Recently as I proposed acting as a presidential candidate to protest the current state of politics in America, one of my friends who reads my words suggested I should not discuss my beliefs regarding religion.
His utterly logical reason was that I would alienate at least half of my original readers by discussing the subject, since half of them have already expressed the opinion that my beliefs have damned me to everlasting Hellfire.
He suggested those opposed to my beliefs might, however, still read my political thoughts if I left out my beliefs regarding the source of the universe, humans, and our eventual last act of passing onto the great beyond.
Since it appears that a protest candidacy by a common citizen will never be taken seriously by the media, the corporate world, the already elected politicians, or other citizens, I have reconsidered his advice.
Having to temper my thoughts, particularly regarding our existence inside this gigantic hunk of eternal infinite space we all inhabit, just doesn’t sit well with me. Being nakedly truthful about my perception of reality is the goal of my writing.
It is contrarily, the near opposite of what constitutes the goal of a politician. I simply do not feel comfortable denying what I believe to be reality to assume, even for a literary purpose, that is is OK for me to deny my beliefs.
Which brings me to Christmas. Because that is when 90% of all Americans celebrate the life of Christ as God – the ideal they focus on as how they should like to conduct themselves in life and how they would like to actually be.
It has always troubled me that my fellow humans professing this belief have such a hard time living it. If they believe as they say they do, I wonder why it is so difficult for them to follow through? After all, they have their God on their side helping them.
It seems to me that being able to be forgiven endlessly for any and all of their “sins,” defeats their purpose. It lets them off the hook. It allows them to not have to meet the professed responsibility of their beliefs.
I understand their wish to be better persons and to propose that a God exists. It is a noble concept. But the questions remains: why do they find it so difficult to act upon?
Why today, for example, do not all preachers and their congregations protest in a nationally-organized movement for their government to help save all of the millions of displaced, homeless, and often literally starving refugees of the world?
Believers continue to go along with the profit-making business of the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction, as they also tithe and donate to their churches.Does not their God actually demand they do more?
If they were all homeless refugees, would they not want – and even expect – the believers to be doing unto them as they would wish to be done unto if the believers were the refugees?
This is not a contentious question. It is an existential one. Are not all the believers as damned to Hellfire as they say I am, since they only pay lip service to their beliefs? I know I am asking a difficult question, I understand.
Nonetheless, as Christmas approaches, I know what present I’d like to find under a tree somewhere. I want all of them to buckle down, get organized, and persuade all of their fellow believers worldwide to create a planetary political movement.
I want their movement to demand that their politicians stop the profit-making aspect of Defense, for example, and demand that it – as a first step – be made a non profit endeavor. And in America, with top salaries for top management of $50,000: the national average income. Let’s see who then stays in the business.
I’d also like the believers to stop throwing away half the food they buy while it is still edible, and – instead – organize through their churches to have it shipped worldwide to all the starving children and their parents: the victims of the wars we all support with our taxes.
When that happens, I’ll begin to believe as do 90% of my fellow citizens. Well, I’ve tossed out the idea. Now it’s their job to make it happen. Merry Christmas to all.
