« Metro Clarksville: Maybe it’s time | Home | On September 11, six years later: Mourn, honor, and move on … »

Insecure God wants love or he’ll kill us

By Debbie Boen | September 10, 2007 |

“I hope that we don’t forget spirituality just to spite the religious fanaticism that resides in our country. “

The world has been pummeled by natural disasters and many regions have been devastated by terrorism and war in the past few years, a pattern that only seems to escalate with each passing week. It is frightening, this power of the earth, the horror of war and the inhumanity.

A recent letter to the editor published locally attributed everything from the regional drought in Tennessee to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the earthquakes and tsunamis in the region of Sumatra to the wrath of a God seeking our attention.

The author of that letter stated definitively that God:

“…created us with absolute free will. Consequently we can choose to live out our lives in reverential awe of him as our Creator or we can ignore him completely with no concern to obey his ways…

“Similarly, the Old Testament prophet Amos (circa 770 B.C.) declared to the nation Israel God’s efforts to reclaim the devotion and love of his people by the use of natural events: famine, scorching desert winds, plagues, war and drought.”

– Charles C. Currie, Leaf Chronicle, 8/8/07

The letter concluded with a statement that the Old Testament provides the answers; if we fail to “discern [God's] ways” he may need to pressure us until we do.

I wouldn’t want to take this interpretation of God’s word as the way all religious people view it. When I hear stuff like this I know that it is chasing people away from religion and spirituality. The people who want God to be as insecure and punishing as they impose religion with stone cold walls that reason cannot penetrate.

I can understand why there has been a great battle between science and religion. If science says, shows, proves that we humans have created global warming, and that’s what is causing these hurricanes and natural disasters, then where’s the all-punishing God that we need to have on our side punishing those who would oppose him (and us)?

God, in the Old Testament, says it is okay to attack and kill your neighbors if they don’t believe in your God. Kill them all, wipe them out, and leave none alive; he says it over and over again like someone (a man) who’s trying to justify to himself all the atrocities that he’s committed. Oh, and it’s okay to take their daughters as your sex slaves.

In the Old Testament, the public stoning of adulterers is normal and expected.

Those are just two examples of things that do not fly in this day and age, unless we get rid of government, science, decency and freethinkers.

Jesus came along and set us straight; told us that God has to do with love, that it was wrong to use the house of worship to make money or scandalize. All people deserve love and are loved by God. Jesus had a problem with, actually got furious with, people who say one thing (like they represent God), and do another (like lie, cheat, and take advantage of “lesser” people, including their wives and families). Jesus didn’t feel as if he had to beat people at their own game (hate/fighting), and he would turn the other cheek. He wasn’t so insecure that he had to demand love from others.

Religion, as in the Old Testament, led the Dark Ages. Rules made by priests were stringently followed. The world was flat, the sun went around the earth, and anyone not agreeing with such beliefs could be killed. People accused of being witches were tortured and killed, their properties confiscated by the Church. Many thousands of innocent people were killed during those times, 80% of them women. And killing was a public spectacle. Besides “witches”, pagans, converts, the crusades, heretics, religious wars, Jews, and native peoples are people and movements on the “resisted religion/therefore killed” lists. Twentieth century extermination camps (besides the ones in Germany and Poland) also took too many lives in the name of religion. It’s enough to make us want to hate religion forever.

I found a synopsis on this at: http://www.truthbeknown.com/victims.htm

When people do not want to be continually controlled and punished, and they eventually find out that they no longer admire the people who are doing the punishing, they will revolt, at least in their minds. In the Dark Ages there were people who mouthed the words of religion while they were becoming atheists. Religious people find that they cannot live by the strict guidelines required of them, so they say one thing and do another. We’ve learned, as a people, to hide our true feelings and demand that others judge us by what we say we are, not by how we live our lives.

People cannot live by punishment alone. They need to have relief. They need to make their life worthwhile and creative, and find the spirit of love and laughter inside them. Saying that religion is about love and then using it to punish everyone who is not choosing it is insincere and unbelievable. The Renaissance was the period where people learned to read, and they read the Bible themselves. They discovered that it did not say what religious leaders were telling them. They discovered that they did not have to live their lives in punishment. Art and culture flourished. Punishment and death in the hands of the Church rescinded.

People came to America to escape religious persecution. They wanted to worship in their own way. That is what this country was founded on. It was not founded on Christianity as I have heard claimed in this part of the country. History is worth studying. Facts are worth looking at. Science is a worthy study. And life does not have to be an either/or. Science and religion can co-exist. We could all do with a little lesson from Jesus.

Nowadays I am taken aback by Christians who are not ashamed of the wrongful invasion into Iraq, the torture, rape and continued killing. Though many Christian ideals have saved us from slavery and war in the past, I have yet to see that now. I see Christians today who worship the almighty dollar, who believe that God chooses those who step on others to reach their goals.

