Every discredited and accredited religion is designed to get us to the same place as the latest wisdom stealth package being sprayed all over the domains of public speech, debate and spiel. “Gee”, I hear someone say, “if only we could just let people from the ancient cultures of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East be the ones to decide the direction of our generation, we’d be world leaders in learning, technology, and social cohesion”. Crap like those views will never bring the mutual genocidal covenant between Israelis and Iranians to an end any time soon. Since all of our cultural history is noble material let us give life back to the lynched Negroes and exterminated Jews, let us resurrect the women and girls killed to erase family shame, let us re-materialize the Aboriginal civilizations that predated European colonialism, and let us stop saying we are the most wise iteration of homo sapiens. These hands will never meet in applause of the love of justice and the humility of Americans, Russians, Germans, Chinese, Japanese, Canadians, Cree, Ojibway, and Mohawk people. Check your applause very carefully, because if you do not, you may find yourself comfortable in the respective company of illiterate experts of sacred writings, or walking the ruthless line of homicidal maniacs and angry exterminators of their cousins, American legislators and Jewish settlers. Check your applause.

Say it night and day and hang it from every blade of grass in the field

The days of drilling children to repeat the stories of our various traditions are over. Children of the 1970s generation were probably the last to have only the tiniest interest in following their parents. The vast majority of adults since the middle of the 20th century have bribed their children to be loyal, coerced them to be traditional, and hijacked their dignity of choice.  I am supposed to say kind things about a host of theologians who have left their works for us to see, but what can be said about the last two generations cannot be written here without sinking the boats of the most popular pastors and Christian educators.  The facts are that people who leave everything in order to follow Christ are few indeed.  Diligence to discard our traditional practices and views is rare as resurrections of the dead and buried.  All the things that are possible have not happened over the 2000 years since Christ said “All things are possible with God”, and no wonder.  Saying outrageous things and painting in the blanks with faith has been one of the most unrealistic patterns of Christian life.

Contradicting the gospel with present truth

We are often amused by how many people do not know the difference between faith and works.  The surefire joke accompanying the message of JESUS Christ of Nazareth is that only a handful of people actually believe that God’s work (assigned to us), and his will for us is that we believe on his Son:  they do not know what the gospel is and consequently have not embraced with will all their heart, soul, and mind.  If faith is the only means by which humans can please God why do we suppose that we can arrive at the stature of his  Only-begotten Son by obedience to law.  Receiving Christ-God-the Holy Spirit is not a priority.   The most deadly joke is people saying they have achieved victory over sin after God for Christ‘s sake forgave every sin.  If the leaders of every sect can gin up enough courage to see Christ as separate from their sect’s tradition and practice we might see a revolution in the spread of the lifegiving word of the apostles of Jesus of Nazareth.  I stopped clapping for religious crap a long time ago, and my association with religious people – pastors, elders, evangelists, missionaries, reformers, and commandment-keepers – reflects my hope that grace touches the crap shooters.