WARNING! This journal addresses God and religion and does not do so in a way that some may find palatable........
Therefore be warned; and remember that it's just the perspective of "The Hatter"
I am not a fan of organized religion in this country.
It seems small and narrow-minded to me.
Each one sending the message that if you don't believe like they do....
then you don't believe at all.
I've had more than a few rants about it.
My uncle (on my Mom's side) is a retired Lutheran minister. Son of a Lutheran minister..... Mom is a PK (preacher's kid) and believes The Bible is quite literally the truth. Jonah in the belly of the whale kind of truth........ My "truth" doesn't work for my family. It's unconventional and you can't really find a book it was dictated from. But I am quite spiritual nonetheless.
So on Sunday morning; I watch "CBS Sunday Morning" on tv.
In many respects it is the church of possibility. Reminding me of how miraculous the life we are given can be. The good that people are trying to do. The hope that evolves out of "the good". The fact that, in a world of tv news and programs depicting "truth" through the lens of advertising and multi-conglomerates (and hello.... don't we have laws on the books about monopolies? ) there is a show I can go to that tells the story of people who are trying to do and be something more. Something better than they have been. Living with man and living for man. Making a life of possibility possible...........
Demonstrating that all who wander are not lost.......... many are doing it (wandering) with very real purpose and the strong desire to help shape a better world. I find both comfort and hope in that.
I teach because I believe we owe our children the opportunity to learn and to think for themselves. Because I think learning should be encouraged for it's own sake and the people who do should want to continue....... FOREVER! There should be nothing in the world more valued than the search for knowledge and wisdom. Nothing as important as giving EVERY child the chance to realize that for themselves...... But I don't see that feeling reflected in the world I look at every day. I don't see hope or promise or the need to do more and then give some of it back.......... We are the country that spawned "Survivor". The million dollar "game" where the winner is the guy who holds out the longest, lies and manipulates the best and essentially says....... "SCREW YOU! I WANT THE MONEY FOR MYSELF!"
We are the country of the "self". Only that's not necessarily such a good thing any more...........
So I watch "CBS Sunday Morning". And for a little while I get to see multi-millionaires who've established forward thinking and innovative programs that foster learning and discovery. I get to see cruise ships (loaded with passengers no less) responding to an S.O.S at sea and taking in the crew of a large fishing boat that was sinking and then feeding and clothing them and taking them into port. I get to see communities in our country that have been designed and developed so that the people who live there can WALK to schools, churches, stores and parks..... Neighborhoods with single and multi-family homes so that they can actually offer that lifestyle to a variety of incomes and backgrounds..... These people may get up and drive to their jobs every day, but when they get home they're part of an actual COMMUNITY... in actual fact rather than the "actual ideal". On Sunday morning, I watch the "church" of what's possible.....
And am reminded that God's creatures are filled with promise. That we CAN live up to our potential and that some people already have. I see hope and humanity. Generosity and tenderness. Insight and clarity of vision..... I see these things and I remember that God is in us all. He is that hope, that desire and the actuality of those things as they play themselves out.
What I don't believe is that there is a "plan". I don't believe He has some "higher purpose" that will explain Timmy or Adam or Cara's death. I don't think he looked down on our planet and then checked some cosmic clock to find out if Jan was overdue............ I don't think Kimmie's mom was on a schedule and tick-tock...... TIME'S UP!
That kind of thinking is too limited to be about God. If life the universe and everything we do and don't know or understand evolved out of the existence of God and if part of His plan was our freedom to choose and to believe, then we have to do and believe IN SPITE OF all that crap..... We have to keep working to do good and believe in something better ESPECIALLY because there's no valid reason for our loved ones to be gone. Because bad things happen and we have to work even harder to be better because the alternative is rage and hostility and the gift of life shouldn't be used like that.
Does God want us to be happy? Yes, I believe he does. But I also believe he expects us to design and create that happiness for ourselves. Much the way he designed everything that surrounds us and gives meaning and ground for us to live those lives out with....
