" ... Where do these thoughts of John Kennedy, his brother Robert and Martin Luther King Jr. come from? All mortal men, surely sinners.
"But in my mind, heroes, just as Jesus is a hero of mine. And to be a hero of mine you have to do one thing."
Mars put up his crooked right pointer finger, the one that had been stomped on. He held it over his head out toward the congregation.
"You have to go and get yourself killed."
He held the finger in the air until it became the focus of the room. Mars meant to be pointing straight up in exclamation, when actually his finger was more of a comma.
"You can't score six touchdowns on one night and be my hero."
Mars spoke loudly, pausing, turning this way and that, using all of his homiletics textbook skills.
"You cannot have twenty-inch biceps and thirty-inch waist and be my hero."
He stopped and estimated three seconds, impatient to keep going.
"You cannot go to work each day and pay your bills and keep your kids in college and your wife happy and play errorless third base for the church softball team and be my hero."
He put his hand down as parenthesis.
"I see these guys who drive their little cars into the lot at the elevator every morning and leave every night. They do this without fail for ten years, twenty years, thirty years. Maybe forty years!
"They drive in each morning at the same time, they leave at the same time. Same route, look the same way before turning, park the car in the same spot at work, same place at home.
"Now, to some people, that image is one of supreme heroism, the loyalty, the work ethic, the steady nature of the man going to work each day, earning his daily bread for his family, that they may prosper and live and grow and also maintain their routines.
"I am weird. I see it as cowardice. I really do, and I know some of you will have trouble with that. That's okay. I see it as immoral, boorish, dull behavior.
"Because you see, during those years that man is going to work, maintaining a certain lifestyle, people around the world are dying, from poverty, from war, what have you.
Funny..wonder what it is about 'Catholic" that wakes some of us up? Guess its the stuff they want to force feed us and make us believe, and then when we question, well, we get no answers.
I questioned from the time I was very young, it made no sense. Even the Adam and Eve thing, seemed weird. Going to church and listen to Latin by strange men in robes....confession, what the hell does a kid have to confess. I had to make stuff up. Now, of course, I see religion as a way to put fear into everyone.......do this or go to hell. Seemed like everything that felt good was wrong. We were supposed to deny all the wonderful human feelings that 'god' gave us for what...made no sense.
Great read, I enjoyed it....and I think many people are starting to question why its ok to go to wars and kill anyone who does not go along with the 'christian' way, steal what ever we want, keep poverty going, deny affordable health care, etc etc.
Poverty, like religion, is a tool by the rich and powerful. It keeps corporations rich, paying low wages, keeps people down, so that we do not have the energy or the will to fight for what is right.
What a sad world, this could have been Heaven. Everything was here. The beauty of the land, the sky, the oceans, animals and birds. Enough beauty and resources to go around.......days filled with joy, love, helping each other, farming, sharing.......wealth for all.....in the form of pure joy!
So, now I do not believe in God because this would not have been allowed to happen in 'Gods' world. Now we are ruled by the most lawless bunch of filth the world has ever seen....and we do not seem to have the will to fight and get it back. Sad Sad Sad.
by
joyce (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 73 comments)
on Thursday, June 14, 2007 at 10:16:03 AM
In your piece I hear echoes of Dylan-esque English songwriter David Gray:
"Maybe it would do me good/If I believed there were a God/Out in the starry firmament./As it is it's just a lie/and I sit here eating up the boredom/On an island of cement."
And of Booker-Prize winning author Yann Martel, in Life of Pi:
"There are always those who take it upon themselves to defend God, as if Ultimate Reality, as if the sustaining frame of existence, were weak and helpless. These people walk by a widow deformed by leprosy begging for a few cents, walk by children dressed in rags living in the street, and they think, "Business as usual". But if they perceive a slight against God, it is a different story. Their faces go red, their chests heave mightily, they sputter angry words. The degree of their indignation is astonishing. Their resolve is frightening. These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside. They should direct their anger at themselves. For evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out. The main battlefied for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart. Meanwhile, the lot of widows and homeless children is very hard, and it is to their defense, and not God's, that the self-righteous should rush"
by
Todd Huffman, M.D. (80 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 109 comments)
on Thursday, June 14, 2007 at 10:36:59 AM
I too was raised Catholic, so your story is a familiar one. The main thing I remember is that when I was 15 or so, a priest informed me that if I didn't stop masturbating, I'd have to spend eternity in Hell.
So I was forced to give it up...
by
Daniel Geery (26 articles, 80 quicklinks, 125 diaries, 774 comments)
on Thursday, June 14, 2007 at 2:12:16 PM
The story of Adam and Eve makes perfect sense, if you read it right. I will explain in my article "What the Bible Tells Me: Adam Was a Slacker, Eve Got a Bum Rap and Darwin Was Correct" should I decide to post it on OpEdNews.
Also "Christ died for our sins" makes perfect sense, if you also read that correctly. That explanation will also be presented in a yet-to-be written article intended for OpEdNews. Just have patience.
by
tabonsell (29 articles, 0 quicklinks, 24 diaries, 269 comments)
on Thursday, June 14, 2007 at 5:28:17 PM
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