This entry will probably come out as rambling gibberish but I have to try. A lot of people seem to be babbling about putting God and Jesus “back” into our government. First, last I looked, one of our country’s founding principles is something called separation of church and state. Roight? So how can we put something “back” that isn’t there in the first place?

As I have said before, I am not religious although I had something of a religious upbringing. Sunday School and sometimes church, which I struggled to sit through. My parents were not religious either but for various reasons we participated. And there were lots of good things! Kind Sunday School teachers. Singing hymns with gorgeous pipe organ accompaniment. Stained glass windows. The xmas eve candlelight service with all its pageantry. I even played Mary one year. Long boring sermons were not my fave.

I am not an atheist. I simply have no idea how the universe (as we call it) works. I don’t think anybody does. Is there one omniscient entity who runs all this stuff? Who knows?

I’m thinking about this partly because I know that tomorrow my facebook feed will be filled with “He is risen!” If people need to believe in a god, that’s okay. It’s pretty scary sometimes thinking (like I do) about how alone we are in an unfathomably large universe. Why are we here? Seeking comfort in a religious belief system is a pretty natural way for earthlings to try and find meaning in the unknown.

But. When I was going to Sunday School and learning about Jesus (who in my opinion may or may not have been a real person but I highly doubt was a *divine* entity), we learned about his kindness, especially toward people who were among the less fortunate members of society.

What I am feeling in US politics is a lot of hatred. Powerful people are name-calling and making fun of others: appearance, poverty, disabilities, you name it. And they are invoking God and Jesus. This is not a new phenomenon but I believe it escalated in the mid-2010s (you know when). I don’t think the Jesus I was taught about would approve. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. You don’t have to participate in an organized religion to live by the golden rule. I am far from perfect but I constantly try to improve.

I believe organized religion and those who participate in it can be of great good and many people treat others with kindness and compassion. But there are some evil influences afoot. In my opinion, the loudest voices belong to those *least* likely to care anything about Jesus. I’m sure I’m largely “preaching to the choir” but resist them resist them resist them! They are invoking Jesus to amass money and power for themselves, not to help others. Unfortunately, their “church” has a lot of followers.

The title is a real song (insert desired bank name). I learned it from the same person who taught me another loverly little ditty: “Seven old ladies were locked in a lavatory. They were in there from Monday through Saturday.” That’s all I know of it although I bet it’s google-able. We’ll just call these little ditties “Pooh songs” 😉

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 30th, 2024 at 5:32 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.