Bad things happen.... they happen to everyone sooner or later and because they do we have to carry God inside of us and out to the rest of the world in a way that makes love a part of everything we do and all that we are....... God is in every person, in every religion, in every hope, faith and belief that makes us want to be better human beings and create a better world for ourselves and each other. God isn't the one who said "only the _____________ (insert your religion of choice in the blank) will get to heaven because they are the only ones who understand my message" ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I'm thinking God's STILL laughing at that notion and probably will continue to do so until the world ends. Man is the one who said you have to choose. Man is the motivating force behind Crusades, Jihad, Holocausts, Holy Wars, genocide, slavery, segregation and everything else that gets done "in the name of God" because one group thinks they know better what He wants.......... IT'S ALL BULLSHIT!
So I watch "CBS Sunday Morning" and look for (and usually FIND) the good in man that is God on Earth...........
And I remember that the reason I teach is because that "good" is still there in those kids.... That they deserve (ALL OF THEM) to have someone look for that good and help them develop it. Not in a religious capacity but maybe in a spiritual one. So they can see that wanting to do and be more than they are is a valuable and worthwhile goal in and of itself. Because if we (humanity) want to be "survivors" we're going to have to work together to make it happen and the million dollar jackpot is a world living peacefully and well.
Therefore be warned; and remember that it's just the perspective of "The Hatter"
I am not a fan of organized religion in this country.
It seems small and narrow-minded to me.
Each one sending the message that if you don't believe like they do....
then you don't believe at all.
I've had more than a few rants about it.
My uncle (on my Mom's side) is a retired Lutheran minister. Son of a Lutheran minister..... Mom is a PK (preacher's kid) and believes The Bible is quite literally the truth. Jonah in the belly of the whale kind of truth........ My "truth" doesn't work for my family. It's unconventional and you can't really find a book it was dictated from. But I am quite spiritual nonetheless.
So on Sunday morning; I watch "CBS Sunday Morning" on tv.
In many respects it is the church of possibility. Reminding me of how miraculous the life we are given can be. The good that people are trying to do. The hope that evolves out of "the good". The fact that, in a world of tv news and programs depicting "truth" through the lens of advertising and multi-conglomerates (and hello.... don't we have laws on the books about monopolies? ) there is a show I can go to that tells the story of people who are trying to do and be something more. Something better than they have been. Living with man and living for man. Making a life of possibility possible...........
Demonstrating that all who wander are not lost.......... many are doing it (wandering) with very real purpose and the strong desire to help shape a better world. I find both comfort and hope in that.
I teach because I believe we owe our children the opportunity to learn and to think for themselves. Because I think learning should be encouraged for it's own sake and the people who do should want to continue....... FOREVER! There should be nothing in the world more valued than the search for knowledge and wisdom. Nothing as important as giving EVERY child the chance to realize that for themselves...... But I don't see that feeling reflected in the world I look at every day. I don't see hope or promise or the need to do more and then give some of it back.......... We are the country that spawned "Survivor". The million dollar "game" where the winner is the guy who holds out the longest, lies and manipulates the best and essentially says....... "SCREW YOU! I WANT THE MONEY FOR MYSELF!"
We are the country of the "self". Only that's not necessarily such a good thing any more...........
So I watch "CBS Sunday Morning". And for a little while I get to see multi-millionaires who've established forward thinking and innovative programs that foster learning and discovery. I get to see cruise ships (loaded with passengers no less) responding to an S.O.S at sea and taking in the crew of a large fishing boat that was sinking and then feeding and clothing them and taking them into port. I get to see communities in our country that have been designed and developed so that the people who live there can WALK to schools, churches, stores and parks..... Neighborhoods with single and multi-family homes so that they can actually offer that lifestyle to a variety of incomes and backgrounds..... These people may get up and drive to their jobs every day, but when they get home they're part of an actual COMMUNITY... in actual fact rather than the "actual ideal". On Sunday morning, I watch the "church" of what's possible.....
