Isn't it amazing to see all the death and destruction in the name of God/Allah/Mohammed/Jehovah? Doesn't it simply boggle your mind or horrify you to see the atrocities committed againts the Kurds and the Afgans? Didn't the Jews suffer enough when Hitler tried to exterminate them? Wasn't 911 the most vicious evil perpetrated upon one country by another in the name of a "God" and look at the billions of dollars spent since then to destroy the menace of terror.
Politically correct people say Happy/Merry ChristmaHannaQuansica/Yule now to appease those who do not celebrate Christmas. In Australia, Store Santas are not allowed to say Ho Ho Ho for fear of offending women. You can't call black or brown skinned people Negros or blacks or diety help us "n*****s" you must call them African-Americans. Red-skinned persons of tribal indian persuasion are "Native Americans" and so on. Short people are vertically challenged. Will anorexics be weight-challenged next? It just goes on and on with the supposedly offensive things you can't call people.
I live in the deep South. My community has more churches, literally, than businesses. I moved here 4 years ago and did NOT join a church becase although I was raised in a dual Catholic/Southern Baptist household, I am not primarily a Christian. Fundamentally, I consider myself to be a pagan with wiccan leanings. I do not broadcast my faith around the community UNLESS asked. I was worried when I moved here about being ostrasized. This little community is primarily homebound elderly people. I started cooking for some of them when I moved over here. One of the local church ladies groups found out and started helping me with it and now both of the larger local churches ladies groups (35 of us) cook for between 80 and 90 homebound elders. These ladies and the two pastors used to constantly try to get me to join one of the churches. At the second big Easter cook-in, I finally sat all the ladies down and asked them to listen while I explained why I did not feel I should join either church. The pastors came in at my invitation for it as well. I asked them all to please not interrupt nor to judge until they had taken ONE WEEK to consider my words. They all agreed.
This is the "meat" of my faith:
There is ONE omnipotent diety. This diety is seen in different aspects by humanity. I call these aspects faces. Christians see God, Jesus, and the HolyGhost (depending on the faith). Others see Jehovah, Yaweh (sp?), Mohammed, Allah, Ra, and so on down the list of alternative Diety nomme de plumes used the world over. This omnipotent diety would be happy with individual or family prayer and worship...however, man has instituted RELIGION and set rules and restrictions and written down his interpretations of this Diety's orders, rules, and strictures. Each Religion has developed a following, a sect, and a set of MEN, fallible and corrupt, has taken their own interpretation of "God's word" and passed it to the blind masses following them. And so the brutality and horror and racism and bigotry began and continue to this day.
I choose to pray to the feminine face of the Diety. I call It Goddess. When I feel the need to add in a masculine component, I pray to Goddess and Consort. Noone, Diety or not, should be alone, after all. I am strongly centered in my Faith and do not need religion to bolster my strength. I do not need anyone to tell me how to be good or how to pray or how to live. I can read a Bible or a Koran or the Torah. I can research Celtic tales or just donate my time cooking for elderly homebound people. I can take care of my own family and friends and listen to those who need an ear. I can counsel young teens who face unplanned pregnancies and offer them the options available. Maybe I am not what the religious zealots of the world would call a Godly woman, but I do try to be a good person, and with my faith and family and friends, that is enough for me.
The ladies and pastors did not run screaming away from me. They did not lynch me nor burn me at the stake. They did tell me later that if I was ever ready to join one of the churches I would forever be welcome. We still cook and laugh together. When I got sick, later, they organized (and still do) fund-raisers to help pay for my expensive medications as I do not have medical insurance. I would say I have found a good community and a good home with good friends. Goddess provides.
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