You may not be a believer – a faithful or graced person – if you keep clinging to the conclusion that humans are all intrinsically good people or all deserve to be celebrated.  The malignant things some people in positions of trust repeat in word and deed are a flashing warning that toxic potions, fabricated narratives, and absurd religious-political constructs are not worthy of our time.  War to end war has made the journey from bad to worst and the idea is a crooked attempt to imitate the life from death realities that define God.

Who’s gonna stop the misery?

None of the political platforms are sufficiently informed or enthused about all of mankind. The power hungry nerds of our times will not rise to the occasion to defend the human race, because they are all interested in exploiting us. All the leaders pretending to have received top notch insight and instruction are like foolish little children in the marketplace dancing and piping and applauding each other’s performances.

31) To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like? 32) They are like children who sit in the market place and call to one another, and they say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’

Luke 7:31-32 New American Standard Bible

On becoming and other privileged lanes

We Christians have clearly marked rights of passage in the spiritual journey.  Conversion and baptism are the primary pair; they transform a person’s identity.  Baptism is the action we take to declare to the believing community that we have experienced a change and to state our commitment to the new status.  Jewish people have a bar mitzvah rite. When does a person become a Muslim?  Do we really know how deadly organized religion has been, or are we willing to ignore the evidence of Judaism’s follies, Christianity’s tango with worldly powers, or Islam’s quest to dominate by extremism?

Question of the millennia

What is the difference between a religious person and a religious country?  All kinds of holiness mantras and regulations will break up our reverie about governments allied with religion and answer the question with “Too much”. That “too much” rises like smoke from a fire to choke us with discrimination, miscarriages of justice, and cleverly devised fables. Christian individuals are entirely different entities from the so-called Christian nation. Muslim individuals are entirely different entities from the so-called Islamic nation. Religious Jews are entirely different entities from the so-called elect kingdoms of Israel and Judah. So let them smoke their pipes and croak in their silos of bigotry and darkness.