And am reminded that God's creatures are filled with promise. That we CAN live up to our potential and that some people already have. I see hope and humanity. Generosity and tenderness. Insight and clarity of vision..... I see these things and I remember that God is in us all. He is that hope, that desire and the actuality of those things as they play themselves out.
What I don't believe is that there is a "plan". I don't believe He has some "higher purpose" that will explain Timmy or Adam or Cara's death. I don't think he looked down on our planet and then checked some cosmic clock to find out if Jan was overdue............ I don't think Kimmie's mom was on a schedule and tick-tock...... TIME'S UP!
That kind of thinking is too limited to be about God. If life the universe and everything we do and don't know or understand evolved out of the existence of God and if part of His plan was our freedom to choose and to believe, then we have to do and believe IN SPITE OF all that crap..... We have to keep working to do good and believe in something better ESPECIALLY because there's no valid reason for our loved ones to be gone. Because bad things happen and we have to work even harder to be better because the alternative is rage and hostility and the gift of life shouldn't be used like that.
Does God want us to be happy? Yes, I believe he does. But I also believe he expects us to design and create that happiness for ourselves. Much the way he designed everything that surrounds us and gives meaning and ground for us to live those lives out with....
Bad things happen.... they happen to everyone sooner or later and because they do we have to carry God inside of us and out to the rest of the world in a way that makes love a part of everything we do and all that we are....... God is in every person, in every religion, in every hope, faith and belief that makes us want to be better human beings and create a better world for ourselves and each other. God isn't the one who said "only the _____________ (insert your religion of choice in the blank) will get to heaven because they are the only ones who understand my message" ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I'm thinking God's STILL laughing at that notion and probably will continue to do so until the world ends. Man is the one who said you have to choose. Man is the motivating force behind Crusades, Jihad, Holocausts, Holy Wars, genocide, slavery, segregation and everything else that gets done "in the name of God" because one group thinks they know better what He wants.......... IT'S ALL BULLSHIT!
So I watch "CBS Sunday Morning" and look for (and usually FIND) the good in man that is God on Earth...........
And I remember that the reason I teach is because that "good" is still there in those kids.... That they deserve (ALL OF THEM) to have someone look for that good and help them develop it. Not in a religious capacity but maybe in a spiritual one. So they can see that wanting to do and be more than they are is a valuable and worthwhile goal in and of itself. Because if we (humanity) want to be "survivors" we're going to have to work together to make it happen and the million dollar jackpot is a world living peacefully and well.
Replies
However you CANNOT deny something is controlling your alien birds!
Amen!
AMEN!!!! MY BELIEF IS SIMPLE ALSO. I BELIEVE IF YOU ARE A GOOD PERSON THAT IS WHAT MATTERS. I DON\'T BELIEVE YOU WILL GO TO HELL FOR NOT BEING BAPTISED, THAT ONE KILLS ME!!!!! I DON\'T BELIEVE THERE IS ONE CERTAIN SET OF RULES THAT WILL GET YOU TO HEAVEN. I DON\'T BELIEVE LIKE YOU, THERE IS A TIME PLANNED FOR EVERYONE\'S DEATH. WE HAVE CREATED THE WORLD WE LIVE IN, THE CHEMICALS WHICH CAUSE CANCER, WE ARE THE ONES WHO HAVE ACCIDENTS THAT KILL US OR SOMEONE ELSE. I DON\'T BELIEVE GOD WANTS ANYONE TO SUFFER WITH AN ILLNESS. I DO BELIEVE HE IS THERE AND IS GUIDING US IF WE LET HIM. BUT THE WORLD WE HAVE CREATED IS FROM THE FREE WILL GOD GAVE US, PERIOD!!
