- Sorry
this report is so late. I’ve had trouble writing it – it comes out too harsh.
It still is – but better than it was.
25 of 52 Trip Around The
Sun -
Have traveled about 281,000,000 miles.
Thoughts
during the week:
The
meeting last week at
Considering
our new-found appreciation for how awful terrorism is, I’ve been trying to
decide what some of the dangerous beliefs are – that would allow followers to
support the leader of terrorist activity:
1.
That “We” are the
only ones who are correct or authorized.
2.
Believing that Good and Truth are the same thing.
3.
Blind Faith.
(That we ought to have Faith and not have Doubt.)
4.
That our emotions
are as dependable, or even more so than our thoughts.
The
Visit:
Brotherton road – just off Felicita.
This
was again one of the better meetings I’ve been to so far.
But I
was a good deal of trouble in the Adult Sunday School Class.
I went
about half way through the class without saying anything, but I guess the look
on my face revealed that I was having questions.
They were
talking about Jewish traditions. The teacher said, “They must have been
Baptists – they sure had lots of feasts!” Laughter.
The
whole discussion was so friendly – about the Jews and their ways.
So then
the teacher said, “Chuck – you look like you have questions.”
I said,
“Yes – but my questions are very hard.”
He
said, “Oh – we like hard questions. Please ask them.”
(Ok – I
guess that was fair warning – )
When
speaking of beliefs, I used “we” instead of “you,” as it’s
better manners – more inductive of introspection instead of just being
accusative.
I said,
“Well – we’ve been discussing the Jews with such a friendly attitude, but don’t
we believe that they will all burn in Hell forever and ever because they do not
accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior? How can we be so happy and
relaxed in this discussion?”
Answer
essentially: “We’re happy about all that God does – we’ll understand later.”
I said,
“I’m thinking of my Dad. He was an atheist who loved his fellow man. He died
about a year and a half ago. He suffered so before he died. I hated to see him
suffering – and knew even more than before how much I loved him. Do we believe
he is suffering even more now? – Burning with no end - in a fire prepared by a
God who loves my Dad?”
“Yes.”
One said, “My own father also – we must accept Jesus to be saved.”
I said,
“And what about my Mom? She accepted Jesus as her personal Savior all her life
– tears came to her eyes when she spoke of Him.”
“Well –
sure – she’s in heaven.”
“She
was a Mormon.”
“Silence.” I put that in quotes because it was loud
silence.
Someone
finally said, “It depends on if she really
accepted Jesus.”
Now
notice the difference here. First it is, “One must believe in Christ and accept
Him as their personal savior.”
Then a
word is added for Mormons: “Must really
accept.”
What
this means is that one must accept – but also get the technical things right –
that He is not literally the son of
God, but is God. If you mess up on
that understanding, you burn forever.
“But I
just told you she did accept Jesus.”
“Yes –
but does she believe he’s the son of God and not God himself?”
I said,
“Oh – that’s another requirement – we have to get the technical things right
also?”
Silence.
I said,
“Now let me get this straight – You say that my good Dad is burning in Hell
forever – and my dear little Mom is also – that God loves us so much – and that
I ought to come and worship Him with you and praise Him for all this? You have
beautiful meetings – a kind of pretense that all is beautiful – yet underlying
beliefs that are so ugly I can’t believe anyone would accept them.”
They
said, “Mormons just think they’re right and everyone else is wrong.”
“Agreed
– they do.”
Mormons
have some ugly beliefs also - just different ones. And indeed, one of them is
that they are the only ones whose religious work is honored by God – that is,
the only ones who can perform a valid baptism, for example.
“I’m
not here to argue for the Mormons – I’m looking for the possibility that there
is anyone at all around who actually believes that God does not do evil things
– ever. When evil occurs – it is we
who do it – and then we like to say that God did it. That way we can pretend
that the evil is good. It’s not a mystery that it is bad to kill babies. That’s
not something “We do not understand.” We understand it just fine, and we know
it is wrong. But if we say that God killed the babies – then it’s good.”
Burning
one’s loved ones forever is also not good. No good person would participate in such
a useless punishment, where no improvement is possible. God, being good, would
not – and it is not a mystery that this is so – it’s obvious to anyone.
He also
would not put a curse on some of his loved ones – like some Halloween witch –
as Mormons believe He did to the whole great Negro race. They teach now that
the curse has been lifted – but most Mormons still believe the curse was real.
Things like this, along with many stories in the Old Testament are just that –
stories. They are supportive of such things as our own prejudice.
After
class, they assigned a knowledgeable man to talk with me. (Nice guy.) After
some discussion, I asked, “How can you believe in this burning Hell – from a
loving Father?” He said, “What do you mean? I haven’t even mentioned Hell – you
have a dozen times – you seem to be very interested in it. I answered, “I’m
interested in why people believe things. I could mention astrology many times
also in rejecting its tenets. That wouldn’t mean I’m attracted to it. God is
only good – He is not evil, as you describe Him to be. You also could use the
word astrology in arguing against it. I think you like not to use the word Hell
– because you are secretly sensitive to how ridiculous the idea is to have come
from a loving Father.
