Pat Robertson, I wish you could have met my grandfather. A real Christian.

[proteus_lives]

If you asked me to picture a Christian, a picture of my mother's father would immediately pop into my head. He was a tall, birdy man filled with quiet strength. The foundation of that strength was his faith. He grew up during the Great Depression and at different times he didn't have food, warmth or money but he always had his faith.

He worked hard and lived right. He found his way to college, working his way through as a waiter and stock-boy. Studying engineering on his breaks and at night. He lived in a boarding-house where he encountered foreign students. These friendships filled with a love for different cultures and far-off places. The day after the Pearl Harbor attack he put away his books and joined the Navy. He spent the war years as a radioman on a carrier in the Pacific. He was steady with his job, family and life because nothing scared him after watching burning Zeros aim themselves at his ship.

He came home from the war, finished school and went to work with an oil company. He lived in Iran when it was Persia and acquired a life-long fascination with Islam and Judaism. He returned to his hometown at the request of his wife and opened a hardware store. He spent 40 years there. He ran the type of business that is mostly American myth now. If you bought a cabinet set, he throw in a few boxes of nails and screws no charge. He turned 1/3 of the place into a knick-knack/art supply store that my grandmother ran. He would fix kids bicycles for them and he let people run up their tabs.

He was a rock at his church. He was a charity-santa, a fund-raiser, a handy-man and gardener. He's the reason I was never scared of cemeteries. For decades he mowed and cared for the church's cemetery. He had a riding mower for that. He loved that fucking thing. In the warm months he would ride the beast from his house to the church. When I was little he would sit me on his lap and let me steer and then we would drive it through a local drive-through and get milkshakes.

What's astonishing is that in my entire memory of him, I can't think of him saying an unkind word to anybody. All I remember is him saying "Be kind to people and they'll treat you right." And he never forced his faith or ways on anyone. My mother stopped going to church at 16 but she remained his favorite.

He wasn't a saint. He was sometimes too quiet and was a doormat to a nasty and bitter woman that never appreciated him, he also liked the cards a bit too much sometimes. But you know what? He hated the 700 club. He said the greatest sin was claiming to speak for God.

He didn't judge people, he thought that the purpose of a Christian wasn't to convert but to be kind and helpful. If he were alive today he'd loading up hardware supplies to send to Haiti.

The only time I was happy with organized religion was when he took me to church. Why? Be it made him happy and he let me ask questions. He was honest and he never claimed to have all the answers.

He's also the reason I'm a hopeful deist/agnostic. He died in 1995, eaten away by cancer (The final result of his ever-present Lucky Strikes.) He weighed about 90 pounds when he made the doctors take him home. He died peacefully in his bed. I was there with my grandmother, mother and uncles. When he passed I felt something. Something to this day I have a hard time putting into words. I think I felt my grandpa pass me by. That was his final gift to me. The belief that we aren't just biological machines. That's there is something about us that can't be measured or defined.

That was a Christian man, Mr. Robertson.

Real religious men and women aren't about judgment, "My definition of God is the right one" pissing contests, violence or hate. Think about that and start fund-raising for Haiti.

[panzerfaust]

1. The immensity of the universe

vs the smallness of religion such as Robertson's.



M94 spiral galaxy 15 million light years ago. Everything in the background is, I think, another galaxy. Three stars in the foreground are from our own Milky Way galaxy.

If there were a god who created such magnificence, it is beyond any rational belief that such a being would 'smite' a few poor creatures of his because of a 'pact' with another of his creatures. Sadly, though it is not beyond faith to so hold.

In 1755 Lisbon was devastated by an earthquake. Christian clerics and theologians of the day justified this obvious and deliberate act of God as His Just retribution for the sinful ways of the inhabitants of that city.

I am sure that Robertson is sincere in his belief, as it is a belief long espoused by Christian theologians. Equally I am sure that he is mentally disturbed, and that the churchmen are mistaken - in every way.

Your father, however, sounds as though he was a good man, and he would have been a good man no matter what religious tradition he had been raised in. Expect he would have been the first to try to help, not judge.

[Union Yes]

4. +10000 for science! nt

[proteus_lives]

8. I agree.

He would have been a good man no matter what his faith. He saw no reason for conflicts between religions.

He would have loved that universe pic too, he was an engineer and didn't believe in the conflict between science and faith either.

[TexasProgresive]

2. Thanks for sharing your grandfather's story. k&r

[Botany]

3. My uncle was an episcopalian rector who along w/ his wife (my dad's sister) ..

.... gave his life to helping others in a S.W. Ohio to them it was what they had to do as
Christians. Seniors, MRDD people, eduction, mental health issues, and when his oldest
son came out as gay it was no big thing to them because he was family.

BTW he loathed Pat Robertson and Jerry Fellwell,

Thanx so much for your post.

[Union Yes]

5. K&R nt

[jonnyblitz]

6. i don't think you get to decide who is a real christian. I would

say he is a bad christian. I know many of you don't like to admit there are bad ones so you just say they aren't real.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

7. I would also be willing to bet

your grandfather never felt the need to announce he was a Christian at every opportunity either. The good ones don't do that, they just live their lives and allow folks to draw their own conclusions.

[SidDithers]

9. Robertson is as much a Christian as your grandfather...

Robertson just happens to be an ignorant asshat Christian. The terms are not mutually exclusive.

Sid

[proteus_lives]

11. I disagree.

I also don't believe that jihadists are real Muslims or violent settlers are observant Jews.

When people use their faith to excuse or produce hatred, violence, ignorance, misogyny, they are actually walking away from faith.

[AspenRose]

10. Thank you

K&R