Oh My God, The Author Takes on Christianity

I recently saw a tweet by a former Cal women's basketball player: "I'm 32 years old today, God is good." So because she reached 32 years of age this young woman deems god to be "good." Interesting. One of former students died at 16 from leukemia and another at 22 from colon cancer. God not so good? When something positive happens in a Christian's life, they will often claim that their "prayers were answered." Many people who never pray have good fortune bestowed upon them. Many people who pray for something don't get it. They say it was not "god's will." If everything is god's will anyway, why bother praying?

If two christians are in a car accident and both end up in the hospital with life-threatening injuries, you can rest assured that their families will pray for them. One dies the other recovers. So did one family not pray enough? Or without enough faith? God's will. When my best friend died at age 42, his mother, a devout Christian, said, "god has other plans for him." Really? More important than raising his young children? A few months later his widow was struck by a drunk driver. She was hospitalized for months and suffered brain damage sufficient that she was no longer able to take care of her children. Was this another case of god having other plans for someone? If so incapacitating a single mother of three is a strange plan. When my former student died of colon cancer a former colleague (a Christian) who knew the young man said that he would pray that god comforted his family. If god had given a rat's ass about the kid's family he wouldn't have given their child cancer in the first place.

I saw a tweet from a high school senior who signed a letter of intent to accept a scholarship and play football at Cal. In his tweet the young man said that "all glory goes to god." I've heard this one from athletes before. What kind of insecure self absorbed god needs us mere mortals to "give him all the glory" for all of our piddling little accomplishments? How about just being happy for what you have and thanking those PEOPLE who helped you achieve it? But of course god expects people to show up at church every Sunday and worship him. Again, what an ego. You're also not supposed to take his name in vain. That might hurt the almighty's feelings and we know how sensitive he is.

Of course there is no greater example of hypocrisy in the world today than the evangelical's embrace of our current president. They are -- along with white nationalists -- the biggest part of the idiot-in-chief's base. Never mind his immorality, his infidelities, his lies, his insults, his crudeness, these supposed Christians believe that god has chosen this scoundrel to be our president. On top of everything else we see that right wing evangelicals have no regard for the poor and that they care nothing about the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. They care more for money, guns and the persecution of gays than they do about social justice. Their twisted image of Jesus is as a white, Republican, businessman who loves the Second Amendment. They would never recognize the man who said this:

Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.

There is disagreement among historians about the historical figure of Jesus, including whether he even existed. Be that is it may there is no question but that a lot of the New Testament stories about Jesus tell of a person of great compassion who cared most for the poor and otherwise disadvantaged and showed disdain for the rich and privileged. Yet evangelicals ignore this Jesus and dwell on the vengeful god of the Old Testament. They parse the book of Leviticus constantly pointing to the admonitions against homosexuality while ignoring the bits about being able to own a slave from a neighboring country (Lev. 25:44), the obligation to kill those who work on the Sabbath (Ex. 35:2), never cutting your hair (Lev. 19:27) and that eating shell fish is an abomination (Lev. 11:10). There are other examples of ridiculous laws god imposed in the Bible but it is the one about homosexuality that evangelicals obsess about. Assholes.

I am not against the practice of any religion. I am against people trying to codify their religious beliefs into the laws of the land. In this country Christians, with their tax exempt status, feel free to mix politics and religious dogma in the worst possible ways. They have even, as noted above perverted the man they purport to worship.

I was raised in the Lutheran church which is the blandest version of Christianity I'm aware of. It was totally uninspiring. The only aspect I enjoyed was hearing from the Bible stories during Sunday school. There are some ripping good yarns in the Bible, though they shouldn't necessarily be taken as gospel (pun intended). However the church services had no relevance to my life and within a month of my confirmation I stopped attending church. I've since kept an open mind to all religions and philosophies and generally have found organized religions to be a crock. They are perfectly entitled to carry on preaching their delusions provided they don't bilk followers (as so many do) or try to restrict the others (again a common offense) or advocate discrimination or violence against others. I also wish people would be more rational about things like prayer and that they wouldn't feel compelled to credit God for everything while similarly excusing him for everything. Maybe someone can pray for me. That ought to do it.