Sunday, February 26, 2006

The Emporer Has No Clothes

Quite some time ago, I saw a program about a religious ceremony. The people taking part were all white westerners, educated, well to do.

A boy of about 4 was brought into the centre of these people for a ceremony. He was very cute, dressed up in his little suit. He had trust in his eyes, he was smiling at all the people around him, making a fuss of him.

Then a man came up to him, pulled out his penis and chopped part of it off.

The people around him clapped and smiled and generally were very pleased.

I would have jailed every single one of them! I could not believe what I was seeing. To say I was appalled is an understatement.

This was abuse. No doubt. All circumscisions are -unless it needs to be done.

What sort of God do people believe in that requires them to abuse people? Where do these people keep their brains? Their feelings? Their compassion? Their common sense?

It is not surprising that people do not see that the Emporer has no clothes. We are taught to only see what we are told to see. We are taught that we are no good, bad people if we dare to question what we are taught. We are told that Satan makes us question. That Satan makes us doubt. That indeed Satan is living in us, in the form of demons, if we doubt. We are told that God will destroy us or make us suffer for eternity if we do not comply. If we do not believe ridiculous cruel and dangerous stories.

So we grow up afraid, no matter how deeply we bury it. We grow up unable to think in case we discover that our parents were wrong. In case we discover our society is wrong or whatever church/religion we were indoctrinated by was wrong. FEAR stops us thinking. FEAR forces us to pass this abuse on, generation after generation.

We only have to look at our world and the daily horrors perpetuated by religion's indoctrinees.

'Look Jesus, look how good I am. Save me Jesus. Look what I have done for you!' they say, as they kill a doctor who performed an abortion, as they scream messages of hate at the funeral of Matthew Shepherd, as they applaud the killing of non white non xtians.

Or

'Look Allah, look how good and worthy I am, I will kill for you when i see your name deflied'

FEAR is evil and it produces evil behaviour. We don't see it. We refuse to see that the Emporer has no clothes. We have been taught that to notice that the Emporer has no clothes will mean banishment, abandonment, eternal damnation, eternal suffering. No wonder we keep our mouths shut and commit evil.

We abuse children daily. It is sanctioned. It is prasied. It is considred our right. We have faith schools. Insidious and evil. We mold children to our needs. It is not an accident that Jesuits would say 'give me a child till he is 7 and I will show you the man'.

NO CHILD should be indoctinated into any religion at all. Teach about the different belief syustems but above all teach them to think without fear. Teach them to be who they are without fear. Eradicate YOUR fear that children will be monsters if you don't terrify them into being what you want them to be.

God has been made in man's image. We have created a God with all the worst human failings. A God who demands our obedience, a God who destroys what doesn't please him, a God whose self esteem is so low He needs our constant praise and worship! We have given him words that are unbelievable, stupid sick stories that we insist are the Word of this God we have invented. And at the same time we say God loves us! NO WONDER WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT LOVE IS!!!

Love does not condemn, nor destroy, nor reject. If there is a God and God's love is uncondtional, then everything esle is bulldust. There is no threat! No insisting that we believe the unbelievable. No need to fear. None at all!

It is said by many that Jesus suffered for us. People go on and on about his suffering. They know not of what they speak! If the story has any validity at all, he had good parents who loved him. He lived a good and happy life until the last few days. Yes his friend betrayed him and he died horribly.

People live far more painful lives now and back then. People are betrayed daily by their parents, their siblings, their friends. People are tortured not for a day but for years. Six million people sufffered worse during the Holocaust. Give me a break! What planet do thses people live on? Do they go around in a vaccumn? Do they not see?

The pomp and circumstance and wealth the churches have. Jesus preached against this! he HATED this.

And the hypocrisy! Robertson allways spouting his evil yet is rolling in money, YOUR money! Do you have a credit card? A loan? A mortgage? The Bible expressly forbids these things. Evil has filled you with fear and is laughing all the way to the bank!

I heard a missonary once, who worked with the sick and dying in a Third World counttry. She was asked why she did it. I was expecting her to say something like 'I can't bear to see this suffering. I can help to alleviate it so I do. It hurts me to see my fellow humans suffering like this' did she say that? NO! she said she did it becasue she loved Jesus! BULLSHIT!!!! She was doing it to please her idea of Jesus, to save her own skin! It was selfishness that drove her. Fear that drove her. It was not love.

No one pays for your sins(mistakes). YOU do and it matters not one jot what you believe. You cannot escape the law. You cannot pass the buck. YOU are responsible, no one else. Has all your suffering stopped because you believe that someone else died for your mistakes? Can you do wrong and not suffer for it? Can you stick your hand in the fire and not burn? Of course not!

