For along time now, my observation about people invoking God was a means of granting themselves permission to carry out whatever act they themselves might deem questionable and do it with perfect impunity.
As I listen to the Republican “presidential” candidates, (doing so with a filter for all the vitriol that lace their words) it seems a damn shame that many of these folks cannot simply admit that they are responsible for their own words and deeds, and not under the direction of some divine being or revelation (or campaign manager). Don’t get me wrong, I believe that we all have a connection to TUG, whatever it ultimately is, but to assert that one’s views are justified by the Almighty is like a 5-year-old on the playground saying that “johnny made me do it.” The childishness and lack of personal accountability, which many of these neo-Randians (referring to Ayn Rand) say they hold in highest esteem and venerate as a principle of their party and to each of them a way of being; would be laughable if it weren’t so deplorably practiced.
What is a polite way of saying hypocrite? Hmmm? I guess there is none. Hypocrisy is the right term for a person whose words and actions (or obvious effects of their policy actions) do not align. In the case of almost all of them, this is how it looks.
“Well that’s just politics!” I hear many a Conservative Republican say, turning a blind eye towards the whole disheartening affair. Democrats too, are often just as guilty using exaggeration and hyperbole for their form of hypocrisy; so I am not picking on religious conservative of one political viewpoint or party. Seldom can I recall however, or see in print, any Democrat use God as a shield. That might be the only thing that is different between the two groups. Acknowledgement of personal faith, like Barack Obama does or Jimmy Carter did, yes; but that is a whole lot different from the stretched blanket of self-granted immunity I hear in religious Republicans.
So I had to ask myself, as a Spiritual Being on a Human Path, where do I defer or outright employ some sort of revelatory statement to justify an actions that I am otherwise uncomfortable with? Granted, some discomfort arises because I might be exceeding a social protocol that I consider nonsense of outright unethical but still it holds sway with social disapproval or disdain. Those seem somewhat obvious to me, but not always. It is me/I that inwardly wrestles with the courage to risk. Even a risk that is not considered unsavory but is far beyond my ethical comfort zone. I am talking about granting myself the permission to act on MY own authority and not shove the responsibility for it under the doormat of an omnipotent God.
Thus, this blog. In case it is not abundantly clear let me make the statement that I am not a theist (religion following person) or necessarily a deist (a person who believes God is a “being”) but rather a Universalist who believes that whatever God (as a placeholder of unfathomable dimensions) is, that there is something there and far greater in scope and comprehension than my little mind can reasonably define, let alone understand. The individual human right to hold a sacred center, however defined, is what I attest, declare, and support. If that comes through the doorway of a religious doctrine then fine, it it their right to have it. But also, in my estimation, that no one has the right to impose their views, or more specifically actions justified by those views which seek to limit that right for others.
Calling the United States a “Christian Nation” and saying that the Founding Fathers actually intended it that way is a rewrite of history. If we were to cast off the US Constitution’s first amendment guaranteeing freedom to worship, or worse, violate the Constitution Anti-Establishment Clause preventing the formation of a state religion, we be putting ourselves into theocracy, not democracy. Disregarding the fact that one of the major theocratic regimes in the world is Iran, do we only hate them because they worship Allah, instead?
What theocracies do is give permission to exclude, persecute, discriminate and hate all under the ubiquitous rubric called God. All I can say is, “Oh Jesus, do we have to act so stupidly?”
Thanks for coming by. I look forward to your comments.
Or, send me an email –