The post below somehow neglects to mention that the world He created had become completely immoral. Genesis 6:5 states that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil all the time. How do you handle people when every inclination of their thoughts is pure evil? Today the equivalent is jail for life or the death penalty for the murderer and rapist. Does that mean that our society commits an “abortion” every time we put that child rapist to death or the mass murderer of military soldiers on our own soil to death? God had the same situation regarding the flood, only with an entire society; an evil and violence so large that we cannot comprehend. There is a point where people have turned from God so long and so completely, mock His Word and His Way, and disregard the beauty of His commandments- this evil is irreversible and punishment is the only answer. While of course it is truly politically incorrect, can we ponder for a second the thought of the ultimate punishment, eternally burning. What if God’s Word and all those crazy Christians are right?

There also is Noah and his family in this story that you somehow ignore. Noah was a righteous man, blameless and he walked with God. Very simply – God will reward obedience to His Word.

You also neglect to mention that Genesis 6:6 says “The Lord was grieved …and his heart was filled with pain.” Yes, just like fathers and mothers today, disobedient children cause pain and grief, both to themselves and those who love them. Children who reject the right and wrong that God teaches suffer the consequences of their actions.

How do you not tell the end of the story? God promises a beautiful covenant symbolized by the rainbow. After Noah thanked God when they found dry land, God promised that never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. He set the rainbow in the sky to remind everyone of this covenant to uphold life and goodness.

It always amazes me, how some people can spin a story. Let’s write to a Muslim audience regarding Allah in the same tone as the second “abortion” story. Seems to me the writer would then be considered an infidel

Here’s a theory that I would like to posit to the conservatives that believe the Bible should dictate our national policies:  God (the Christian-God, The Old AND New Testament Guy, Captain Big Beard) is Pro-Choice.  There are two cases in the Bible that bring me to this conclusion. 

Planned Parenthood clinic?!

Case #1 Old Testament proof:  The Great Flood.  Once upon a time, God created life.  At first he embraced the ideal of being a father, then he began to realize how ungrateful children can be, how they can ruin everything you own, how they can destroy your social life.  Then, roughly 5000 years ago, God had second thoughts about being a father.  And, in one of the latest of late-term abortions, God ended the life he created.

 

And you thought dilatation & evacuation was cruel.

Case #2 New Testament:  Jesus… pretty obvious here.  Once again, God decides to be a father; this time having only one Child rather than a litter of a few million people.  And in the Greatest Dick Move of All Time:  He conceived Jesus for the sole purpose of aborting Him!!!  Say what you will about it being necessary for the “Harrowing of Hell,” but keep in mind that using the term “necessary” puts a statute of limitations on God.  So after allowing his kid to wander the world for some ~33 years, God said “Ok Son, you have to go.”  Like a modern-day death row warden, He allows him a last meal (bread and wine, good choice).  Jesus then pleads for His life to His Father on more than one occasion, each time saying “Your will be done.”  And His will was carried out.  No more responsibilities of a child born out-of-wedlock (a post for a different day). 

God – 2, Pro Life Action League – 0

I find the most beautiful thing in the world to be a sunset.  The intense red, orange, and purple hues make for a beautiful picture. I often catch myself wondering how the sky could change so drastically from baby blue, to transforming into this striking array of colors. Seeing God’s creation of a sunset seems to make all of my problems disappear for a minute. I feel comforted when in the presence of a sunset; its beauty is overpowering. How could something like this just have spontaneously happened? There is so much detail in this world that I find it hard to believe that a big bang happened and suddenly molecules came together and created the Earth. Just like someone who does not believe in creation would have a hard time believing that God created the universe in seven days. I look at the sunset and think, no way, there is definitely something greater that has created all of this. The sun disappearing below the horizon as a result of the Earth’s rotation did not just spontaneously happen; God has meticulously configured the Earth to function in this manner. Sunsets are a reminder to me that there is something up there, keeping watch over me, which is comforting. He has bigger plans for me, and all my stress and worries disappear with that thought. The desktop on my laptop is this picture of the sunset, which I took 3 years ago in Florida. Every time I power up my laptop, this picture pops up. It never fails to put a smile on my face. How could someone not like a sunset?

I realize that I have been singling out Christianity so far; this hasn’t been my intention.  So I’m going to change gears for a moment.  I just realized that the Church of England was still in existence.  What?!  I have absolutely nothing nice to say about the Anglican Faith… so I’m going to let this guy do it for me.  (by the way he’s a transvestite, which makes it a lot funnier)

I woke this morning to some horrible news.  Apparently Chris Christie has won the governorship of New Jersey.  I realize that incumbant John Corzine did a masterful job of destroying New Jersey’s budget over the last 4+ years.  But Christie?!  Really?!  I just don’t understand how a progressive, liberal state such as Jersey could elect someone as conservative as him.  This man is on record as saying he makes his decisions based on his faith.  He has said that he will veto any pro-choice, stem-cell research, or same-sex marriage proposals that come across his desk.  I’m just very disheartened that my state’s moral decisions for the next 4 years have already been determined by a book written before our country was even founded.  To me it would make as much sense to elect someone who would run our state around the edicts of Scientology or the Greco-Roman Pantheon.