You say He’s good – and then describe Him to be a terrorist. My
interest is less in you, however, than in my own religion. We teach that He
sent an angel to kill babies and all the other firstborn of the Egyptians to
soften Pharaoh’s heart. This is we saying He’s good and then describing Him as
a terrorist. I do not feel critical of you specifically – but of the whole need
of humans to believe these awful things. Why can’t we decide that God is good –
make that our assumption – instead of
assuming the Bible is correct exactly as written – why not assume that God is
good – and then measure the writings of people by that measure? If they say
He’s bad – or that He does bad things - they lie or err.”
The
main meeting:
Just as
last week – this was a wonderful meeting. (Perhaps I should have skipped Sunday
School. On the other hand – you can’t get any of the
nitty-gritty just listening to a speaker.)
I paid
a little more attention this time to the combo of instruments.
Two
guitars – One trombone – Two drummers – this time an adult on the drum set –
and the seven year old (or so) on bongos. (Turns out the seven year old was substituting last Sunday for the adult drummer.) Two French horns. Exactly 40 in the choir.
(Good guess last week.) One grand piano.
Now the
next thing is interesting in view of what my thoughts have been about. The
first song – exuberant and praising was called:
“GOD IS
GOOD ALL THE TIME.”
“So,” I
thought, “He doesn’t kill babies after all.” Just a sarcastic
thought.
The
bottom line is that God is good because He is defined as being so – no matter what He does, it’s defined as good.
I suppose He could be a child molester, and that would also be good – just
something we “will understand later.” I knew of a minister in
There
are all kinds of evil gods in history – We don’t need one of these.
The
song was actually quite wonderful – I wish they believed it in a way that God does only good things.
There
was much other wonderful music – definitely too jazzy for us – but wonderful.
There
was another: “If We Are Marching to
I
wondered, “What is
Then
there were the words, “The Beautiful City of God.” They were speaking of
heaven.
I think
we think about
The
minister’s talk (his preaching, as they call it) was also quite wonderful –
even better than last week, which was also exceptional.
He had
many visual aids. He lays them around on the floor – and goes to get them as
needed. Usually, they bring humor into the talk.
He had
two long cardboard boxes tied to form a big cross. He held it up and declared
that the cross is always beautiful – and that he liked to make crosses out of
all kinds of things. He said we should have “cross-eyes.” (A
little laughter.) Then he put on a pair of dark glasses – each lens
covered over by sort of ice-cream stick crosses. (Big
laughter.)
He also
made some points about the dilution or impurities that get thrown into our
lives. He said he likes to find drinks while he’s on the road other than sodas.
So he went into the store at the gas station and bought a bottle of water. “It
was awful,” he said. “I looked at the label: (Water with caffeine added.)”
“It’s difficult not to be polluted.”
Then he
went into the main part of his talk – which was the subject of “US” and “THEM.”
On one
side of the stage, he lifted a big sign that said “US.”
Then he
walked over to the other side and lifted a sign that said “THEM.”
He
talked some of how we tend to separate the world into us and them in many ways.
He talked
of when he went to ministerial school in New Orleans. After arriving there, he
was asking for directions. Someone told him to go about a mile or so and then
turn left at the cow dunk.
“Them has a cow dunk. Us didn’t even
know what a cow dunk is.” (Laughter)
He went
to the side of the stage and picked up a big clear plastic tub. Then he picked
up a stuffed toy cow (A very cute one) and tossed it into the tub. “They do
this to cows in New Orleans.” (Laughter)
He
should be on Jay Leno – he’s really quite good at this.
He said
that God makes no distinction between US and THEM.
He had
us all repeat: “God” - “God” “Makes no distinction” “Makes no distinction”
“Between US”
“Between US” “And THEM.” “And THEM.”
He
talked of the Apostle Peter. He picked up the “US” sign. Peter happened on a
group of nice gentiles – and was getting friendly with THEM. He walked with the
“
But
then Paul and some others of US approached. Peter, when Peter saw the US
approaching, he withdrew from the gentiles a little embarrassed that he might
be caught being friendly with them.
You can
get where this is going – and he did a good job.
With
one exception – he kept saying that the THEM he was talking about is a group of
other “believers” that are different in some way. Non-believers are not even
part of an acceptable THEM.
Now
this is mine – not his:
Repeat
after me: “God” “God”
“Makes a Huge distinction” “Makes
a huge distinction”
“Between US”
“Between US” “And THEM.” “And THEM.”
“He
brings US” “He brings “US” “To Heaven,”
“To heaven”
“And He
burns THEM” “And He burns THEM” “In Hell.”
“In Hell.”
“And US
love it.” “And US love it.”
The THEM who burn forever is almost everyone on the
Earth.
(We probably
won’t kill Sadam. We’ll kill his babies – and we’ll
cheer. We did it before.
We hate
THEM with a passion.) We can hope there are plenty of US who would
not want to do this, but then, we believe God set the example.
I always
liked a poem I first saw in The Reader’s Digest: I’ll get the words wrong –
(Wo – isn’t this internet a wonder?
I just stepped out from my report – put down the words “that took them in,” and
there was the poem – so here it is:
They drew
a circle that shut me out.
Heretic, Rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love
and I had the wit to win.
We drew a
circle that took them in.
-
Edwin Markham
The
music minister, after the preaching, along with a good pianist, sang a medley
of songs to honor the senior citizens of the congregation. Then they had a
luncheon – all served in courses – for all the seniors. One of the Sunday School people invited me to join them, so I did. They had
sourdough rolls to die for – and real butter – and choices of things to drink.
(I really do like iced tea.)
25 of 52 Trip Around The
Sun -