Your God, and My God

Earlier this evening, during the course being told what a horrible person I am, how I don't deserve this that and the other in my life, and how I missed some turn on an interstate somwhere (?), someone asked me (granted rhetorically) if I really thought that 'God is looking down on you with an approving smile'? Despite its terribly arrogant, narrowminded and self serving nature, this question actually got me thinking, I admitt. After a great deal of contemplation, I decided that had I been given the chance to answer said question, the first thing I would have wanted to know would have been, are we talking about YOUR God, or MY God? Because I assure you, they're not the same thing - thankfully. My God is a God of love, mercy and forgiveness, not a God of judgement, persecution and punishment. So is God smiling at me right now? Possibly - I don't know, but I would never be so presumptious as to tell another person that He wasn't.

That aside, I suppose the biggest difference between MY God, and the God mentioned by the person above, is that my belief in my God doesn't preclude the validity of all other religious beliefs in the world. The thing I find most painful about Christianity in general, is the supremely arrogant idea carried by so many of us, that Christianity alone has all the answers, to all the questions. Now I am a Christian (Episcopalian in fact) and I consider myself a moderatley religous person, but what I want to know, is WHY people think that the 'horse blinders' are neccisary as soon as a person gains a little religious conviction? I fail to understand how or why my belief in God should make anyone elses belief in their God, Gods, Karma, Chi, Budda, Wiccan spirits, etc. etc. etc. any less valid? Is it supposed to be because of the things written in a book? Things written by mortal men, a very long time ago, and translated so many times that even the most knowledgeable scholars can't tell you EXACTLY what a given line was supposed to mean? I mean I hate to break the news, but pretty much every major religion has a book like this, and unless someone somewhewere has an autographed copy, the Bible is no more or less valid then any of those.

Religion should be about what YOU believe, not what someone tells you to believe. Each of us must decide what we want to put our Faith in. I chose to put my faith in Christianity - how could I look another person, who chose to put their faith elsewhere, in the eye and tell them that their soul was condemned to Hell, because they didn't make the same choice I did? I don't even believe in Hell! All that fire and brimstone, smiting, punishing, wrath of God type stuff is simply something I don't accept. Lots of people have a problem with this, but as a person of faith it is my RIGHT to decide exactly what I do and do not believe, and not anyone elses. When I am in the places that are most sacred to me, and when I feel closest to God, those are not the impressions I get, and they have no place in my beliefs. Who has the right to tell me otherwise?

No one has all the answers, and yet in every corner of the world, religous leaders will tell anyone willing to listen that only their religion can "save you", only their religion has ALL the answers, and that only through their beliefs can you lead a good life. And yet, when you take the time to look close, it turns out that each and every religion has the exact same holes, and exact same BIG questions, and the exact same unexplainable aspects. Why? Because when you come down to it, religion is about FAITH and FAITH is not about having all the answers, but in realizing that you don't, and believing anyway.

Here Without You

"All the miles that separate
Disappear now when I'm dreamin' of your face
I'm here without you baby
But you're still on my lonely mind..."

Typical...

I post something about the Braves being in the post-season, and needing to win the World Series, and OF COURSE they get bounced two days later, after an epic 18 inning game. DAMN IT!!!

On a happier note, the Panthers are back above .500 with a win over Arizona yesterday. Granted it was sloppy, and not played anywhere close to the level our team is capable of, but a W is a W is a W, and everyone else in our division LOST! Go Cats!!!

Much Ado About Nothing

First off, my apologies for not posting in a while! Life has been a little bit crazy around here, and I haven't really had time to sit down and do it. Nor have I felt particularly inspired lately, which isn't to say you have to be inspired to write a blog, but it does help. Anyway, I figured I had a pretty good title for this post, cause I have a lot of things I want to talk about, but nothing in particular, if that makes any sense at all...which it probably doesn't.

