You are not the God of me!

[Are_grits_groceries]

I grew up in the South and was churched well. I have watched the different denominations and faiths go about their business for years. I was never a fan to say the least.

However, I have effing had it! I've had it with the lot of you who read your Bibles or other tomes and then sit in judgment. I don't remember God calling for juries to be summoned to declare their verdicts. If I remember correctly, God is the final arbiter and it's his decision.

All of you are a bunch of scurrilous pretenders who pick and choose what to believe. The motes in your eyes are so large that I wonder that you can see at all. I don't think they are motes, but mirrors. You are looking at your bloody self.

You are praying for the President to die. That sentence alone is enough to make me wish Daniel would visit all of you and tear your pillars down. Tear the fracking New Testament out of the Bible because you aren't using it. You are Leviticans of the first order and you preach hate and intolerance. I don't remember that message from Jesus when I was growing up.

I also don't hear a chorus rising up from people who don't think as you do. They have let you hijack the gospel and turn it on its head. They are just as bad because the true meaning they meekly avow is being rapidly lost. It is time for them to stand in their bloody pulpits and declare 'Enough!' They are almost even worse because they let the haters run the message. I have to conclude that they either agree with the hate or they are scared to challenge the ugly message being propounded.

You are pitiful Christians and even worse Americans.

I will stand in your way. I am not a sheeple who will be lead or taken anywhere by you and your ilk. I have no delusions that I am God's messenger on Earth. I think for myself and believe in 'The Golden Rule.'
Look it up because you need to read it a lot.

Take the 30 pieces of silver you use to support your efforts and get the hell out of my life.:rant:

[RandomThoughts]

1. Quite a rant there, what got you upset?

I do agree there is too much judgement in many things. And when people use religion that teaches love to hate, it is really quite silly. Hope you feel better about it. Most people aren't like that with their beliefs. There are many people that just try to be nice and stuff.

Everyone picks what to believe, I find knowing that helps alot.


And your comment about people that pray for bad things to happen, I agree that is really bad, and when they do that they are not praying they are cursing. And that also is said to be bad.

So its easy to understand how you feel, it does get frustrating some times.

[Are_grits_groceries]

2. It's been coming.

The prayers by the Southern Baptists did it. My Mama went to church and taught Sunday School. She did her best to pass on a message of love. She spent hours reading books and critiques to support her lessons. She hung a blue flag with the word 'Shalom' outside the house and gave out pens with that word on it.

I have listened to this shite from my relatives for years. It is getting worse. I want the people who I know are better than this to stand up and drown out the haters. I know there are decent people who recoil from the hateful messages.

They are in real danger of letting their religion be hijacked by hate. It isn't enough now IMHO to let the haters be the only ones heard.

[RandomThoughts]

3. I think your comment on religion, about pick and choosing stuff, is pretty accurate.

People like to be able to say they are doing something because of some higher power or directive, it really makes having to justify it pretty easy. If you are doing something, and you believe it is from God, well you don't have to worry if anything else indicates it could be wrong.

So I think some people like to take pieces of religion to make actions and thoughts easier, while I think religion is suppose to be a bit more of learning and changing a bit, not just excuses for what someone wants to think.

But I could be wrong, and have lots of issues my self, so I just try to ignore the hate when I can. I also don't think anyone is expected to get everything right, hence the need for humility, because from my experiences a person is usually wrong more times then they admit to themselves, so humility helps balance out those denials.

I think hijacking religion for things like hate, is one of hates main efforts.

[Are_grits_groceries]

5. This can be a very lonely place.

I feel like a 'coastwatcher' in the Phillipines. I have a brazillion relatives because both parents had 9 siblings. However, I no longer have a family.

I know people wonder why I'm here at all. It's as close to home as I can get anymore. I'm not sure I have a real home except for 2 cats and Lily Rose.

[GoCubsGo]

16. Yep.

I have lived in this town since 1987. I do not call it my "hometown", as it still does not feel like home. I have ZERO in common with most people around here. People assume that because I am 49 and never married that I am a lesbian, which makes things even worse. I actually like men, but not the BuyBull-thumping, wingnut types, which are all we have around here. Kind of difficult to find a mate around here when you are left-leaning and agnostic. Or, friends in general, for that matter. I wish I could find a way out of here.

