It's so easy to be a fake Christian, and we are seeing that in technicolor now. I used to be a Christian, and I admit to being a hypocrite within my church. I was a cafeteria Catholic, choosing only the things that suited me. I feel so much more aligned now that I have given up organized religion altogether.
I don't need a religion to dictate what is right and wrong. Most people do just fine without it. If they're going to be despicable bigots, at least keep God out of the equation.
Oh that's a hot button. Call me names, but do not ever call me a Christian. My sophomore year in high school involved writing a very long 'thesis' on the world's religions, assigned to me by the Jesuit who taught the religion class I was obliged to take as part of the curriculum at the Catholic high school I attended. Took me into the summer to complete it. And it taught me that, with all the death and destruction caused by their differences, organized religions have been the bane of mankind. All the world's religions have one fatal flaw: the idea of the 'other'. I'm with Billy Joel: I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints.
Yup. That was one of the reasons I fled organized religion. Too much killing of the other.
This "recovering Protestant" reminds us that no one has ever died in the name of The Flying Spaghetti Monster. There is no dogma. The food and drink are great. Only one requirement: ya gotta be nice.
Murray was a hero to me in my early youth. She was an important force in the progress away from state sponsored superstition. But I also found her comments about the Holocaust disturbing and unnecessary.
Since then I have shifted from adamant atheism to always agnostic. I just don't think we have any basis - not the knowledge or the intellect - to know for sure about anything spiritual. JMO.
"The truth is out there", right? But will we have the capacity to recognize it?
Reminds me of Rev. Ike: “You can’t lose with the stuff I use.” Glory, Glory, Hallelujah.”
But the thing is, the fleecers don’t get very far on the journey to the promised land and quite a few end up in prison, which I believe will be Donnie 2-shoes’s destiny in the end, God willing and the creek don’t rise!
Really well done Bill, and one more thing to hold the Trumpistas accountable for. I'm no longer part of a religious organization, too many of them having succumbed to the frailties that all of humanity is subject to. People like White-Cain, Trump, Jerry Falwell and others find it easy and convenient to identify as "Christian" but, as the Bible they claim as the fount and source of all of their moral goodness says, "by their works you will know them" and they will, as all of us will, face a greater Judge than any present in this world. I'm not sure that's a conversation I'd want to witness.
Thank you, Bill for standing up for the First Amendment. There was a reason that the first two phrases of the First Amendment first being that the Government cannot establish a religion and the second phrase cannot interfere with religious practice. The first ten Amendments have long been referred to as the Bill of Rights (meaning the protection of ALL CITIZENS) It irritates me to no end that certain States have instituted the reading of "the bible" (which I assume refers to the King James version of the bible) but not the reading of the Constitution of the United States, which is far more pertinent to the Country and its children at large
It's so easy to be a fake Christian, and we are seeing that in technicolor now. I used to be a Christian, and I admit to being a hypocrite within my church. I was a cafeteria Catholic, choosing only the things that suited me. I feel so much more aligned now that I have given up organized religion altogether.
I don't need a religion to dictate what is right and wrong. Most people do just fine without it. If they're going to be despicable bigots, at least keep God out of the equation.
Oh that's a hot button. Call me names, but do not ever call me a Christian. My sophomore year in high school involved writing a very long 'thesis' on the world's religions, assigned to me by the Jesuit who taught the religion class I was obliged to take as part of the curriculum at the Catholic high school I attended. Took me into the summer to complete it. And it taught me that, with all the death and destruction caused by their differences, organized religions have been the bane of mankind. All the world's religions have one fatal flaw: the idea of the 'other'. I'm with Billy Joel: I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints.
Yup. That was one of the reasons I fled organized religion. Too much killing of the other.
This "recovering Protestant" reminds us that no one has ever died in the name of The Flying Spaghetti Monster. There is no dogma. The food and drink are great. Only one requirement: ya gotta be nice.
Excellent, thanks.
Many decades have passed since Madalyn Murray O’Hair was in the news.
Both political parties have rejected secular reasoning in favor of belief; republicans are beyond salvation, pun intended…ha.
No one could be elected in the USA that openly spoke without reference to a supreme god.
That is part of our mental disease. Mexican voters are apparently more enlightened than we.
Thanks for this essay, Bill
Murray was a hero to me in my early youth. She was an important force in the progress away from state sponsored superstition. But I also found her comments about the Holocaust disturbing and unnecessary.
Since then I have shifted from adamant atheism to always agnostic. I just don't think we have any basis - not the knowledge or the intellect - to know for sure about anything spiritual. JMO.
"The truth is out there", right? But will we have the capacity to recognize it?
Truth as an observation seems best with measured data. Neil deGrasse Tyson is a current hero.
Regarding Murray, I support her drive for removing the tax free status of religious businesses.
I wasn’t aware of the Holocaust silliness
Well-said!
Great post, Bill! I always think that if African Americans could dig their way out of the hole they were forced to live in, we too can defeat Trump.
Reminds me of Rev. Ike: “You can’t lose with the stuff I use.” Glory, Glory, Hallelujah.”
But the thing is, the fleecers don’t get very far on the journey to the promised land and quite a few end up in prison, which I believe will be Donnie 2-shoes’s destiny in the end, God willing and the creek don’t rise!
Really well done Bill, and one more thing to hold the Trumpistas accountable for. I'm no longer part of a religious organization, too many of them having succumbed to the frailties that all of humanity is subject to. People like White-Cain, Trump, Jerry Falwell and others find it easy and convenient to identify as "Christian" but, as the Bible they claim as the fount and source of all of their moral goodness says, "by their works you will know them" and they will, as all of us will, face a greater Judge than any present in this world. I'm not sure that's a conversation I'd want to witness.
Thank you, Bill for standing up for the First Amendment. There was a reason that the first two phrases of the First Amendment first being that the Government cannot establish a religion and the second phrase cannot interfere with religious practice. The first ten Amendments have long been referred to as the Bill of Rights (meaning the protection of ALL CITIZENS) It irritates me to no end that certain States have instituted the reading of "the bible" (which I assume refers to the King James version of the bible) but not the reading of the Constitution of the United States, which is far more pertinent to the Country and its children at large
Thanks for the Richie Havens memory. Got a few of those. Good coffee chat.
Soon I hope.
you have hit a nerve!