Spiritual Non-Fiction posted October 20, 2022 |
A few thoughts on religion
I'm Not a Christian - Are You?
by CD Richards
I'll start with a disclaimer:
I am not a Christian.
While it's possible to pick some good bits out of that religion, I believe much of it is wrong in fact and harmful in practice. Even the good bits are mostly borrowed from elsewhere. That said, I don't "hate" Christians. I don't hate their religion and I don't hate their God. That would be most illogical, since I don't believe he exists. Some of the people I hold most dear are Christians. One of my children is a Baptist minister, and in spite of his flaws, I'm quite fond of him. I address this point because certain people feel a need to suggest that anyone who doesn't agree with their particular worldview is a "hater". That's simply an attempt to shut down any discussion. While it might be expected that this essay would be an attempt to discredit the Christian religion, it is not. If anything, it is a defense of the important aspects of it, from an outsider.
So why, given that I'm not religious, should I take any interest in what Christians, or those who claim to be such, say and do? Well, firstly, I invested (in more cynical moments, I'd say wasted) a considerable number of my best years attending church and practicing the Christian religion. In that time, I was taught by teachers from many different denominations what it means to be a Christian. I even attended a Theological College. I feel personally offended when people I hold in very low regard designate themselves Christian and use their alleged beliefs as a political battering ram, while attempting to ensure the world operates exactly according to their whims and prejudices. Furthermore, if clerics can pronounce from their pulpits each Sunday what it means to be a heathen, I claim reciprocal rights – I‘m entitled to express my views on religion.
This is not a discussion about theology. I'm capable of conversing about that and questions concerning the history, tenets and the logical foundations, or lack thereof, of particular doctrines. What I want to focus on here are the moral aspects of Christianity, as I believe they are held by the majority of both Christians and those who reject the religion, but are not so dogmatic as to claim there is nothing good about it.
In particular, this article is aimed at a very specific group of religious dogmatists. These people are invariably extremely right-wing in their politics, and militantly so. They tend to insist that everyone should be required to accept and embrace, willingly or unwillingly, the political ideologies they attempt to press-gang the Bible and/or God and/or Jesus into supporting. In reality, their only interest in religion is using it to control others. Interestingly, they seem to delight in calling anyone who disagrees with them (even if those people themselves are quite religious) Satanists or cultists.
Here then, in no particular order, are the things I learned about Christianity from a lifetime of instruction and study and the things which I personally would describe as cult-like and evil, if not Satanic, since I don't believe in that particular gentleman, either.
Christianity is:
- Showing kindness and compassion.
- Being accepting of others regardless of their gender, race, religion and social status, and even their “morality”.
- Ensuring the homeless have shelter and food and the poor can receive medical attention.
- Offering safe harbour to the oppressed and persecuted.
- Recognising that we are, in fact, our brother’s keeper. So when, for example, we are faced with situations where it is dangerous for us to be out and about, because we might harm the weakest and most vulnerable in our community, we take the precautions we are requested to take, for our neighbour’s sake.
- Respecting the laws of the land when they are the expression of the will of the people.
- Pursuing peace.
- Fostering unity and cohesion in society.
Evil is:
- Being naturally suspicious, or even worse, towards strangers.
- Imagining that anyone from a different culture, religion or race is automatically not to be trusted.
- Wanting to shoot refugees in the legs as they approach your border, and lock their children in cages.
- Imprisoning asylum seekers in detention centres for years without even a trial or hearing.
- The idea that the rich should be offered ever more ways to avoid contributing to society, while the people who make their money for them starve.
- The notion that someone is “evil” because of a doctrine they accept or reject, rather than how they live.
- Refusing to accept the will of the people. Mounting insurrections and mutinies when elections don’t go the way you would like.
- Demonstrating that the lives of others are of no importance to you. For example, refusing instructions to stay at home or wear a mask in the middle of a pandemic, because your “rights” trump everyone else’s.
- Encouraging violence to ensure that a particular ideology is triumphant.
- Promoting division and factionalism as a means to creating an “enemy” to be conquered.
I have listed a few of the characteristics which convince me that Christianity is not without merit. While all the above are well supported by the Bible, they are, of course, shared with many other religions and those who have no religion at all. They are simply the natural behaviours that promote the type of society in which most of us would want to live.
I’ve also listed a set of behaviours and ideas I think are reprehensible. Most, I believe, share my views. The truly distressing thing is that literally tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people in our current times have turned these values on their heads. They openly embrace the values described in the lower listing, while showing absolutely no interest in anything remotely Christian in their personal lives. Yet they claim the title for themselves, and insist it gives them moral superiority. For them, Christianity is a bargaining chip, a sledgehammer and nothing to do with living a decent life. And what is worse, over recent years, their ranks have been growing.
