Religion - Big Business But Not God's Business

It's almost 2:00 am and I’ve been thinking about my life and the worthlessness of it, overall. I’m 64 and I’ve spent the first half of it hiding who I was and pretending to be what I wasn’t. Typical of many gay persons who were made ashamed of what they were by constant, unwarranted ridicule and defamation heaped upon us from ignorant, narrow minded and hateful people who based their criticism on writings that spewed forth from an ancient publication that is known as the Old Testament. These writings should have been denounced and uncovered for what they were, the ramblings and self proclaimed sins by deranged demagogues who condemned everyone else for things that these malapropos “teachers” claimed they were inspired by God to write down and make known. And then, as if that weren’t bad enough, these Ultra Conservative delusional writers claimed that because their writings came directly from God and were not just thoughts and ideas that they had on their own, anyone who turned away from their writings and didn’t believe that they were the Divinely inspired word of God, would suffer un-imaginable punishment. What self-importance their writings must have given them. What vanity, and eventually what shame. Sadly, people today still believe that the writer’s thoughts were given to them by God Who, since then, has not bothered to influence our thoughts about Him and our relationship to Him. What grief those writings have levied on the world for the past four millennia since these men dared to publish them and propose that they were Divine rules for living a holy and just life. It’s so very sad that we have allowed these blowhards and their bullshit to ruin millions of lives just because these self righteous ultra-right conservatives had this need to be the ones who defined morality for humankind. It's pretty much the same today.

For the first thirty or so years of my life, I took it on faith that the bible was inspired by God and given to mankind as a roadmap to salvation. I, like ninety-nine percent of you reading this, was afraid to question that which was passed off as divine revelation, for I was taught that to do so was to certainly lose your soul by doubting God and the men he picked to receive and pass on his word. But then, as I listened more and more to the Religious Right preachers and the members of their churches, who think a thought and because the thought sounds right to them, proclaim it as the unchallengeable word of God, I realized that that rationale sounded familiar. It is eerily familiar to The Old Testament and the runaway imagination of the right wing writers of that text and the fictitious tie in of their writings as the word of God.

Badaboom, badabing!

Well, let me tell you what I did; I began questioning teachings that I was told at home, in school and at church, were never to be questioned because if one did, the Holy Ghost himself would come down with an angel and cut your dick off if you were a man or super glue your vagina shut if you were a woman! Only the established churches and certain celebrated preachers, all of whom support the Bible’s teachings because those teachings and the implementation of their control over society, is their means of enjoying a very wealthy, lucrative and influential lifestyle, are allowed to think about and, when it supported their particular need(s), change those God-inspired words from the original writings of the Old Testament declared as being unchangeable.

Well, pardon me for speaking the hell up! Religious leaders, preachers of most if not all religious affiliations are making money because they are used car salesmen, with your souls taking the place of the old Junkers. But their line of bullshit is the same and after they’re done saving you and collecting your money, you’re still stuck with your soul to trade in at the end of the show to see what its worth in God’s blue book. So, you dummies, you think you’re buying your way into heaven by giving your money to these charlatans, but all you are buying is a new BMW for these holy rollers, because they didn’t accept responsibility for your soul, they just took the money for it and spent it on themselves!

For the last thirty or so years, I have watched and questioned what I saw as dubious behavior on the part of religious leaders and organizations. When the Catholic priest scandal came along, I thought that that would certainly ignite the furor in the souls of the Catholic laity even if their son or daughter weren’t actually assaulted by a priest or other member of the ruling body of the Church. But, no, all I saw were bumper stickers that said “Support Our Priests! They Need Us Now!” “THEY” need us now? How about the poor boys and girls who were sexually assaulted by someone that the children were taught was the holiest, most respected member of society; one who would do all that he could to protect them from all evil and harm and not be the one perpetrating horrible evil and harm onto them, causing them to feel betrayed and terribly afraid, wondering what the hell is going on?