 

During the World Series games I have also noticed gestures being made to God. Not bad gestures, but gestures entailing that the athlete was thanking Him for something. Ryan Howard is one player I noticed who does this gesture a lot. After he gets a homerun, he closes both fists, points his index finger to the sky, looks up, and kisses his fists. This is Ryan thanking God, or any higher being, for giving his skills to accomplish that homerun. Even if Ryan is not a Christian, he is implying that he did not accomplish this all on his own. By this gesture, he is also acknowledging that there is a higher being up there (or somewhere) who has given him his good health in order to be able to stand at the plate, look the pitcher in the eye, and smack that ball out of the ballpark. This goes into creationism – that God or a “higher being” has created him to function and that Howard is fortunate enough to function and do those great things.

God has created Ryan Howard with amazing gifts. He has 45 homeruns and 141 RBIs this year. Howard is telling his fans, and everyone who is watching him play that this is not all his doing. God has a lot to do with sports. There is no divine intervention or sacrificing involved, which today Christians do not participate in anyway, so unless the sport is being played back in Old Testament times …

When an athlete thanks God for a victory, they are simply giving thanks and rejoicing in their accomplishment. God is omniscient and omnipotent, and he does know who is going to win the game even before they step on the field. God does favor those who keep his Word and obey Him, so in those terms, He does choose “sides”. This goes into free will, which every person was created with. Without free will, we would all be robots. We have free will in order to make our own decisions, whether it be to hit a homerun, or hit your dog because you’re angry.

Philippians 4:4-7 says, “ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Last night was the opening game of the World Series.  Late in the game, the camera panned the crowd and I noticed a woman slightly rocking with her hands folded in prayer.  I can’t help but wonder:  What on Earth could she have been asking for?”

Pele 3:16 Jesus is my goalkeeper, I shall not want

What does God have to with sports?  Nothing!  He has nothing to do with it.  Even if you could invoke divine intervention into sports, wouldn’t there have to be some sacrifice involved?  I mean hardcore, Old Testament sacrifices… somewhere between prized calf or first-borne son. 

Even going the other way, when a person thanks God for carrying his team to victory, what does that say about the other team?  (HERETICS! PAGANS! )  Really?!  By saying that, the athlete is implying that God favors his team over the other; that God actually chooses sides.  What?!  Does that make sense to anyone?

If you’re familiar with either Judaism, Christianity, and/or Islam, then you likely have, at least, a general knowledge of the Ten Commandments. But rather than going through all of them. I’d like to look at the first one:

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

The first commandment suggests two things to me: 1. God can hold a grudge for a very long time. 2. Were the Hebrews polytheistic?

Not Pictured: The Holy Trinity

Just to focus on the first part of that “…you shall have no other gods before me.” BEFORE ME?!?! As in you may worship others, but give Me Mine first? Judaism, and thereby Christianity and Islam, has always been regarded as a monotheistic religion. But is that accurate? God later admits to being jealous. Jealous of what? Other deities?

Even the geography of the Jewish people supports this. They are often called “a nation without a country,” but their origins seem centralized to Mesopotamia surrounded by polytheistic city-states (Sumeria, Akkad, Babylon). During their enslavement, they were relocated to Egypt, exposed to the North-African pantheon. According to scripture, the commandments were given to Moses on Mount Sinai during the Exodus from Egypt. And that first commandment of “no gods before me” starts to make sense.

Ten Commandments: First Edition

Of course the Jewish religion began polytheistic. The geography backs it, it’s even there in black and white (or granite depending on which edition of the Commandments you get your hands on). The question I can’t answer is: when did the concept of Judaic polytheism get dropped? Skipping ahead to the beginnings of Christianity, the Roman occupation of Jerusalem, and all of Israel, would have nurtured Judeo-Christian polytheistic ideals.

My advocating this may be construed as sacrilegious, but I’m not endorsing anything the God of Abraham didn’t suggest first.

UPDATE: I just came across this verse from the King James Bible occurring just after Adam ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 3:22 “And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.”  “become one of us” ?? I feel like my point must have already been made.