I hope that we don’t forget spirituality just to spite the religious fanaticism that resides in our country. Education is desperately needed to bring us out of these Dark Ages.

About Debbie Boen

Debbie and her family moved to Clarksville slightly after the tornado of 1999. Debbie founded the group, Clarksville Freethinkers for Peace and Civil Liberties, in 2004. She participated in Gathering to Save Our Democracy, a group dedicated to obtaining free and verifiable elections in Tennessee. She has supported groups including the NAACP, Nashville Peace Coalition, PFLAG, Friends of Dunbar Cave and the Mountain Top Removal Series of Films and speakers. She has originated rallies, meetings, vigils, films and protests. She participated as an artist in the ARTZ gallery group in Clarksville and won Best of Show and First Place awards for two of her sculptures. She won a voter's choice award for a performance at the Roxy Regional Theatre. She is a wife, mother and cancer survivor. When she grows up, she would like to be more childlike and keep a sense of humor no matter what, in the Will Roger sense.

Email: buginthefire@bellsouth.net

Sections: Spirituality
Topics: God, Old Testament, Religion

8 Responses to “Insecure God wants love or he’ll kill us”

1. Jeff Mack Says:
   September 10th, 2007 at 9:50 pm

   This one is easy! Proverbs 1:22 How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge.

2. David W. Shelton Says:
   September 10th, 2007 at 9:54 pm

   The original letter that gave birth to this article was one of the most ridiculous to have ever be put to print. I think the LC just needed to fill space, and what better way to do it than to run a letter that’s as whacko as that one? As I said on the LC forum: I’m amazed that there are still people who think like this. I’ll never understand this zealous giddiness over the multiple thousands of deaths from these calamities. I suppose it was “God’s will” that a tornado wiped out the entire town of Greensburg, Kansas back in May? Or was it His will that only 9 people were killed? Just like the low F4 twister that hit our city back in January of 1999. It caused millions of dollars in damage, yet no one was even seriously injured. I remember the Gateway Medical Center ad shortly afterwards: “On January 22, 1999, our ER was slow. Thank God.” Yes, it rains on the just and the unjust. Life happens. Maybe that “S… Happens” bumper sticker is better theology than we’d like to admit! It’s easy for us to roll our eyes at silly rants like today’s letter. It’s a little more productive for us, I think, if we actually spend time thanking God that we’ve moved beyond such absurd “my god is bigger than your god” nonsense, and into a time when we can worship our Lord freely without the need for our human grade-school ego. It’s so wonderful that we’ve moved beyond the idea of a god that is trying to beat us into submission, who gets angry if we don’t worship him at every moment, and who’ll wipe out whole cities just because of a single transgression. Thankfully, we no longer worship a deity that commands us to wipe out whole nations of people just so we can move in. Or do we? ==== Anyway, I think it’s important to point out that there are those of us who ARE Christian and who ARE ashamed at the hateful things that are done in the name of a loving God. It’s so easy to be repulsed by the kind of venomous bile that’s seen in the original letter, so it’s important that we recognize that such views… while vocal… are clearly diminishing. Thank God.

3. Jeff Mack Says:
   September 10th, 2007 at 10:06 pm

   Debbie’s letter isn’t hate filled?

4. David W. Shelton Says:
   September 10th, 2007 at 10:28 pm

   Hate-filled? Nah. Clearly, she has contempt for people using such a distorted, hateful view of God for their own agendas. Quite frankly, she’s right. I remember reading once that “you know you’ve created God in your own image if he happens to hate the same things you hate.” Consider this… most Christians do not consider themselves religious. After all, “it’s not a religion, it’s a relationship,” right? Perhaps you’re seeing it as hate-filled because it’s cutting a little too close to home? Surely you’re not suggesting that it’s actually GODLY to rejoice at the deaths of thousands of people just because they aren’t Christian? The reality is that there are those who have distorted Christianity by their own greed and arrogance. There are indeed those who “step on others to reach their goals.” I will not state names because of site rules (no personal attacks) but we’ve all encountered these kinds of people, haven’t we? Jesus spoke of such people as well… called them “brood of vipers” and “whitewashed tombs.” These are people who “search high and low for a convert” to “turn them into twice the son of hell” that they are. If Jesus was so incensed by such religious impersonators, is it any surprise that someone outside of Christianity would be repulsed by them as well? I think not. The first place we need to check for hate… is always in the mirror. And yes, I’m including myself in that.