The priest scandal is a good example of how convoluted things have become when religion or religious leaders are called into question by the unexpected criminal actions of the members of their organization. People are caught unaware and totally dumbfounded; they are all too willing to direct their anger onto the victim rather than onto the perpetrator where it should be directed. That is because nearly all people of the civilized world are taught from little children on that religion and the members of religious organizations (churches, synagogues, etc.) are intrinsically good and are about God and Godly things like morality and goodness.

Well, hold your horses there, Pilgrim, I’m proposing the opposite. I say that organized Religion has very little, if anything, to do with God, salvation or love (unless you include love of money). It is one of the largest examples of big business that exists today. For instance, the Catholic Church is one of the largest businesses on the planet. It is world-wide and certainly one of the wealthiest too. It is run by a mega-maniacal little tyrant whose lust for power, prestige and wealth matches or exceeds that of any modern day CEO in corporate America or anywhere else for that matter.

The Catholic Church is not alone in the big business arena of religious organizations either. The right wing Protestant Mega-Churches are much smaller in wealth and size than the Catholic conglomeration but are just as tireless and ambitious when it comes to turning a buck. They too are more interested in your money than they are in saving your soul. They have even forsaken the preaching that God loves a modest, poor man as opposed to a wealthy, powerful one (it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a wealthy man to pass through the gates of heaven). Today’s preacher is more likely to teach that God shows His love for His followers by bestowing riches and power on them, making their life easier and more satisfying. Suffering is bad; wealth and enjoying the finest that this world has to offer are the new signs of salvation! What better way to explain and justify wealth and power by claiming that these are a sign of God’s pleasure, not His displeasure.

Think about this for a minute or two. Why isn’t your personal relationship with God as good and powerful as the leader of your church’s personal relationship? Why is he “leading” you to God when you are fully capable to find Him yourself? You don’t need Religion to establish a relationship with God. However, Religion needs God, and the fear of Him, to control you and take your money. For your sake, stand back and look at the religious leaders and how nearly all of them live like kings in their mansions with servants and with millions of dollars under their control. How they can claim that they are doing Christ’s work and emulating His life, shows that they are lying or seriously delusional or perhaps both.

So how do we break the hold the religious fanatics have on much of the civilized world’s population? We must be patient, wait and stand up against the ignorance that is the bases of their teaching and the method that they, the leaders and preachers and priests, utilize to keep their followers too afraid to question their teachings and therefore retain the babble found in the Old Testament. Their lies and deceit have festered for over four millennia, growing and poisoning the minds of feeble followers of forceful teachers and leaders that are dedicated to using mankind’s fear of displeasing God who could/would send a soul into the deepest bowel of hell for disturbing the delicate but volatile balance between good and evil. It is with this fear that religious organizations control their followers and convince them that they, the teachers/leaders, alone posses the knowledge and understanding required to navigate the roads on life’s journey to salvation. These religious charlatans have set themselves up with probably the greatest flim/flam of all time judging by the wealth and power they enjoy.

This situation will exist and be strong for many years to come. However, as time passes, more of the hapless followers are waking to the realization that these religious organizations are not religious but are, in fact, big businesses that exist on the gullibility of human beings who are too afraid to form their own relationship with whatever God they believe in, and prefer to pay someone who claims that he/she has the inside track to God’s ear and special favor, to do it for them.

I don’t delude myself by thinking that this will change any time soon. Fear of this stature does not dissipate rapidly. But it does weaken and eventually will go away, replaced by the knowledge that, if there is a God, he/she/it cannot be defined or understood due to the limitations of the human mind for God is far too superior to what our minds can grasp. I will, however, remain hopeful that mankind will one day cast off the cloak of fear and misunderstanding that the religious leaders have placed on them and will begin to listen to their own conscience and make their own decisions based on a personal relationship with God, free of the negativity of the ramblings of damaged minds from so long ago.