To be honest, I don’t know who Sister Helen or Elaine Pagels is, but I know that everyone has a worldview. A worldview is a person’s basis of what they think and what they believe, which makes someone who they are. This worldview comes out in people’s actions and speech. Typical worldviews can be based on Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Satanism, Agnostic beliefs, or any other religion/belief system. Even if you claim to not have a belief system, your beliefs of “right” and “wrong” are still shaped by something. Complete separation of church (belief system) and state will be impossible as long as elected officials are people.

According to the First Amendment of the Constitution, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….” There are certain things taking place in today’s society that could be viewed as prohibiting Christian’s free exercise of religion. Praying is now prohibited in the public school system, removing the Ten Commandments from judiciary walls, when our laws were founded on them, and evolution being taught as fact instead of theory. The removal of prayer and the commandments are actions that have restricted people’s free exercise of their worldview.

This seems wrong...

“I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Most Americans have heard this pledge at some point in history. It is the Presidential Oath, recited by every president during his inauguration since George Washington. The oath has never changed. And while every president has kept that promise “to the best of his ability,” never have two presidents had identical interpretations of the Constitution.

Religion is a division of society wholly different from politics. The majority of religiously devoted people in this world head to their jobs everyday with expectations of performing “to the best of their ability” in accordance to whomever their deity is. Few, but repentant, are those that must execute their job “to the best of their ability” in contradiction to the decree of their god. The presidency is one of those occupations.

In an essay entitled “Executions Are Too Costly – Morally,” Sister Helen Prejean, of the Order of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille, contends that mixing religion with politics is a no-win situation. She acknowledges that affairs of the state are a perversion of faith and that religion cannot be the center for rule of law:
“But then a tragic diversion happened […] the Emperor Constantine entered the Christian church […] Christian bishops, once targets for arrest, torture, and execution, now received tax exemption, gifts from the imperial treasury, prestige, and even influence at court; the churches gained new wealth, power and prominence. […] The exercise of power practiced by Christians in alliance with the Roman Empire […] soon bore no resemblance to the purely moral persuasion that Jesus had taught. (600)
While Sister Helen’s argument is ultimately against the death penalty, citing moral reasons and public embarrassment, she reminds us that the Bible cannot be taken at face value in modern times. Prejean even uses biblical references to illustrate that religion and politics should not mix. “And we should note the numerous other crimes for which the Bible prescribes death as punishment: ‘contempt of parents, profaning the Sabbath, adultery, incest, and prostitution’” (599).

Sister Helen is precise in her arguments against the literal application of the Bible in modern times and the overall ideal that state cannot rely on church dogma. I typically have a problem taking religious figures seriously, but Helen does one thing to win me over. She writes in paragraph 12 of her essay, “[…] which Elaine Pagels has deftly explored in her book Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: in 313 C.E.” (600) She endears herself to me with that one subtle move. Using “C.E.” instead of “A.D.” shows that it is not her desire to push her religion on anyone and that she is willing to compromise for the sake of an argument.

While Sister Helen gives a graceful argument against the imposition of religion in politics, others are much more adamant. The Americans United is a religious group anchored in Washington D.C. that focus on the importance of church-state separation in order to safeguard religious freedom. In a recent post on the organizations official website, Americans United’s executive director Rev. Barry W. Lynn says:

The Schaivo tragedy was seized upon by fundamentalists and their political allies in a bid to force their narrow moral code on everyone. Religious Right leaders want to stack the judiciary with right-wing ideologues. Then there will be no one to stand in their way when they intrude into the most personal decisions of our lives. (1)
Americans United tries to expose Senate Majority leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) as being “beholden to the Religious Right’s agenda and promised to confirm right-wing judges.” (”Schiavo Tragedy” 1) Lynn further attacks religious fundamentalists, stating, “They believe they have a divine mandate to force everyone to follow their dictates.” (”Schiavo Tragedy” 1) He concludes with a call to arms, demanding that Americans “[…] see to it that the Religious Right does not succeed.” (”Schiavo Tragedy” 1)

Reverend Lynn touches on a very interesting subject when he reminds us that these fundamentalists feel “they have a divine mandate.” These religious officials feel they speak on behalf of their deity. It’s a scary thought that these are the people we elect into office. Americans United is similar to Sister Helen Prejean in that they are religiously affiliated but claim their beliefs don’t belong in the world of politics.

If you need more proof that these zealots need to be kept out of government, look no farther than the Bible. There are other crimes not mentioned earlier that are punishable by death. In the case of bestiality, the man must be put to death, as well as the animal. Theft and rape are also punishable by death in the Bible. These rules apply to everyone except the “righteous.” In the case of history, the “righteous” are those representing the church. The clergy have been notorious throughout time for committing most of those crimes, but they go unscathed because it is done in the name of “God.” People of this country must be careful of whom they vote. Likewise, officials must be attentive of the promises they make. When George W. Bush took office, he placed his hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution; not the other way around.