Religion, Faith, and Control

As I sit here in church and listen to the word of God being broadcast in song and in sermon, I have some of my best thoughts and ideations about a whole range of things, not just spiritual or religious ideas and understanding. I have developed an uncanny knack of being able to listen AND think/write at the same time. It's wonderful. It's like my brain's gears and operational capacity finally settled into itself, and thanks to the drugs, I'm a functional damaged person in need of God's mercy and salvation. I wish I had this level of stability and functionality 10 years ago. It would have spared me a lot of trouble.

       When I walked into church today, I noticed the mask mandate on the door that quoted Romans 13:1. "Everyone must submit themselves to governing authorities, for there is no authority which God hasn't established."

     I suddenly realized how much of a tool and weapon scripture is, and depending on who wields it, like any tool or weapon, it could be used for great good or great harm. 

Governments are notorious for using religion as a tool, and even though I submit to authority, mostly out of just the wisdom of knowing not to step on the venomous serpent that is the U.S. government, I acknowledge that flawed, sinful people run the government just like flawed, sinful people run the church.

 

I'm also under the presumption that any government or institution that uses religion and/or the name of Christ to justify atrocity and oppression deserves to be usurped, overthrown, and completely destroyed.

    The realization that the bible and religion is used as a function of a broader system of control really has no bearing on my relationship with Jesus Christ. In fact, it makes me realize how much I need the Love of God, his mercy and grace, and his Liberation from this fallen world all the more when I realize how his Word is abused and misapplied so much in so many ways and has also historically been used to justify atrocities like chattel slavery, the burning at the steak of women and homosexuals, and other twisted and wicked abuse of the power of scripture that runs so antithetical to the concepts of love, mercy, and redemption that it is heartbreaking to know of this abuse and to see it continued today in places. 

I have come to the realization that human beings have to serve something. No one is completely free here. However, if you serve goodness and righteousness, you get the liberty of eternal life and the liberation from hate and evil. If you serve evil and greed, you inherit death.

        My faith in God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is not tied in any substantial, binding way to the poor, flawed, imperfect leadership of the leaders of Christianity and the leadership of this nation. I am a follower of Christ, not a follower of Christians. I value the truth of scripture, and acknowledge the fact that I am not perfect, a flawed sinner myself, but God is love, and since God is love I try to love even the people who reject Jesus. I try to be respectful and compassionate to everyone I meet.

 I try to submit to the authority of God by being a man of love and not a man of hate, and a man of love looks past the sins of those around him and finds the qualities of a person that are loving, good, and true, no matter what they believe. I'll have a beer with a veteran who cusses like a sailor. I'll go hiking with my nihilist and atheist friends.

 Even though I am knowledgeable about the bible, I will not use it as a weapon of fear. I will not use it to condemn nonbelievers just because of the state they are in in their world and their relationship with God and existence. I will not use God's word to justify hate and slavery. I will not use the bible to empower myself or for financial gain. I will not use the bible to justify oppression, whether by the United states government or elsewhere in the world.  

Jesus hung out with sinners and tax collectors. I hang out with atheists, muslims, drinkers, swearers, and difficult people. I try to hang out with broken people and show them compassion and love, because who needs healing, the healthy or the troubled and sick? I need a doctor sometimes. I would know.

What I do know is that a lot of Christians are so unlike the Christ, and I find myself more comfortable around the "sinners and tax collectors" types of people than I do around a lot of Christians.