You already know I don’t think you exist. I really wanted to believe. It would make all the hell we are experiencing on this Earth at least worth it if we knew we would eventually land in a sky-based paradise of eternal bliss.
However, there seems to be a horde of people living today that do believe, so just in case I’m wrong – Lord knows… I mean everybody knows I have been wrong a lot – I’m asking for your help. If you don’t exist, as I suspect, then no harm done. If you do, you will forgive me for even doubting your existence, because that is what a Loving God would do, in my humble opinion.
One of your true believers, Indiana’s Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, has made what I consider a ridiculous statement about the crime of rape. He told a group of voters yesterday he believes if a women should get pregnant as a result of a rape, that is what you intended, so the fetus must be allowed to live. He said this in order to support his desire to outlaw abortions in the case of rape.
Now, God, you are supposed to be all-knowing, all-loving and all-powerful. With all the people we have crowding this planet, while adding more at warp speeds, what kind of purpose would be served for you to intentionally create a new life by subjecting a woman to a brutal invasion of her person and mind?
Yes, I’ve heard that you work in mysterious ways, but such an approach makes no earthly sense. If it does make sense in heaven or wherever it is you reside, then mankind’s visions of the afterlife have been decidedly off the mark.
Because men like Mourdock tend to blame you for all their cockamamie notions that defy science, a lot of your boosters are refusing to consider the possibility that you hate man’s inhumanity to man even more than I do. These would-be disciples of yours are bullying the American populace, especially the women, into losing their personal rights to determine what is best for their own bodies, and they are doing it all in your name.
Call me crazy, but in my mind, no Loving God would want to subject any woman to rape, let alone to delivering a child as a result of that rape. No Loving God in my admittedly limited imagination would force that child to be carried to term to face all the hardships that will undoubtedly face him or her as a result of his or her conception. I have heard of women who were raped, became pregnant, delivered the child and found it impossible to love that child because of the circumstances surrounding the conception. Would you, a Loving God, really intend such a burden for an innocent child?
Religious fanatics who want to use the word of God as a hammer to beat into submission all Americans in the name of Jesus Christ have got to be mistaken. If you are God, which they say they believe, then why would you need their help in keeping the great unwashed among us in line? Why isn’t it enough for them to follow their beliefs as they see fit and leave me and others like me to deal with you individually? You are God, so you can handle the workload, right?
So here’s how you can help me out. Would you mind sending an archangel or somebody down here to inform your flock that they will have to find another, more honest, way to achieve their political aspirations? These fire and brimstone poseurs are starting to give you and your son a bad name.
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
Terry McKenna
Jacob Sugarman
Devi Hart
M.Stan Yow
Man Talk Now
Kim Gamble
Salon.com
Comments
This sort of thinking is the main reason I have nothing to do with any organized religion. I haven't stepped foot in a Church house in over thirty years because I never seemed to be able to find God in one of them. I find him every day in the forest, in the eyes of my animals, in the quiet breeze that refreshes me on a hot day. That God, the God I worship, does not figure women's rapes into some grand scheme.
Any woman or man who loves a woman who votes for this moron deserves what they get.
Regards / r
WHAT SON?
Most of the guys that God ostensibly sent to tell us stuff like that, which is to say Prophets, didn't talk about that kind of thing. They talked about not following other gods (which, given that other priesthoods were pushing stuff like human sacrifice, made moral sense) and taking care of widows, orphans, strangers, poor people, etc. Pretty much what Jesus talked about. So, if we're to believe either Testament, He used to do that stuff. Supposedly, we're supposed to go back and recheck that stuff because we've already been told multiple times. And what we've been told multiple times bears no resemblance to what a lot of these guys are telling us now.
There is nothing in any Testament that says that human life begins at conception. Judaism, in fact, doesn't believe it, even Orthodox Judaism, and we've been listening to God for about twice as long as the Christians have. I don't know where this notion comes from, but as far as I can see, it's church doctrine (not even all churches), not Scripture.
People are making up a lot of things about God these days. it's what Bradley Whitford refers to as Supply Side Jesus. Do what you want, maintain order, and claim this is what Jesus wants based on.............nothing.
This is not all on organized religion. It depends on which religion, which sect of which religion (or movement), which congregation. I get where people have bad experiences and head for the hills but, as I've said in a post not long ago, they've got no reason to generalize because we're not all like that.
Is changing. There was a time not very long ago at all when the Senators were Evan Bayh, a second-generation Democratic Senator who refused to run again because the Senate had become too disfunctional after Newt Gingrich's Congressional influence, and Richard Lugar, a moderate Republican and a Rhodes Scholar who, along with guys like John Warner of Virginia, tried to make sense. The mayor of Indianapolis went from a Democrat to one of the better Republican mayors I've seen.
