Seriously Random Thoughts

After reading a column condemning gays and gay marriage because the Bible clearly states God's opposition to them and their lifestyles, I remembered when I was young in the 1960s and the Bible believers of that era pointed out that the Holy Book clearly indicated that White men were superior to Black men and to all women. The Bible was very clear on this they would tell me. They never explained how the Bible, which had no White men in it (well, there were some Mediterraneans, but most were Semitic and nobody was Anglo-European Caucasian), could so readily come to this conclusion.

Of course their gay-hating successors also have not explained how Jesus, who never said anything about homosexuality, was quite clear about God's frowning on the accumulation of wealth, especially at the expense of the poor, the elderly and the physically infirm. Yet, these same Bible-believing conservatives act as if Christ had opposed the capital gains tax in the Sermon on the Mount, and had castigated anyone who dared help the poor if they didn't verify the indigent's absolute physical inability to get a job first.

Actually, these conservatives don't really look to Jesus for support of their positions. They are more Ten Commandments Christians - eye for an eye, etc. Although only 3 of the Commandments - which supposedly are the basis of our Constitution and laws - actually relate to actual laws (and these 3: don't kill, don't steal and don't lie were common to almost all early civilizations even ones that pre-dated the Israelites).

For me, the culmination of all of these distortions of the Scripture and the selective usage of a small number of verses to justify their hypocrisy and bigotry were what turned me off to organized religion. I have studied many different religious beliefs and it appears to me that the heart of all of them includes the following:

Be good to your fellow man

Help the unfortunate

Don't do things that will hurt your mental, physical and spiritual growth

The things that make the religions different are how they implement these core values, who gets to decide the rules for the implementation of these values and the ultimate decision of who actually receives the compassion, assistance and support that are implicit in these values.

That is why I can never believe that we are one nation under God. We have too many differing versions of just who God is. I know the Southern Baptist God is not at all like the Amish God. The liberal Catholic God is vastly different from the conservative Catholic God. And the fact that there are several thousand different religious denominations in this country fully demonstrates that there is no one God we all consider ourselves under.

This also struck me as I read about Sarah Palin's latest scheme to ride around the country and learn about what built this nation and get fired up about it. She wants to see firsthand our "diverse cultures" in this "one nation under God," as if this oxymoronic statement neatly encapsulates all of the "real Americans" into her vision for this country. Like Newt's protestations against the transformation of this country into "a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American," you have to wonder if conservatives are really this stupid or, like the AT&T commercial, they want you to understand that it is easier if you just don't think about what they are saying. Simply accept the rightness of their position or you will be labeled a bleeding heart, community organizing, socialistic, elitist, liberal who wants to destroy this country by not turning it over to the ultra rich and the corporate juggernauts. For these are truly God's chosen people - and preferred money changers.