Call me cynical, not ecumenical

posted by Bill Arnett @ 2:27 PM Permalink

For those who read my post below about …a holiday story for our times, it must be apparent that I no longer believe in Jesus, Christianity, a benevolent god, churches and large groups of people, especially evangelicals, that purport to serve god while encouraging and enabling bush's eternal war.

My reasons, as stated, are also obvious as well. But my cynicism is not founded so because I have always been atheistic. My cynicism comes from reading the alleged words of Christ and the utter failure of man to live by the tenets expressed or even attempting to do so.

Listen to all our presidential nominees, especially those professing to be "men of god," then compare their words and deeds to these simple, but beautiful words:

THE EIGHT BEATITUDES OF JESUS

"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
(The poor in spirit have no lobbyists or enough money to influence politics, which is why they will probably go to heaven, if it exists.Besides, Hell will be overflowing with the GOP religious right-wingers, if it exists.)

Blessed are they who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.
(There can be no comfort for those poor souls who lose their loved ones in an illegal and unjust war, and the tears and wishes of us peons apparently cannot be heard from the tops of all those Ivory Towers.)

Blessed are the meek,
for they shall inherit the earth.
(No Republican, viewing actions compared to words, will inherit anything, for there is not a meek "Christian" to be found in the GOP, which wishes world domination to further their own ends. They would rather keep destroying our planet in the name of greed, so there will be nothing left to inherit.)

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be satisfied.
(I fervently pray that all our war criminals will be prosecuted for their war crimes, but I expect no amount of prayers will bring it about.)

Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy.
("Your either with us or you're with the terrorists, and if you're with the terrorist we will kill you and destroy your country," is hardly merciful, and soon no country in the world will show mercy to America.)

Blessed are the pure of heart,
for they shall see God.
(Claiming to talk to and receive political advice from God to go to war is not demonstrative of a pure heart or seeing God.)

Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called children of God.
(We have no more peacemakers in American politics so we have no children of God to lead us. And desiring eternal war is not "peacemaking.")

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
(The religious right has persecuted liberals, democrats, gays, flag-burners, Muslims, African-Americans, illegal immigrants, brown people in general, anyone "different" than themselves, and those who do not follow their evangelical religion ever since I have been alive. Democrats are the party of the people who seek to improve America for all, not just the rich, and they seem powerless to do anything about anything. The religious right wants more and more warfare and American hegemony.)

I could continue for days counting the ways and means by which the religious right continuously violate these simple beatitudes, but I think you get my point, and you might now understand why I do not believe in god any longer. If there were genuinely a god who could unite mankind behind the ideals expressed in the beatitudes, the world would be a very different place.

And forget about the old saw, "God works in mysterious ways," stuff either, especially when god apparently is fine with more people dying in his name than any other single cause and allowing the continuation of the slaughter of innocents everywhere.

But hey, that's just my opinion, one which I admit could be entirely wrong.

Labels: Religion