Identification Please
I have received many interesting emails since I posted my article about religion and have engaged in some thought provoking conversations about the reality of religion in this country versus the perception. I understand that I live in a sort of liberal bubble, residing as I do in the very progressive city of Seattle on the very lefty Left Coast, but I still have a hard time reconciling the Christian Nation being sold on the evening news with the reality on the ground. Maybe if I lived in the heartland or in the Bible Belt, I would feel differently.
I come from a large family in a fairly small town and I have contact with a lot of people each day living in a city and yet I do not know, nor do I meet, many overtly religious people. Perhaps it is a case of likeminded people traveling in the same circles, but I tend to think that organized religion plays less of a part in our everyday lives than is suggested by the media and by the answers we ourselves give to pollsters on the topic.
We are not a Christian country, nor is the foundation of our government based on Christian ideals the way many are purporting. There is, however, a thread of latent Christianity that is pervasive within our culture. References to God are everywhere we look, in our courtrooms, on our money, even in our reflexive responses to people when they sneeze. I think that many people have a hard time articulating where they fall on the religious spectrum and when asked to specify their religious identification, they figure that since they went to church with Grandma a few times and they celebrate Christmas and Easter, Christian fits the bill. This reflex to claim Christianity only makes sense because of the pervasiveness of Christian symbols. These same people would never think, “Well, I celebrate Halloween and I used to do that Maypole dance on May Day, so I guess I’m a pagan.”
Discussions about religion are always rife with danger, but that makes them all the more worthwhile. Those of us who are not Christian must get better at acknowledging our own beliefs and become better at articulating them. It is the only way we are going to be able to avoid being marginalized by a majority that may not be a majority at all.
posted by The (liberal)Girl Next Door @ 9:04 PM
2 Comments:
Constantine the Great legalized Christianity to regain the political power, he had lost and was going to further lose, to those who were meeting in secret and calling themselves, "Christians", the followers of Jesus the Christ.
Constantine was a pagan and he joyfully practiced all the rites and rituals of paganism his entire life; and, he was only baptized as a "Christian" on his deathbed, "just in case" the teachings of Jesus was/were true. (e.g., life after death and accountability in the karmic savings and loan.)
Christianity manipulation was then a political move, as it is now.
Why? Because corrupt insane leaders see how easily innocent and ignorant people can be brainwashed into thinking the leader actually cares about them and that they are important and their beliefs are what the leader wants to take care just exactly like the holy father in heaven would do for the devotion of their worship.
Poor Christians, they just didn't get it.
Somehow they chose to distort and corrupt their thinking into a false sense of reality -- in order to be good, perfect, noticed by the Almighty God to be a pious child of the father in heaven, worthy only as lowly worms, on their bellies as reptiles, sinners, crawling to the foot of the throne, and fully surrendering all their power to an evil taskmaster, wallowing in their filthy sin and through slobbering tears and wailing howls, these poor souls pray to be forgiven by those who flagellate and punish them until they are born again.
They must follow the leader and behold, led to slaughter, as the blind leads the blind and the wolves in sheep clothing chuckle maniacally to themselves: Just take a close look at Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, Bush, et al. they all have ghoul-like facial expressions and the laughter that comes out of their twisted mouths is haunting and all the while their evil eyes dart back and forth, side to side, just like a hungry predatory beast sizing up its prey.
How many victims shall there be, before the victims realize it’s a volunteer world.
Originally, Christians were NOT victims, they were revolutionaries, those who followed Jesus the Christ, who was a serious revolutionary. Think about it just for a moment -- Jesus of Galilee was a carpenter and a fisherman. This was a strong man, one who could lift nets filled with fish from the sea and build things as a carpenter -- in that day and age! He sat down and braided a bull whip for christsake and drove the money changers from the temple. Not at all the wimp we see, dressed up in a perfectly starched flowing white robe and looking like a skinny loser.
I keep finding stuff out about Hugo Chavez and talking about him because he is worth speaking about. He considers himself a true follower of Jesus. He fights with both the Catholic and Protestant religions and their pontiffs, arguing that Jesus was the revolutionary and Judas was the capitalist.
I wonder if GWB is considered the Judas persona. After all, he is truly the supreme capitalist. Did I say with a capital P-I-G?
What will the Christians in this country do once they think about being the true followers of Jesus and become revolutionaries – or, better yet, what will all those mega-churches do once they realize they are the Judases and NOT the followers of Jesus Christ! Do we hold our breath while they give all their money back to the poor and needy? Was that a pin I heard drop? Ah yes, no coins for the children who are dying from the cold in Pakistan and certainly, no help for those who are Katrina throw-aways either.
According to the story, Judas took money, gold coins, for his commitment to betrayal and Jesus took on the “sins of the world” for all the rebel rousers against the tax collectors.
This is not a complex IQ test, of naming names, those who have sold out and continue to sell out, for money.
Time to take our vital signs and look deeper than just the surface of it all. Follow the money:
http://www.princeton.edu/hubbert/current-events.html
I have a co-workers who is a devout Christian. He truly believes that the rapture in upon us. He says I should accept Jesus now before this event. I’m sorry, but I think these people need to be medicated or confined to mental facilities. Ok, let me get this straight now, if I don’t accept your belief in a fairy tale, I won’t be on the good ship to heaven!
We, at some point, in our evolution as a species, need to understand that the great majority of the organized religions of the world represent a vestige of our primitive past. I believe that science and technology will eventually make religions, a mere curiosity of the past.
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