5. Christine Anne Piesyk Says:
   September 10th, 2007 at 11:10 pm

   Debbie’s letter isn’t hated filled; it reflects her frustration (and my own frequent discontent) with those who mask prejudice, bigotry, cruelty, insensitivity and other negatives in the guise of Christian thinking via the Bible. Jesus, whether you believe he is the son of God or just a phenomenal man and teacher who changed the world in many ways with his beliefs and actions, would shudder at so many of the things being done by so many in his name and the name of God these days. As my grandchildren would say, Jesus “walked the walk.” He taught by example. There are many good, kind, loving, tolerant Christians out there. They do what they do in their lives, and for others, unheralded, not seeking recognition, only offering multiple levels of service to their God and to humanity. The noisemakers of Christianity are usually big on talk and fanfare, but don’t live the good life as espoused by Jesus. Instead, they criticize, condemn, shun, and wage war on anyone whose opinion and belief system is different than their own. That’s distinctly un-Christian. Somehow, I don’t think Jesus would approve.

6. Jeff Mack Says:
   September 11th, 2007 at 12:07 am

   You not allowed to put words in my mouth, sir. I have suggested no such thing, I “rejoice” at the death no one who leaves this earth outside of Christ. It is not her hate of Christians that concerns me. It is her apparant distain for God and calling Him names. Isn’t this partially why David went after Golaith? (I’m not saying stone her…LOL) I share her contempt and that of the Lord, for those who use the vail of Christianity for self gain and self righteousness. Your right it is a about a relationship with a living God in Jesus name. Not religion. What she does do, is wrap all Christians into that same hate filled box just to turn others from the Almighty. I would disagree that all Christians are like the ones she points out and it’s not even close to home. I don’t hate anyone. I don’t have the right to. Matthew 6:15 “But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Would you do agree with her, that God is insecure? I wouldn’t. God isn’t insecure by a long site, but he is punishing. He will punish unrepentant sinners at the great white throne. Those unrepentant will sent to the fiery pit. That is not God being mean or hate filled, it is God being just. I don’t say this, the word of God does. I’d be happy to quote the scrpiture where is says this. Jesus will judge the repentant on thier sins also the at Judgment seat of Christ, so Christians aren’t totally off the hook for sin thier lives either, we are just forgiven. So the people she points out will answer for what they have done, be it at the Great White Throne or at the Judgement Seat of Christ. For vengence is His and His alone. I’ll take an eternity in pup tent just inside the gate, over the pit anyday, wouldn’t you? All in all, this was just you and I, David, in a conversation. I would hope that Debbie would take some of this to heart. I don’t hate her and I never will. I would hope she wouldn’t have distain for me or my God. But that just doesn’t seem to be the case.

7. Debbie Boen Says:
   September 11th, 2007 at 6:23 pm

   Jeff, If God gave me free will then he has patience enough to let me find my road to him. Just try to force any human to do anything and they will rebel. God knows this, ya think? If God is not insecure, he is not threatened by whether I worship him or not. To need my worship means that he needs me and why would he need me and my praise of him? An insecure man would. And so I say that God has been portrayed (in the Old Testament) as a resentful, hateful, bigoted, killing, raping, and needy man. I do not accept that about him. You say that Jesus will get vengence. If that’s what he’s really about, I can’t really learn from him. But, luckily for me, I don’t think God or Jesus are as described. I cannot and will not see God as someone who will send me to the fiery pit. That is a fear based lie to me. Can you live with that about me? It really is about a difference of belief and you’re not going to change me and I’m not going to change you. You’ve been trying to make me say I’m on one side of the line or the other, either I accept religion your way or not. Maybe you’d like me to be less religious than I am in fact so that you can put me on that other side. But our belief differs so much that you may as well because I do not believe that a Supreme Being would be tied into destructive emotions. Now the Gods of the Romans and Greece were very emotional. Fun reading. I am. Can you let me be? I think you can’t because you don’t believe in it. You have to punish me because your God is about punishment. I don’t accept it and that’s going to make you angry, even if you’re not allowed. You say you know God isn’t insecure and he is punishing. The word of God says unrepentant sinners will be sent to the fiery pit yet you say God is not mean or hate filled. Jesus will have vengence. I have to be forgiving or God will not forgive me. Your idea of God is full of contradictions. Let me repeat myself again: “I hope that we don’t forget spirituality just to spite the religious fanaticism that resides in our country. Education is desperately needed to bring us out of these Dark Ages.” I would be extremely uncomfortable if science ruled the world, but as of this date, religion has the high statistic on the most killing. It is a horribly discusting statistic that we can face up to, stop denying, and learn from. It will make us all better Christians.

8. David W. Shelton Says:
   September 11th, 2007 at 9:47 pm

   Debbie, your post really keeps this matter into a fine perspective. I think it’s fitting that you have the last word. Topic locked.

Feeds

• Full
• Comments