“My God is subtle and great
She can’t be wounded
By the gossip and the hate
Of the frightened
Who put their heads in the sand…”
Last week on Fresh Air, the founder and editor of beliefnet was responding a bit to Bill Maher’s soon-coming docu-drama about Religious Fantatics, said editor-guy was trying to counter the idea that all religious and spiritual people are crazy with the fact that for every time religious identity and belief has done harm to society as a whole, there is at least one time where religion has done right by civilization.
And to be honest with you? For most of my life, religion has done me well. I grew up Catholic – I didn’t have anything forced on me, except my mom encouraging me to go to CCD even when I didn’t want to. It was the same sort of minor coaxing that got me to stay in band in the 7th grade, and we see where that has gone. I grew very attached to the church in my adolescence, and while I wouldn’t say it was a defining aspect of my life, unlike music was, it worked hand in hand with what I loved. I got to play music at my childhood church for five years, direct ensembles, and play lots of solos. I played four masses in two days on Christmas in 2000.
More so than that, somehow I learned what seemed to matter in church. When I was in 1st grade, and other kids made fun of me, I would mumble something about Jesus loving everyone. I never got the hypocrisy part of it. I learned that while much of the establishment doesn’t like homosexuals, we still love them. I learned that when you do good, the left hand doesn’t let the right hand know what it’s doing. I learned that the tax collectors get punished and the poor will find glory.
To me, that seems like a pretty typical liberal agenda. It constantly astounds me how the right-wing hijacked religion. I guess the same way that men who sought power have always done. I am always reminded of John Kerry’s words during a 2004 presidential debate – regardless of what else he said or did, he gained my respect throughout the campaign: “My faith guides me as well. It teaches me to give to the poor, to care for the planet…”
A good friend of mine who is an atheist said to me, while we were waiting in a long line at the tax collector’s office, that she wasn’t an “evangelical atheist.” I like that term. And I can’t stand listening to Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. Not because I disagree with them so badly, but because they exactly enact the things they hate about the faithful. They spew harsh language and hate, and it makes me crazy.
For the Fresh Air episode, I caught the very end of Terri Gross’s interview with Bill Maher, when he spoke about the New Testament, and how revolutionary it was. The meek inheriting the earth, the sad and pathetic being deserving of respect, all creatures of the earth being deserving of kindness. The latter is a statement I feel very strongly about after Andrew’s and my adventure this weekend with a small, pathetic kitty who could not help itself. Maher went on to say that this message isn’t one that’s gone out of style, and he wishes that could be expressed more than the hypocrisy of Christianity. I don’t know if I will end up seeing Religilous – I’m at the point in my life where poking fun at organized religion doesn’t bother me – but it was nice to hear him say something not so scathing about the church.
No comments:
Post a Comment