Of course, we should still be atoning for Dan Quayle, but he's probably better and more qualified than a lot of this year's crop of Republican Presidential candidates.
Just disgusting the way these "believers" manipulate and play God themselves to suit their own agendas. Horrifying how little the cost to a fellow human means to them.
My faith aligns with David's -- beautifully put, Mr. McClain.
Our friend in Indiana serves a purpose ya know.. he's an illustration of what not to do, how not to behave.. I would wish that there weren't so many multiples of these illustrations though :-/.
Rated for frustrations.
Kosh: Hahahahaha. Perhaps I should have written “alleged son?”
That’s just it! The people who swear they have read the bible cover to cover 67 different times still manage to manufacture “proof” of their beliefs. Supply Side Jesus works perfectly with the GOP agenda!
And, yeah. Thanks a lot for Mr. Potatoe Head, Indiana!
JT: And they bestow far more rights to that little embryo than they do to its walking-around siblings and parents.
Seer: Yes, we have enough examples of what not to do, thanks. :D
brace yourselves: religion is non-sense. that's why you get tied up in illogical knots. put it behind you. religion is a disease of childhood, it's time to grow up. while you're at it, would you please take control of your society and responsibility for its actions? your current masters are killing people who are real, grown-up people as an electoral ploy, and it's going to hurt you too, someday soon.
but for today- there is no god, you can be in charge of your destiny, women's bodies are their's, not your's, and mr mourdock is an ignorant religious fool, but not a monster.
This senator ape.
Guy gotta be punished, I shall get to that later, hee hee.
U ask:” what kind of purpose would be served for you to intentionally create a new life by subjecting a woman to a brutal invasion of her person and mind? “
Well, my job as Creator doesn’t imply I am terribly influential in what you humans do.
I created you to see what feelings and spatiotemporal reality might be like..
How the hell would I know about this stuff unless I could LIVE IT THROUGH YOU?
~
After life? Well, you go back where you came from. That’s about all I wish to say on that!
~
What now? I “ disciples of yours are bullying the American populace, especially the women, into losing their personal rights to determine what is best for their own bodies, and they are doing it all in your name.”
Damn fools. First damn thing I said, if I remember correctly, was don’t take my name In vain!
“ Would you, a Loving God, really intend such a burden for an innocent child?”
No, tis you who are intending stuff. I sit above it all, and yet right IN IT. Feeling what you feel as you feel it. It sure gets goddamn grim……..
~
I am bored with those fanatics. I admit—o h do not tell anyone---the adventurous ones. Shush now, our secret! Buncha tiresome fools.
Fire and brimstone, yeah , sorry for that. It was necessary when I said it, like, a long time ago.
These days I watchya all not unlike a reality tv show.
~
And..hey, if you blow this planet up, well , there only a billion billion trillion others I might turn my attention to. Nothing to me if y’all ruin everything.
Well, not nothing. But not of utmost importance unless you apemen do something good.
Can ya handle it or not
"No Loving God would want to subject any woman to rape"
No he or she wouldn't- so sometimes I have to ask myself if we are all in hell. That is my honest opinion..
HUGGGGGGGGGG
If He's Not Bi-Polar He's ADD. OHO!
Hope He No Use Human Skull for Butts.
I Read CEO's FOR MITT Use Human Skull.
Mitt's Staff's SPIT IN MITT's Big` Spittoon.
If their `Ma & Pa Endorse MITT's ` Spiels?
I Pray they Go To a ` Imbecile's Loon` Bog!
As for the rest of it, me and Torman have a lot in common....
Love your neighbor, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Not in some idealistic, dreamy utopian sense either, but in the gritty, inconvenient, because-it-matters way.
I also enjoyed James's thoughts and might agree there too, if deep love for humans and how we grow in Spirit toward one another is included, as there is deep sadness when we succumb to base, selfish or evil levels. It's our own spiritual growth, our own choice.
I also am glad to say I don't *know.* No one does, regardless of their convictions, or how much "God has spoken in my heart."
Sadly, too many humans chose poorly, but many more caring, selfless acts among humans occur across the globe than the Internet or any media show.
I do try to keep that in mind.
James: Well that’s pretty amazing writing there.
Linda: I think we are. I really do.
Art: Amen.
Boanerges1: If only men would have just one menses or give birth to one child, all this nonsense
would go up in smoke.
r.
Jon: :D
There's a reason why we say a person who tells the truth would never get elected.
As I said elsewhere, the Omnipotent One must have lost some of his mojo because he used to be able to impregnate women without benefit of intercourse -- or so we're told. One thing we know for sure -- rapists are no angels.
So why are Kindergarten Kristians, who are so forking quick to blame Satan for everything else, incapable of imagining he planted that bad seed in a woman? Haven't these people read Rosemary's Baby? They could at least watch the movie -- but then that would cut into their time watching John Hagee, Pat Robertson and Jim Bakker.