Forgive me for saying, God help us if they get their way.
I'll start with a disclaimer:
I am not a Christian.
While it's possible to pick some good bits out of that religion, I believe much of it is wrong in fact and harmful in practice. Even the good bits are mostly borrowed from elsewhere. That said, I don't "hate" Christians. I don't hate their religion and I don't hate their God. That would be most illogical, since I don't believe he exists. Some of the people I hold most dear are Christians. One of my children is a Baptist minister, and in spite of his flaws, I'm quite fond of him. I address this point because certain people feel a need to suggest that anyone who doesn't agree with their particular worldview is a "hater". That's simply an attempt to shut down any discussion. While it might be expected that this essay would be an attempt to discredit the Christian religion, it is not. If anything, it is a defense of the important aspects of it, from an outsider.
So why, given that I'm not religious, should I take any interest in what Christians, or those who claim to be such, say and do? Well, firstly, I invested (in more cynical moments, I'd say wasted) a considerable number of my best years attending church and practicing the Christian religion. In that time, I was taught by teachers from many different denominations what it means to be a Christian. I even attended a Theological College. I feel personally offended when people I hold in very low regard designate themselves Christian and use their alleged beliefs as a political battering ram, while attempting to ensure the world operates exactly according to their whims and prejudices. Furthermore, if clerics can pronounce from their pulpits each Sunday what it means to be a heathen, I claim reciprocal rights – I‘m entitled to express my views on religion.
This is not a discussion about theology. I'm capable of conversing about that and questions concerning the history, tenets and the logical foundations, or lack thereof, of particular doctrines. What I want to focus on here are the moral aspects of Christianity, as I believe they are held by the majority of both Christians and those who reject the religion, but are not so dogmatic as to claim there is nothing good about it.
In particular, this article is aimed at a very specific group of religious dogmatists. These people are invariably extremely right-wing in their politics, and militantly so. They tend to insist that everyone should be required to accept and embrace, willingly or unwillingly, the political ideologies they attempt to press-gang the Bible and/or God and/or Jesus into supporting. In reality, their only interest in religion is using it to control others. Interestingly, they seem to delight in calling anyone who disagrees with them (even if those people themselves are quite religious) Satanists or cultists.
Here then, in no particular order, are the things I learned about Christianity from a lifetime of instruction and study and the things which I personally would describe as cult-like and evil, if not Satanic, since I don't believe in that particular gentleman, either.
Christianity is:
- Showing kindness and compassion.
- Being accepting of others regardless of their gender, race, religion and social status, and even their “morality”.
- Ensuring the homeless have shelter and food and the poor can receive medical attention.
- Offering safe harbour to the oppressed and persecuted.
- Recognising that we are, in fact, our brother’s keeper. So when, for example, we are faced with situations where it is dangerous for us to be out and about, because we might harm the weakest and most vulnerable in our community, we take the precautions we are requested to take, for our neighbour’s sake.
- Respecting the laws of the land when they are the expression of the will of the people.
- Pursuing peace.
- Fostering unity and cohesion in society.
Evil is:
- Being naturally suspicious, or even worse, towards strangers.
- Imagining that anyone from a different culture, religion or race is automatically not to be trusted.
- Wanting to shoot refugees in the legs as they approach your border, and lock their children in cages.
- Imprisoning asylum seekers in detention centres for years without even a trial or hearing.
- The idea that the rich should be offered ever more ways to avoid contributing to society, while the people who make their money for them starve.
- The notion that someone is “evil” because of a doctrine they accept or reject, rather than how they live.
- Refusing to accept the will of the people. Mounting insurrections and mutinies when elections don’t go the way you would like.
- Demonstrating that the lives of others are of no importance to you. For example, refusing instructions to stay at home or wear a mask in the middle of a pandemic, because your “rights” trump everyone else’s.
- Encouraging violence to ensure that a particular ideology is triumphant.
- Promoting division and factionalism as a means to creating an “enemy” to be conquered.
I have listed a few of the characteristics which convince me that Christianity is not without merit. While all the above are well supported by the Bible, they are, of course, shared with many other religions and those who have no religion at all. They are simply the natural behaviours that promote the type of society in which most of us would want to live.
I’ve also listed a set of behaviours and ideas I think are reprehensible. Most, I believe, share my views. The truly distressing thing is that literally tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people in our current times have turned these values on their heads. They openly embrace the values described in the lower listing, while showing absolutely no interest in anything remotely Christian in their personal lives. Yet they claim the title for themselves, and insist it gives them moral superiority. For them, Christianity is a bargaining chip, a sledgehammer and nothing to do with living a decent life. And what is worse, over recent years, their ranks have been growing.
Forgive me for saying, God help us if they get their way.
© Copyright 2024. CD Richards All rights reserved.
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