[raccoon]

17. Sounds like we have a lot in common. I wish I could move, but that's not really an option for me. n

[Are_grits_groceries]

21. As weird as it sounds, I don't want to move.

I'm just tired of the reading bumperstickers like "Shoot them all and let God sort them out." I want to put one beside it that says " Take care of them all and let God sort it out."

I haven't been back to the church I grew up in since my Mama died. I can just feel a "Come to Jesus" sermon in my bones. I may just walk in there one Sunday and ask to say something.

I'd make Jonathan Edwards look like a sweetie with my sermonette.

[Uben]

4. I got some news fer ya!

They have already been hijacked by hate. Tom Delay, the Bushes, and the Cheneys made sure religion was injected in all of their deeds to somehow justify their illegal actions while secretly laughing at the christians from afar. To them, religion is a tool to control their masses, nothing more.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

6. That Is Really Messed Up- The Hate For (Our) President

I have some Fundamentalist friends, one of whom is a minister and the other is his son. They left the Southern Baptist Convention because it was too liberal! I have been to some of their services. They are definitely infused with right wing politics but they always pray "for the health and well being of our president and leaders". They also pray they will see things their way. (ugh).


I am a Christian but not a Fundamentalist by any stretch. I maintain the friendship because I know them for over thirty five years, since I was a boy, and they really love me and I love them despite the wide political chasm that separates us. They probably pray for my wisdom as I pray for theirs.

PEACE
DSB

[geckosfeet]

7. The cross generational mantra - "the religious right is neither" still rings true

Hate and fear have hidden behind religion and the bible forever. That of course, is why they are so popular.

[tavalon]

8. A fellow refugee, I see

I was raised southern baptist and told from the pulpit as I came of age, to pull the Democratic lever. At that time I didn't understand that I was surrounded by dixiecrats nor did I have any idea what they were. Of course, the dixiecrats of my youth are now the rabid Republicans of my middle age. But they were always so sanctimonious and I remember getting in a disagreement with the pastor when I said my husband and I could run our marriage together. Together! Blasphemous. I left that church and most churches when I was twenty. I don't mind going to UU and was a working member of a coven who met every Friday so spirituality has always been a draw. I use to joke that I replaced my Sunday obligations with Friday obligations! The main thing that made my coven experience different was that we were not expected to follow dogma, we were expected to think and evaluate things for ourselves. Refreshing to say the least.

[Are_grits_groceries]

9. I will have to resign as the leader of

'The Church of Grits and Shrimp.' One of the main beliefs is to do the kindest thing possible in any situation. I certainly didn't do that with my rant that probably hit a lot of people here.

[tavalon]

11. I miss grits and taco cabana

I have to admit, that besides those two things, I don't miss the south really at all. I lived almost all of my first 40 years in the south and two little food items are the best I can come up with. I was never suited to the south, nor it to me.

[OneGrassRoot]

10. Excellent rant....

I hear you. :( I'm in the midst of thumpers as well.

I always resonate with and enjoy your posts!

:hi:

[patrice]

12. Bravo!

Our timing is similar; I just recently got in trouble for saying exactly these things to family.

What set me off: Racism.

[pleah]

13. K AND R!

[Jester Messiah]

14. Nice one!

I'm glad to see a Christian standing up to their co-religionists and saying "enough."

[KittyWampus]

15. I think of them as "Cherry-pickers" cause they aren't even Leviticans. They just pick

and choose whatever reinforces their regressive, shrunken view of the world.

Ultimately we all have responsibility for our own behavior and what attitudes we cultivate.

That said, I put a lot of the blame on the preachers and politicians who INTENTIONALLY fuel this crap. They do it on purpose. And many people are simple minded.

[Fumesucker]

18. I grew up in the South too and got churched as well..

I suspect it has a good bit to do with why I call myself an atheist today..

Nice rant but I have one minor nit, the mote is in your brother's eye, it's a beam that's in your own..

[Are_grits_groceries]

19. Thanks for the correction.

Obviously I was having trouble seeing what to type around my own beam.:hi:

[Kablooie]

20. The line between a religion of heaven and a religion of hell is finer than we imagine.

It seems very easy for masses of people in every religion to slip into hell and they never know it.

[Shell Beau]

22. This southern Christian agrees 100% with your post!

It is disgusting what some "christians" do in the name of God.

[patrice]

23. I particularly like OP's last line; the life of Jesus means something, part of it is "This is

what we do to one another." - we sell people out.