No wonder Jesus wept.
However ...
We need a bright, hard line between religion and state. I'm sick to death of people injecting their personal spiritual beliefs into our secular government issues, and into the personal choices of others. Religious zealotry is to blame for most of humanity's problems. R.
This ghastly guy is basically condoning incest babies in the same breath. God help us all to be more peaceful and to allow women's bodies more peace.
R
I'm infuriated by this horse hockey (trying real hard not to curse here). I've known too many women whose lives were ruined. FYI, I pre-date Roe vs Wade in your country and the lifting of the abortion ban in this one.
Cheshyre grin: Thanks for your comment.
Tom: No wonder Jesus wept, indeed.
Deb: I agree that it is great that faith is beneficial for some people. Sometimes, I wish I had it. But this country exists because of people wanting to escape religious persecution and I think the right’s conflation of faith and state is a form of persecution to the rest of us.
Bea: There is no way that asshat could be speaking for you, I already knew that.
PW: I just don’t understand why they think it’s their business.
It contradicts Akin's theory that the body shuts down to prevent such things. In Akin's irreligious world the woman's alleged anti-conception properties trump the Lord's doing. Someone better convene a fundie convention to sort this mess out.
Peace to you.
I'm with Bernadine on this. I'm noticing that there are a few people knocking religion because of this. Too broad a brush, guys.
Rather than repeat myself:
http://open.salon.com/blog/koshersalaami/2012/09/17/in_defense_of_my_having_a_religion
Abra: LOL! You are in rare form tonight. Really funny.
PW: Judaism is also less inclined to proselytize.
Kosh: I am in no way anti-religion, as you know. It is too important to too many people to flat-out knock it. It is just not for me.
Just as some people cannot imagine discussing anything without taking their personal religious views into consideration, I cannot imagine seeing the world through a religious prism. Religion really has no place in politics, though I know that is difficult for the very devout to comprehend. We all have to compartmentalize as we make our way through the world. Why can't politicians learn to keep their personal beliefs out of civil discourse that applies to millions of other citizens who may not sympathize or share their personal beliefs?
Something to think about.
The entire world knows that Jesus is about love and helping the poor. The right wing evangelicals know that too. They know they are not following the code of Jesus, they know they are not Christians, they know their pastors are spinning the truth, and they know that what they believe cannot be that good. Because I don't believe that anyone can be that detached from information. No one can be that stupid. Yet, I believe that anyone can be that tribal, patriarchal, racist and hateful.
We cannot keep up this charade: "Oh, they are people of faith and we have to respect their faith." Bulls**t! Their faith is false, wrong and evil. Anyone who begrudges the poor food stamps is neither a Christian, nor human. Anyone who says that God intended a woman to get raped is a...pimp.
We have to stop this lame political correctness. But, some say, you cannot attack other people's religious beliefs. I am not. I am not attacking Christians or Christianity. I am attacking heretics who believe in falsehood.
You always make me think, Lezlie; well thought out and inspiring indeed. R
Sometimes that's what you have to do.
Being a man, he won't have to bear the cost, so now all I can do is keep my fingers crossed. Mike Pence has come out and asked Mourdock to apologize for the remark but it may be too late. The early voting centers are crowded and busy. I'm just hoping Pence gets tarred with this brush, too. We don't need him in charge, either.
Deborah,
Religious or not, I'm extremely committed to the separation of Church and State. If I were more religious, that wouldn't change.
Margaret: Thank you.
Brazen Princess: I was wondering who would point that out. :D As I continued in the piece, there is a good chance I am wrong, so I was making a plea, just in case. Thanks.
just Phyllis: Even if he apologizes, it will be an empty apology, recognized for what it would be – political damage control.
Kosh: I believe Lugar is a good man, too. In fact, that have been many good people on the right in the past who were not stark raving mad.
Strangely enough,I felt a deep seated faith in you,too.
Your letter to God is a modern prayer and will probably still be printed in 100 years.It is the voice of the people...in dispair...and hope.
r
They're wrong, they know they're wrong, but have come too far to be wrong; they know if they can believe the wrongness enough--and thereby convince themselves--they can sell the wrongness to other wrong people.
There is a reason we call it, "Wrong headed."
CatholicGirl: Can’t argue with that. :D
Tink: Makes sense to me. He knows a train-wreck when he sees one.
Stuart: I’m really disappointed OS ate your first comment. I would have enjoyed the longer version of your insightful assessment. There are far too many wrong-headed people wandering aimlessly around America.
I have been having the same type f doubt lately and have been incensed at the disgusting rhetoric by some of these right wing nutjobs. The scariest part is that they are legitimized by their party instead of cast out as jokes.