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An American Take On An American Viewpoint. "Truth" [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-11-04
Using every metric allowable, Speaker Johnson and I do have a few things in common. We are both male, we’re both very spiritual in our faith, And we are both Americans. That’s where the similarities end and any commonalities diverge, going off on some pretty severe tangents.
For one, he has hair, I’ve been balding since 23. He’s a rabid conservative, I’m a flaming liberal, he roots for team Jehovah and i’m, dare I say it, a Pagan.
I don’t believe in his faith, it holds no joys nor fears for me. I don’t believe that their God made laws (That hold ANY sway over me) or mandated leaders. I don’t believe the Gods needed to make Evil a personality that excuses me or anyone from all blame save for that of failing at fighting off the sin of temptation. The snake, original sin, the inherent right of males to own females and order their lives for the- I could go on. I shan’t.
I don’t believe ANY of that- nor do I begrudge them their beliefs, not at all, I’d just like them to keep it out of my eyes and ears. I’m pretty adamant that one of America’s most illustrious accomplishments is in creating a state wherein I, a kid born to kinda Christian by default parents in a kinda Christian by default town can see, hear and feel the call of another way- then follow that path with no legal repercussions of any kind.
That is freedom- that is America.
Oh, a person could take issue with all of the family and friends who walk away because the fact that their God commands them to kill me- myself being considered a warlock by many in their faith, disturbs them some and would, currently, get them into legal hot water.
A cauldron’s worth of it, actually. That’s still murder. But, if they balk at giving me the Witches send off, well, they sure are not going to associate with someone their God dislikes that much- right? They expect me to understand and I guess I do. Kinda.
However, by the grace of the Gods or the incredible foresight of the Great Mother, maybe even thanks to the Random Factors aligning, I was gifted with the ability to read and thus, I get to read such things as how the idea that a God (Coach of their team, I think) chose THEM to be leaders, but didn’t choose the current leaders because, well, they ARE on the same team (Second string, Coach said so) but have strange views about personal freedoms, so…. no- it’s only them that get to lead. God said so- they said- soooo...
And I read that there are “Truths” that some people, even some Christians, just don’t get- can you BELIEVE that? Truths like the idea that America should be a Christian Nation in every way- culturally, legislatively, penally. They really want that! Go figure.
All of that coming alongside calls, sometimes from the SAME people, to “corral, separate, seek a final solution, course correct, retrain. show the ERROR of their ways, show them non-believers why we have the 2nd Amendment!” to anyone who does not accept their God as their lord and master- you know, the people that don’t or just WON’T get those Truths...
That just makes me think. Oh boy, here we go again.
Because I DO take them at their word, when they show me what they are, I DO listen! I still have the newspaper clipping of an editorial rebuttal to me written by a Baptist minister in Wyoming wherein he states that he felt I should be jailed, indefinitely, until I accept Christ, and any Mormons, (Big thing in Wyoming) Muslims or Atheists should be TOO! I don’t recall anyone speaking against that, we had a rousing four week, back and forth battle on the editorial page- no one excepting the editor (Reminded all parties that we live in a constitutional state where such things are not allowed), I think, expressed any sort of condemnation of his ideas.
Take their God, or be sent to a retraining camp… basically. You WILL become a Christian.
Now, that was back when they were still kinda, sorta wearing the masks of civility that Trump and the MAGA movement ripped from their too pious faces. It’s over thirty years ago now, I don’t see things getting any better on that front though.
I’m not going to debate the worth of any religion, I am going to mourn the loss of the ability to make the choices we wish to- a right we were guaranteed as Americans. I feel that that we will all suffer if that group of extremists somehow attain the power they are lusting for.
Again- because they had it then dropped the ball on January 06. That should show us exactly how far they are willing to go for their God and the personal power that would come from worshiping him in such a theocratic state.
Yes, I know that moderate Christians are against such a development, this is what they tell me and also what I garner from words read here and many other places. I believe them when they say this to me. Many moderate Christians and Muslims, Buddhists and others have the “Live and let live” mentality that lets it all work in a free society.
Yet, I’ve met Muslims who refused to shake my hand on learning I worship the Great Mother. I’ve had them make the sign that wards off evil- at me. I can’t say it makes me feel great, but I just make it back at them, a ward to protect me from evil, and call it good. You should see their faces, Christian or anyone else- how DARE I think THEY might be evil. Hehe, your perspective is your reality, bub!