So first off, let me rant briefly about Dr. Phil, and talkshows in general. I figured that after Jerry Springer went off the air, America might have finally had it's fill of "shock tv". You know, the whole "I'm not a man, I'm a woman, and your brother is your father, I slept with your sister and married your uncle who I'm cheating on with a corpse," type of stuff. I mean that REALLY wouldn't have been to far fetched a topic for Jerry, or Maury or whoever, and you KNOW if it HAD been a topic, it probably would have garnered the highest afternoon cable ratings in U.S. history. Why? Because for some reason American's have this weird obsession with people whose lives are more f*cked up then their own, and with people who lie, cheat, backstab, fight, etc. etc. etc. ala "Survivor" and other 'reality' tv. It's the 'car accident' mentality...pretty much everyone looks at an accident if they pass one (not all...some people deliberately don't look, which I commend) but I feel like if they could get away with it, a large portion of our population would pull over, get out, walk over and stare - some of them might even take pictures. With these people I'm not sure if it's about feeling sorry for the victims, or just finally finding something about their lives that is better then one of their peers. But I digress...what set me on this little tangent was as I mentioned Dr. Phil, who the other week set a new American low by dedicating an entire show to people who were sexually abused as children, or who were 'sex slaves' or part of other deviant practices when they were younger. What sort of sick person would watch something like that?? It might even be excusable if there was some sort of catharsis involved, but as near as I could tell, there wasn't It was simply more of the "shock me" type tv that I thought we as a country had gotten past. What's worse is that these people really are VICTIMS! At least if you had an incestuous family on TV, or transvestite lovers, or some sort of sordid marital affair, you could at least say that those people were responsible for their lives, and had maybe on some level deserved to be where they were. To trot out people who are victims of sexual abuse though, who had no real choice about what happened to them, for the entire country gasp and stare at is just sick. If you want "shocking stories" or "shock tv" Dr. Phil, why don't you fly over to Iraq or Afghanistan and take some pictures of the brave men and women dying over there everyday. Or even get some pictures of the caskets coming home! This would be a HUGE service to our country, seeing as how the current administration has placed a media ban on any and all images or videos that don't show the situation in Iraq in a positive light. This is a far cry from Vietnam, when the media was still allowed fair and unbiased coverage - the names of the dead used to scroll across the bottom of the news every night as it was being read, reporters were allowed right up into the front lines, and the pictures they sent back to their papers did not have to pass a sensor board first - a far cry from today. I can't blame GW though. If America could actually SEE what was going on in Iraq, rather then just being told what the people in charge think they should know, GW would likely end up with another Vietnam-era country on his hands. (possibly, the BEST thing that could happen right now!) Sorry, I didn't mean to go all political on this, but it makes me angry that our country is being FORCED to wear rose colored glasses when it comes to stuff like this. If our President wants to be delusional about how things are going in Iraq, that's fine. But don't drag the rest of America into your fantasy sir.

And since I'm on the subject of politics, let me just mention what I think MIGHT be the most disturbing piece of news I've read in the last two weeks or so. According to a BBS documentary that is airing tonight, President Bush has been talking to God. No, I don't mean in the one-sided 'I pray, God listens' type of talking either. I mean literally, the voice of God has apparently been speaking to Dub-yuh, and telling him to invade Iraq, kill the terrorists and create a Palestinian state. I guess God was to busy to remind him to help the people on the Gulf Coast. Seriously though, there are several direct quotes from a meeting Bush had with Palestinian leadership not that long ago. I don't know if it's true or not (the White House of course, has already issued adamant denials) but I will say that I generally trust the BBC more then any American news outlet, except maybe CNN, the NYT and Time. Anyway, if our President is hearing voices, in my book that is cause for concern. Though I have always maintained that I thought GW was probably a little crazy, and he is probably arrogant enough to believe that God would speak directly to him. I just hope the voices in his head never tell him to push the "Launch" button.

And now for something completely different. The Atlanta Braves are back in the post-season!!! This makes THIRTEEN straight appearances, which is AMAZING by any standard! Bobby Cox is probably the greatest manager of all time, to pull off a streak like this, given the changes he has had to deal with in Atlanta. I wont bore you with the details, suffice to say that John Smoltz is the only player left on the team from when the streak started. Cox has won with offense, pitching, both and neither, year after year after year. Granted they Braves only have one World Series win, for all those appearances, but still no other team in any sport has ever come close to matching this run, and I doubt any of them ever will. Now, can we please beat the Yankees and win the World Series? Thanks.

Lastly, a quick mention of Dave Matthews. I recently got my hands on a copy of one of Dave's more famous concerts, from the Roseland Ballroom in NYC, 1995. It's a GREAT show for anyone who is a Dave fan, or who is particularly a fan of his early stuff. Other recordings I've heard of this show have been really poor quality, but this sounds like it was pulled right off the soundboard, and is absolutely amazing. John Popper and Trey Anastasio (Phish) sit in on a couple of songs, and make the show even more unique. Anyway, if you want me to burn you a copy, just let me know - I'll be happy to.