you know Janine I have often had these very thoughts since mama died. I had been a member of a penacostal church up until she died. because of how my church family told me I should feel, and the calls I recieved from them while mama was dying. They did not comfort me. One told me that if I had enough faith I could speak life back into mama after her death. Then when I returned home, I was told over and over that I should be rejoicing in mama\'s death because she is in a better place now. Then 1 member told me that I didn\'t see her a lot because she lived clear across the u.s. so I shouldn\'t be experiencing such greif. When I left to take care of mama I knew God would heal her, but the day she died my faith in Him to do miricles changed. I didn\'t lose all faith in Him but my faith did change where it concerns miricles. She knew God would heal her too, but He didn\'t and I\'ve been disappointed since. I know I\'ve disappointed him many times, but He is God I am not. I have not returned to church, because I know I\'m not a penacostal. I am a Christian period, maybe not the kind they expect me to be but I am just the same. I was left dumb founded, when I was told to rejoice and not grieve. Did Jesus not grieve for Lazerus? did the deciples and Mary not wail and grieve when Christ died?? I too no longer believe in organized religion for myself that is, they just hand out too much advice and biblical opinions that has their way of thinking attached to it. And don\'t even get me started on the God told me this and that about you and I need to lay hands on you and pray for you. If you think God told you something about me, just pray about it. ok I\'m done now, just let it be known I was so injured by my church family that I left it behind me and haven\'t even turned to take a look again. I do feel lonely for the fellowship I once had with our Lord but as I said I\'m disappointed. I know Katie\'s boy dwells with God but the way he died was not of God NO WAY!!!!!! It was not his time, and it wasn\'t Timmy\'s or Cara\'s or any bodies that didn\'t just go to sleep and slip away. It is the circumstances of this world that caused their deaths....... I think anyway but now I\'ve confused myself, why was it nessasary for Jesus to die so horribly?? that was God\'s will......... but I still don\'t believe in organized religion and 1 track minds. We are all individuals and I think He did plan it that way, so wouldn\'t he expect us all to interpet His word differently? Anyway I have now vented but I have left myself confused...................hmmmmmmmm Thinking hard now.................I am an imperfect human, that I\'m sure God created. The rest of His so called plan, I\'m not so sure of. *K
I have said in the past, many similar things... I chose to become Catholic because I need or maybe just want the structure of organized religion... I still allow myself to think outside the box... People at my church know how I feel and if I\'ve influenced them I\'m glad...
I ALSO DID NOT LIKE THE PENACOSTAL RELIGION THINKS THEY\'RE THE ONLY \"RIGHT\" CHRISTIANS, IT HAS BOTHERED ME FOR YEARS.
\"WAY\"
May I just say for the record Kimmie,
how much I love the way you go back and reread what you\'ve written, add the one word that was missing, add it and have complete faith that we will not only know what it means but where it belongs! I just love that girlfriend, I really do!
Oh, and here\'s a thought.......
The belief that God wanted Christ to die the way he did is founded on passages that were written in the Bible BY MAN/MEN! He was sacrificed by men, tortured by men and redeemed by God according to men.....
There are religions in the world that don\'t recognize Christ as anything but a very good man with a very important message and according to my Mother they are all going to a \"different\" Heaven because there\'s no room in hers for non-believers. At one point in my life, I wanted to get married in a friends backyard and my Uncle the minister wouldn\'t perform the ceremony because it wasn\'t in a house of the Lord.
HELLO!!!! Aren\'t you people the ones who argue that God CREATED the world? Wouldn\'t that make the whole planet his house? If He\'s EVERYWHERE, are you saying he wouldn\'t come to my wedding because it isn\'t going to be in a church? I should add that hubby and I did get married in Uncle Lou\'s church and had communion as part of the ceremony....... In any case, I have a real problem with people who try to attach God to everything they do and say. I don\'t think they\'re making Him omnipotent, I think they\'re making Him small. Like they are. Because it\'s the only way to validate everything they do and everything they say! AND IT MAKES ME CRAZY (not that I have all that far to go to get to \"crazy\" but still!)