Robert Heinlein wrote a book, it came out in 1940, titled “If this goes on” and it is about the taking over of America by an extreme religious faction and the subsequent fight to regain freedoms lost under them. Let’s hope it wasn’t prophetic, eh? I read that at a young age and can only say that I cannot compass living that way- under the thumb of anyone, priest or politician. Horrors, truly.
One of the problems is that their tenets do not allow them ANY leeway. Thou shalt not have any Gods before me establishes the idea that Yahweh knew of other Gods or, at the least, humanity’s penchant for seeing a God behind every lighting bolt and burning bush and He didn’t LIKE it. It was to be ALL Yahweh, All day, EVERY day as far as he’s concerned.
He left them no way out. I get it. It is LITERALLY risking their very soul, the pits of fire for them, if they allow me to worship my Gods. Am I misreading that, I don’t think so, I’ve read that book over and over again since I was eight years old and nothing in there tells me that the Guy doing the judging on The Day is going to give them any points off for being humane to other humans.
So, to be good with God, they have to convert me or kill me. (I’m thinking the same thing applies for anybody eating surf and turf or something, but that doesn’t make the true believer as eager to follow God’s law as putting me onto a pile of wood and setting it alight does. Who knew, right?)
There is no room for freedom of choice in there. That means there is no room for freedom except as a form of, oh, lip service to freedom. You know, those lies we tell ourselves so we can feel less evil.
“Of course he or she can choose their own career! Why a man or woman can choose to fish or work, to have babies or not, go to worship or no… errm, wait, we’ll get back to you!”
And right there we have the beginning of it, I can be free to do anything I want as long as I am a Christian male and my activity is approved of by the church. Which brand of Christianity will be on top to be determined through fistfights or something. Brothers and sisters, that ain’t freedom!
Nor is that a template for any world I want to live in, whether the plans for it issue from a church, mosque, temple or sacred grove.
Thus, the title.
I’m still an American too- although they would deny me that, I think.
I believe in democracy and I believe in the right of each individual to get square with their view of the universe and their role in it all by themselves- with no legal coercion.
Perhaps I’m spoiled, after 250 years of true freedom- but I will not have my Gods dictated to me. The separation of church and State is a precious protection that I do not take for granted.
Nor will I live underneath the laws that those people would enact. They have said it over and over again with the zeal of righteousness beaming from too focused eyes. “When we get into power, we will create GOD’S Nation and then God’s World!”
People, you can’t force me to say the pledge of allegiance since you wedged “Under God” in there and you damn sure won’t force me to go to Sunday school or honor your Sabbat. Those are your things, and you are welcome to them but this American has better things to do with his time. Oh, and those too focused eyes, we’ve seen them before, haven’t we? Crusades, Inquisitions, Witch burnings, Book burnings…
It’s all been done but they haven’t learned to stop DOING those things.
I’ve never quite understood the idea that an all powerful and all knowing entity needed the help of humans to get anything done- couldn’t he or she just have created it that way, created us with no free will and put us on idle like a video game waiting for an end review of it’s AI?
i don’t get it but I don’t have to understand it to see the danger to the one thing that i’m worried about- that in their attempt to create a new holy land, they are going to harm our America and her people- us.
They aren’t the only ones with a claim to that name and heritage.
I and other pagans, we are Americans, as are the Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Atheist, Catholic, Sikh, Baptist, Satanist, Mormon people that make up our nation. I could go on. I should go on, to be fair, but my knowledge is lacking. It’s a LOT of people and a load of diversity, though.
They’d cut the voices of all of us at a stroke, and that includes denominations within their own belief systems that they don’t agree with or, yeah, actually hate. Here’s looking at all you hold dear, Mr. Romney- not to mention LGBTQ people, Rastas, feminists, cross dressers- it might be easier to list what they don’t hate- not sure the DKOS servers are large enough to list their grievances in detail.
So, when I see people like Speaker Johnson sage seemingly spewing the idea that what they want, their world view, why, that’s just how it IS and everyone really knows it, I have to answer that.
Bull puckey!
No, Mr. Speaker and dominionists everywhere, I have a different view of it than you do- that’s not the Truth in a wider America just because you say it is. No, you’ll not place that yoke over our people and pull the dark sheets of intolerance and theocracy over our nation’s head.
Not without a fight, not as long as voting can stop you.
I do, however, wish you all personal health and wellness and our nation prosperity and healing- seems like we’re really going to need it after the last few decades get behind us.
Y’all be safe and-
Peace
Kell
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