live my web life among sane people of good will. "Live and let live" can so easily become fighting words among those who think they have the one true answer.
Gads. Hate mail from loving Christians...
How they vilified the poor 15-year old girl who YouTubed the song 'Jesus loves me' to pictures of weeping or bloody Iraqi children. She, too, got death threats from those who did not want to be reminded that Iraqis are human too.
Making the enemy into the 'Other' makes them easier to kill by denying them their humanity.
It never works.
Let us elect an athiest or an agnostic or a humanist to the highest seats in the land.
I mean if the last eight years are any sign of how screwed up the a religious nut-job can make democracy then why not give those that do not worship a wrathful god or any god at all have a whack at it?
I bet most politicians are atheists or agnostics and just put on the regular trappings of religion to get votes. So the really dangerous ones are those who truly believe in the rapture and would take steps to try and make it happen.
It would be nice, thepoetryman, to finally admit that religion in our leaders does not matter and vote in an atheist or a humanist. That would be wonderful....
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