The Lord Is Your Shepherd . . . Or Else.

A long-time friend e-mailed me recently that I should keep quiet about religion so I don't make people mad at me. But then now it's being reported that the California Supreme Court ruling that allows same-sex marriages is being challenged by The Saved Ones. ("God hates fags" is how one very vocal Christian group likes to put it. Most religious people are more subtle, but the message is the same.) It's not like you can leave believers alone and they let you be, they're big on making everybody live by their rules. For centuries they have fought science, sex, and pleasure on every front. Freedom of religion, how about freedom FROM religion? It's easier to ignore scabies. I know, I know, the thought of dying is scary, but if you're going to create a Supreme Being that grants eternal life, can't ya make one that likes fun and progress? Why's He always gotta be such a mean-spirited prude? "But God is all about LOVE." Like "Everybody is born in sin"? There's a big self-esteem builder for ya. How about "Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death." (Exodus 31:15.) It's the same for cursing either of your parents. Death. Having sex if you're not married. Death. (gulp.) How many folks were stoned or burned to death for blasphemy, for saying that the earth goes around the sun? God hates that, too? Nowadays it's strip clubs and massage parlors and drugs and teenage sex and skateboarders and birth control and rap music, but it's the same old story. Now tell me, which Presidential candidate doesn't belong to this group that gets its orders from somebody not a single person has ever seen or heard speak but we're told hates our sinful bodies and sinful joy and glee? Oh, the leaders of both parties think this way? All the politicians go for this. Yikes. But don't forget to vote, kids!

"In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth . . . " Okay, page 1, dude doesn't know what the stars are or that the world is round. He has no idea there are Eskimos or a Pacific Ocean. It's God's Word, just God didn't seem to know any more than that peasant in a little village thousands of years ago did. Anybody have a problem with that? I grew up going to Baptist Sunday School every week. I knew Christians sent missionaries around the world to spread The Word, but I was amazed, totally incredulous, when I heard that other religions sent missionaries to us! How silly. All those other phony religions are crazy, just going through the motions. Except now I realize that all religions think of themselves as the only way, and all the others are way wrong and only piss God off. Thus the call to SMITE those not God's true believers. Each and every group is The One, and since God is a soup stone, a symbol open to each religion's and person's imagination, there's a lot of SMITING going on. I'll be honest with you, I couldn't tell the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite and a Kurd if they were standing right in front of me. There's never been a religion that hasn't been persecuted by another religion. Isn't it getting a bit ridiculous in this day and age? Especially with all the problems we're facing as a planet, isn't it time we put a little effort into getting along? "God Bless America." i.e. "God Bless This Part Of The Planet." i.e. "God Bless This End Of The Boat." (Why don't Baptists make love standing up? Because somebody might think they're dancing.)

There's getting to be a lot of folks living like hippies these days. Reluctant hippies, where the real ones were looking ahead at a planet reaching its limits and trying to do something about it. Wearing old clothes, sharing rides, saving water, thinking about what they're using and getting by on less. The real ones were wiped out by corporate misinformation and brutal force, but now there's no choice, the lifestyle is being forced on people. The new hippies would like to see things get back to "normal", limitless growth on a finite planet, but it ain't gonna happen. It can't. And now they just about can't give SUVs away and they're talking about discontinuing Hummers. Ten, fifteen years ago, people were torching SUV dealerships seeing the destruction the manufacture and use of these large gas guzzling (to coin a phrase) vehicles were doing to the planet. NOW it's getting unavoidable. But is it too late? Think how fast we'd come up with better ways to get around if gas hit $30.oo a gallon, and how fast we'll all fry if the price goes down as promised by all the oil company supported politicians. Our dog-eat-dog, every-man-for-himself economy only worked if there was anything left. I'm forced to use a poetry word: things look bleak.

The sad part from a lot of people's point of view is how little it takes to be happy and live really well, but we helplessly watch as a relatively few people destroy our world in their mad quest for . . . for what? Power? Control? Security? Confidence? It's certainly not for any basic needs, they already each personally have more than plenty. As I've said before, the only reason they seem to want to consume everything in site as fast as they can is to see more zeros on their bank statements. It's certainly not for anything tangible. (Like Estri when she was locked in the cubes, just thoughtlessly consuming her limited resources.)

I'm 62, and there are people younger than me dying every day of natural causes. Some rich and famous people even. I'm not real, real old, but I've had a good time over the years and I consider myself way ahead of the game, no matter what happens to me now, and yet I'm still I'm freaking out about how things are going. But I'd really be in a panic if I hadn't lived a life yet. I don't get why there's not a bit more of an uproar--not over the bad economy--but over why they're wanting to fix it. I think it's criminal the way churches can put on their elaborate entertainments while denying birth control around the world as they watch kids starving to death by the thousands, fa-la fa-la. Sex education geared toward a healthy understanding of our sex drive is totally forbidden to young people, as women and children pay the price when guilt and shame instilled over otherwise natural urges result in men growing up squirrelly and unable to relate on a healthy basis when it comes to sex. All the planet's forests are being destroyed when fast-growing hemp could be used for fiber for clothing, paper products, building materials, and as a cash crop anywhere it will grow. Etc. Time for some stone cold logic.

Religions and unchecked greed are no longer up for intellectual debate, we're down to the wire. Should we have ludicrous social restrictions and new models of cars every year, nice green lawns, disposable plastic packaging and such, or continue to have life on Planet Earth? I guess we'll soon see, by golly.