I will start this post with complete transparency. I am not religious, I don’t believe in God, prayer, the bible, or any of the nonsense that comes with it. I spent twelve years in Catholic school and honestly believe that everything I was indoctrinated in was for the lack of a better word, BS! When you’ve been around the world and experienced some of the things I’ve seen, war, world hunger, man’s inhumanity to other humans and the total disregard for the environment, it’s just too hard for me to believe in some deity seeing all this and saying, “I’m ok with this”. I’m not one of these folks who protest religious things, I don’t care about nativities or menorahs being put up during the holidays, public prayer, I’m just indifferent to it. If you choose to believe, good for you, you believe what you want, and I will believe what I want. I say this because I have had some experiences recently that irked me.
I was attending a veteran’s event the other week and before it began, there was a lady there who wanted to start it with a prayer. Now, prayer to me is like yelling at the TV when your favorite sports team is on, you might think it’s helping but it really doesn’t but again whatever floats your boat, have at it. I simply got up, went out of the room, and waited till all the praying was complete. I came back in, listened to the speakers, and learned some new things about the VA, it’s always good to learn new things, even at my age. Afterwards, there was a reception to provide some time for my fellow vets and I to interact, all in all, a good day, till the event ended.
As I was leaving, the lady who conducted the prayer came over to me to chastise me for walking out on her prayer. I explained that I don’t pray but didn’t want to stop her, so I just excused myself till it was over. She told me that I was inconsiderate of her religious beliefs and rude for leaving. I said, well sorry you feel that way, but that’s the way it is. I headed out to the parking lot, stopped to speak with a friend and lo and behold, the lady was back, this time with a bible in her hand. She said, “you should take some time and read this, it would do you some good”. I’m an easy-going guy but to be honest, I get a little tired of folks who assume you are a bad person because you are not religious or believe in God. I said, “ma’am I have read that book, I attended Catholic school and the only book in my room at my first duty station in the Air Force was a bible and to be honest, it’s the bible that made me a non-believer”. She was taken back by this and then decided she was going to school me in the scripture, I raised my hand and said “Stop”, I have a photographic memory and whatever wonderful piece of scripture you are going to quote, I can quote an equally despicable one. Her response was “not likely”. I said, “well, A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over me; she must be quiet. She told me I was a misogynist, I said, “really, I was just quoting from that book there in your hand, St Timothy, 2:12-13. She looked it up and whirled around and left before I could tell her to have a wonderful day!
My fellow blogger Nick has a saying I like to use, religion is a way for you to live your life, not to impose it others. As I sit here today in Pennsylvania, the current republican candidate for governor is running on a religious platform. He wants to bring the bible into his law making, he doesn’t speak to the news media as they aren’t weaved into the same Christian cloth as him. He doesn’t recognize any other religions, as only his version of Christianity is the correct one. Of course, he has also donated to an antisemitic, alt right website, Gab, I mean that seems like something a good Christian should do. I see republicans all around the country pushing a Christian Nationalist agenda because more God and religion is what we need, blah,blah.blah!
I’ve been to the Middle East several times and if you don’t understand the danger of religion inside of government provides, well then, you just aren’t paying attention. Let me remind you of a few of the things that religion has provided us over the years:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-44209971
https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-southern-baptist-churches-facing-100045165.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47769964
https://www.yahoo.com/news/pro-trump-candidate-calls-executing-162018014.html
I live my life trying to be a good person, be kind, generous, treat people like you want to be treated. I don’t judge anyone. I don’t live this way because of some old book, whose author has been silent for 2000 years or the fear of some deity in the sky, I do this stuff because it’s the right thing to do. The religion I was indoctrinated in shuns divorcees, same sex marriage, birth control while turning a blind eye to their so-called leaders molesting children for years and doing everything in their power to cover-up this conspiracy. If I said once, I’ve said it a thousand times, some of the worst people I know, sit in a pew every Sunday.
I honestly don’t care what religion you belong to, I will not sit by and let any politician try to impose their religious beliefs into government or my life. Religion belongs in your home and in your church not in government. We have enough bad politicians out there, on both sides of the aisle. I want people who make their decisions based on sound information and policy not hoping their deity provides them some guidance.