I am a child of the universe. I tend to see goodness in people through their eyes, their love and their actions. I believe in paying it forward and sometimes starting the ball rolling. I see beauty in a child\'s birth, the flowers, the sky, a storm, the little dog laying on my lap, the kid that mows my grass on Saturday before I get up and can pay him. I see that same kid put the trash out twice a week and have yet to catch him doing it. I see fulfillment in the kids I have known since they were little ones and now bring their kids to hang a ball of the Christmas tree or to rush over on Thanksgiving morning to pick their pollyanna. I see wonder in the kid that asks for a little help with math or a computer program or programing a web site. I get joy from the old people I visit in their joy in seeing me. For so many years I thought I was all that and more. Hell, I had a huge family, an acceptable husband, a nice house, I did nice things for people but once I had the stroke I lost a lot of my self image. I lost a lot of my ability to be in large groups of people. I stuttered and searched for words. People were uncomfortable around me. People I had know forever, seemed to avoid me. My humor which was always ascerbic was off. I had forgotten who I was and what made a difference to me. Gradually, I started to come back. My sister did a lot of ass kicking (my mom thought I was too fragile to ruffle). Pat\'s illness forced me back...she needed me. I came back but not quite so arogant, not quite as full of myself. Sort of re-invented. Always, always aware that I could hurt someone with the words that fall out of my mouth. Then, I stumbled in here. Lisa found me and drew me in. I learned it was okay to play, I learned that Janine, Kimmie Katie and Elissa are real, real people who actually like me, mouth and all, spelling errors, mis-spoken words..whatever...it seems okay. And there is goodness in this sharing.
I believe in God, in heaven and hell. I do not care much for any organization, religion or otherwise. I believe that God\'s beauty shines on the joining of two spirits no matter where the joining takes place. I do not nor have I ever believed in pre-destination. The loss of our children and parents in painful and serves no useful purpose, ever! I have seen children born to parents who never wanted kids and they raised them with that attitude..which is how I got to know them. I have seen people who should have had 10 kids and would have put so much joy and beauty into this world had they had them and put all the love they had into them. There does not seem to be justice but there is beauty...sometimes re-directed but non the less beauty. God? Yes I think He provides all that is necessary....humanity...rarely picks up on it. Keeping up with the Jones\'s took on a whole other persona in this modern age. Thank God...I have always been a step sitter. I know where I came from. My Gram and Grampop made sure of that. I guess that is why I love old people so much. So, I guess I want to be good so I will get to heaven. I want to see them all again. AND I would love to live in a place that I have neighbors such as Janine, Lisa, Kimmie, Elissa and Katie. I want to share tea in the morning. I want them to know the people I have loved in this world and I want to know their families. This is the Organization I look forward to being a part of. And I think that is all I have to say about that...unless I think of something else..which I often do. Love ya, Kathy
THANK YOU JANINE I\'M SO GLAD THAT YOU LOVE THAT I DO THAT, ONE OF THOSE CRAZY THINGS I DO THAT MAKES ME FIT IN HERE WITH YOU LADIES. LOL I LOVE YOU LADIES AND I\'M SO GLAD THAT WE CAN HAVE CONVERSATIONS LIKE THIS AND NOBODY GETS ANGRY OR PUSHY ABOUT WHAT THEY BELIEVE. IT\'S A WONDERFUL THING THAT WE HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH. OH AND DANA AND I WERE MARRIED IN A FRIENDS BACK YARD BY A MINISTER, AND HE SAID HE KNEW THAT OUR UNION WAS BLESSED AND WOULD BE NEVER ENDING. 25 YEARS LATER I\'M HE WAS RIGHT. ALL MY LOVE TO YOU LADIES FOREVER!!!!!
\"REALLY\"... BET YOU CAN\'T FIGURE OUT WHERE THAT ONE GOES CAN YA OH GREAT TEACHING GOD THAT YOU ARE. LOL OK I\'LL TELL YA WHERE, IT BELONGS AT THE VERY END. TE HE HE HE HAW!!!!!