What sort of God brings pain and suffering upon people? Only a human God, a God created by ignorant scared people. You had an accident. Did you deserve it? Was God trying to teach you something? You have cancer? What is God telling you? What did you do to deserve this? You are born disabled-did God do this? Was it meant to be? Thousands die in the Tsunami. Was this God's doing? NO NO NO!

We are human beings and our bodies are vulnerable. Shit happens and it happens regardless of our own thoughts and behaviours. It pays no regard to our supposed goodness or suppose badness. How that suffering is experienced is a direct of how we think, what we believe.

Love yourself, love others. Then you have a God worth having. No fear, no threat.

Love has noting to do with like. We do not need to like anyone. We need to love everyone,including ourselves. We don't and therefore this world we live in is in a dire mess.
We need to eleimnate fear, judgement. We need to understand that love is action, not feeling. It is not emtional attachment. Hence we can love those we don't like.
Love is being kind and helpful, no matter what. It is easy to be loving. Don't litter! Huh? I here you ask? Don't litter? Yes! Dropping your littter willy nilly is not a loving act. It pollutes your environment and everyone elses. It is not a loving act. Not doing is a loving act. Holding the door open for someone is a loving act. Not doing so isn't. Not parking in the disabled bay without entitlement is a loving act. Taking that space without entitlement is not a loving act.
Being polite. Love. Being rude. Not. Beleiving yourself more deserving or better than - not love.


YOU are responsible for your behavior and your thinking. You are responisble for your beliefs. YOU and only you can make this world a better place. Really want to change the world? Then change yourself. Grow up, take responsiblity and allow love to grow in you. Ditch the fear. Ditch your foul idea of God. Be brave, dare to think and above all dare to beleive that YOU are loved, worthy, right now, as you are and you do not have to believe any crap or do anything at all. Just be.

Suffering is down to us to fix and we can. We only have to change the way we think. No amount of pleasing an invented God will change anything. No matter how many times you pray, no matter what clothes you wear, no matter how you mark yourself, no matter how loudly you shout and how visibly you declare your alleginece, you will not excape your thinking! You cannot be the cause and have no effect. The effect will ALWAYS come.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Colin,

I just read Knitting Attitude and The Emporer Has No Clothes (expressed
my thoughts exactly). Well done! Dont stop giving us food for thought.

Anonymous said...

Colin
Give 'em Hell!!!!!!!!!!
Wonderful message. Thank you.

I appreciate your messages to others on the knitting machine yahoo group. I try to learn something form them.

God bless you and keep you.

Jim

Anonymous said...

Amen!!!
Ilse

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed "the Emperor has No Clothes".

Great comments on circumcision. When people try to support this barbaric practice by bringing up the cleanliness issue, I feel like asking them if they've had their a**holes sewn shut.....as if they think that males can't attend to that little detail when bathing.......

R.

Anonymous said...

I feel really bad that you feel this way. I hope you will forgive me for saying. i group up in an abuse home where everyone thought my family was perfect, not that it matters. but the one thing that I have always had there for me was God and he is still here. I have been in a third world country where I was able to work with orphans and lepers and I hope to return soon. I did it for God and have been blessed many ways by it. You may think it is crazy but I am praying for you maybe you will be able to find what I have.

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

Dear Anonymous. I am sorry you did not understand what I was saying. Do not assume I am an athiest. I am sad to read why you did what you did. I'd have hoped you did what you did for the people.
bw
colin

Anonymous said...

Great insight on circumcision. In my culture, when a boy turns 12 he is sent to a man by the river who cuts the foreskin off. Since we live in the west, my friends have been sending their sons home to have this done and are asking me if I will be sending my son this summer home. I told them that I will not have this done to him, that if in the future, he would elect to have this done, he can but I won't do this to him. My family and my friends are appalled because he won't be "clean". Tant pis.

Susanstitches said...

I totally disagree with the "God fearing" concept, we should love God, and fear the devil, not the other way round - I am not particularly religious but have had exposure to lots of religions in my time and think that religion is sometimes mistaken for 'society' and 'social awareness'. Just my thoughts, but keep up the good work.

The sweaters as always are beautiful, the Passap ones in particular.

Susan

Anonymous said...

Colin, may you long rant against hypocrisy.

I get cross, though, about the perception non-Christians have about Christians - the majority of us are not eaten up by guilt, constantly scared of God's big stick, or hung up about sex.

Christianity is about love, accepting, forgiving, being non-judgemental, and helping other people because we realise God's love is for all, and it's so fantastic we want to share it.

That's my rant! Hope you don't mind.

Kim

Anonymous said...

I don't think you understand religious faith in general, and Christianity in particular. Do you think I am motivated by fear as a Christian? I am not. I didn't turn to God because I was scared I would go to hell otherwise. I turned to God because I needed God's love and God's help. I believe all good things ultimately come from God.