Something's Wrong! The Religious Right!!

Christmas 2007 was a resounding success; as Christmases always are for me. It’s the season to be jolly and to open the heart to those less fortunate and help the poor and needy. I have always felt more at peace at Christmas than at any other time of the year. .

I have a “live and let live” mind-set towards my fellow human beings. I accept the fact that we all have slightly different beliefs along with a value system based on those beliefs but tailored, if you will, over time to more closely conform to our personal understanding of what is right and wrong. You Thumpers reading this, while sitting atop your high horse, are saying “my beliefs are solely based on the Bible which my preacher told me was the word of God!” Well get down off your horse, Holy Roller, and chew on this; the Bible has more changes than a Cher concert! There are books left out of the New Testament (the gospels of Mary Magdalene and James to name two) because they didn’t support the views of the religious leaders of the time. The manipulation of the books and writings of the Bible to meet one’s personal beliefs has been done by every faith for centuries. We all have formed our personal beliefs over time and have changed them as we live and interact with others.

The foundation of our value system was set at an early age by our parents, our family and our early life experiences. Later when we attended high school and college and then began our careers, we came into contact with people and situations that further influenced us in new and different ways that caused us to modify our values as we gained new insight and appreciation of different cultures, customs and beliefs. We began to embrace difference in order to understand ourselves and our relationships with our friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc. It is how we become rational adults and productive members of society. It is also how we will begin to break the cycle of fear, prejudice and mis-understanding of people who are different from us. It will help us to stop the use of stereotypes to define a group of people and instead take the time to get to know them and find out what they are really like.

The younger generation has far fewer hang-ups toward people different from them. They seem to get to know a person before they judge them – good or bad. This is something the Religious Right does not do well, if they do it at all. They fear and hate anyone or anything that is different from them. They accept only like minded bigots that hold the same religious beliefs and who have an unyielding need to be right. This idea of being totally right makes dialog and discourse impossible along with the possibility of achieving understanding and/or acceptance that might result from a sharing of ideas.

Members of the Christian Religious Right blame much of the world’s troubles on Muslim extremists who cruelly impose their religious beliefs upon moderate Muslims by means of intimidation and torture. The Christians claim that these Muslim extremists are intolerant of other’s beliefs and should be made to stop their reign of terror. DUH!! It’s sad but the Christian extremists see the splinter all too easily in the eye of the Muslim extremist, e.g. the Taliban and Al Qaeda, but fail to see the plank in their own eye in connection with their own self-serving, harsh and unbending beliefs and practices.

The Christian extremists in America don’t use torture (yet) to impose their beliefs on other Americans but they certainly use intimidation. Just look how the Republican candidates jerk like puppets on strings when the Religious Right leaders begin to question the candidate’s moral fiber and willingness to further the right wing agenda. The current separation of church and state is tentative at best and will be non existent in the near future should the Religious Right gain much more control over our government.

You may be asking yourself why I have written so much on this topic. It is because to relinquish the separation of church and state will be to seriously weaken, if not destroy, the Constitution. As the Constitution goes, so goes America. If it remains strong and the ideals it contains remain viable, America will remain a great nation. If the Constitution is weakened so as to be useless, America will cease to be the land of the free and the great leader of the free world that it once was.

The leaders of the Religious Right do not care about America, morality, salvation or doing Jesus’ work. They are interested in keeping and increasing their power and the vast sums of money that their ministries supply them. Every right wing religious leader is a wealthy man or woman who lives in luxury that we can only dream of. They live in mansions, drive luxury cars, wear expensive jewelry and tailored clothing and live a life of wealth and pleasure, and do so with donations from their church members and from TV and radio solicitations. Hell, one of the leaders (the Pope) has his own country, lives in a palace and rules a kingdom.

Come on, people, look at these “leaders” and recognize them for what they are. They are charlatans who are interested in your money and who will do despicable things to get it. Take a critical look at who you are following and where they are taking you. They unashamedly use the fear of God to bully and trick their followers into unquestionably believing the words of their leaders. Then they ask for their followers to give what money they can – even sacrificing so that they can give more. They convince the congregation that the more money they give, the more God loves them and will reward them. The next time your leader asks this of you, ask this of him “what are you sacrificing, reverend? Your luxury car, your Rolex watch or perhaps you could sell the mansion and live in a moderate house like the rest of us?”

All I am asking is that you think about what you are doing and question your beliefs that you hold to be infallible and the only ones that are correct. Think seriously, evaluate and allow yourself to begin to open your mind to the possibility that you are not the only true believers and that there is something to be gained in learning and listening to other dwellers on the planet. You just might be a happier, more fulfilled person for doing it. Good luck and God Bless.