Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Christian Right.....or Wrong


I don't believe the Christian Right knows or understands Jesus Christ at all. They don’t practice what he preached. They don’t do what he did. They most certainly aren’t willing to suffer as he suffered. Here in the twenty-first century, Christian is simply a moniker that has no relationship with the person or preachings with which it is synonymous.

My grandmother was a big fan of all things Catholic. She believed in God, Christ, the Bible, saying the Rosary, the whole shebang. If she were more mobile, I think she would have made pilgrimages to the Promised Land. I would often come home to see her praying the rosary at the dining room table or in her bedroom. We would have conversations about who Jesus was, what he preached and mostly why he died. It still makes no sense to me why he couldn’t have simply died of old age after a long and successful life of preaching the word, but that’s another blog entirely. Concerning this one, I understand what he said and what he meant, at least according to my dearly departed grandmother.

My grandmother believed in Catholicism so much, that the priest that eulogized her said one of the most amazing things I had ever heard a Catholic priest say. He told the listeners that if my grandmother was not in heaven right then, with Jesus Christ himself, then he and everyone in attendance had no chance of going to heaven. That’s how much a Catholic priest who couldn’t even speak Italian – my grandmother only spoke Italian – understood what Jesus meant to my grandmother. 

The Christian Right, particularly the Tea Party, aren’t interested in knowing the Jesus my grandmother knew. They don't believe the things my grandmother believed. They can't. Are you hungry? Get a job. Are you sick? See a doctor. Are you poor? Get a better job. It’s all so simple, these solutions should have occurred to me. I guess they didn't occur to me because I'm Christian in a non-Christian way.

What ever happened to feeding the hungry and comforting the sick. I don’t remember anywhere in the New Testament where Jesus said feed the hungry unless they refused to get a job. I’m also guessing that Jesus would have found the very idea of the Healthcare Industry being for profit to be the most unchristian thought in the universe.

Another thing; ninety-nine percent of the people I have ever met would rather work and support themselves than ask for a handout. Does the Christian Right actually think people are unemployed because they would rather monitor Drew Carey and Vanna White’s career than go to work?

Most people don’t understand the teachings in the New Testament. When Jesus talked about the Good Samaritan, that was a person from Samaria. Samaritans were heathens; people not respected in Christ’s day by the holy rollers to whom he was preaching. It was shocking in those times in the Middle East that a Samaritan would stop to help a stranger. You might as well believe an atheist would help you out in this day and age.

My understanding is that Jesus didn’t ask for health insurance when he comforted the sick. He didn’t ask people for work cards when he gave them fish and bread to eat. While he said the meek shall inherit the earth, he had more than a few choice words about the rich. In the New Testament, Jesus is supposed to have said it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the gates of heaven. If you believe in heaven, that's pretty powerful stuff.

My question is, does the Christian right read the New Testament? Do they know the stories of Jesus, what he did in his last three years and what he actually believed? I’m not so sure they do. As a matter of fact, I doubt that most Christians have read the New Testament and actually know what Jesus preached according to it. But if they do know, I say Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Civil Civil Rights


I am not a violent person. I have never hit either of my children for anything during their 26 plus years of life. I have never hit any of the gaggle of people who called themselves my wife. It has been over two decades since I hit the dog that lived with me. Even then it was only because I couldn't make him see reason when it came to soiling my floors and the base of my furniture. I try not to be violent.

Yesterday I came home and almost kicked the cat. What saved the cat was that it didn't do anything wrong. However, I was angry and I needed a release, so I yelled at the television newscasters at the top of my lungs. The neighbors probably thought it’s just the hippy next door acting out again. The cat cowered under the bed wondering what it had done to get the fat guy so mad.

So what got me seething? Yesterday the President of the United States gave Robin Roberts an interview where he told the country that his position on gays and lesbians had evolved to the point where he is in favor of enabling them to marry.

Wow. Isn’t that great? He’s finally come around to seeing who people love and how they love them has nothing to do with anyone other than the people they are loving. President Obama has finally evolved to the point where he believes gays and lesbians should have the same rights and freedoms of the heterosexual community. And I’m supposed to fawn over that epiphany like I would a child who just made potty in the porta?  Do you think all that education is finally paying off?

Let me be unequivocally clear about this. Prejudice, chauvinism and bigotry are wrong in all cases. There is never a time when it is permissible to discriminate for the sex of a person, for the color of their skin or for who they love; never. Not once a year. Not once since the time of Christ. Not once in a million years. There are no rights that heterosexuals should have that homosexuals don’t have.

Everyone should know this by now. It's really not such a difficult concept. When I hear the "Leader of the Free World" say publicly, only yesterday, that his opinion evolved to the point where gays and lesbians should be allowed to get married, it makes me wonder why I ever voted for this hockey puck in the first place. Then I remember that my other choice was a rock, so I was stuck between the figurative rock and a hard place. 

If heterosexuals can marry or be united in civil unions or whatever it may be called, so can homosexuals. If two people want to share their lives so that they give each other the rights of property, medical benefits, inheritance and all that goes along with the concept of marriage, the only restriction should be that the two people be human beings. I’m still not comfortable with bestiality but a that's a conversation for another day. My opinion is still evolving.

Why isn’t the religious right yelling about the separation of church and state now? My god was talking to me the other day - between tossing quasars across a nebula - and told me specifically that he thought that all love was good. Imagine that. God told me that love can’t be bad and so, if woman want to love women or men want to love men, or transgenders want to love eunuchs or hermaphrodites, that is great. Love is the most wonderful thing in the universe and nothing should get in the way of love.

Liberal newscasters were grateful to the President for his evolved opinion. They still don’t get it. Chris Matthews, one of the great liberal minds of our time, told his audience that we shouldn't legislate against different kinds of love. ARRRGGGGHHHH!!!

There are not "different kinds of love". Love is love. It’s all the same! It is the degree that you love that makes the difference. It's like saying there are different kinds of height or mass. Distance is distance. Love is love. There are not different kinds of mass just like there are not different kinds of love. There are only things we do differently with the people we love. We take different actions but love is love!

Actions and emotions are two different things. They should not be confused or related because they are not contingent on each other. The emotion of love is the same regardless of who the object of your love is. What a person does to, and for, those they loves is different for everyone. The emotion is the same. People are all different.

Then it gets down to the legalities. If you want to own a business in my country, you have to be fair. You have to hire the person you believe is the most qualified and you can’t fire that person unless they show you that you misjudged their qualifications. You can only lay them off for fiscal reasons.

The cat has made it through another day. Unfortunately, tomorrow I could come home yelling and screaming again. Who knows how the opinion of the leader of the free world will evolve tomorrow.