Frank Schaeffer has gaudily departed from the evangelical Christian family he was raised in, and how writes hair-on-fire articles about the dangers of the radical religious right. Last week, we found him warning on MSNBC of how Michele Bachmann represents a “theocracy in waiting” from people “who actually hate the United States as it is.”
Unsurprisingly, The Washington Post thinks Schaeffer’s new book Sex, Mom & God deserved a rave review in the Sunday paper, and went to find author Jane Smiley, who once wrote that Ann Coulter’s parents should be ashamed of themselves and that “Americans aren’t nice or decent people, and conservative, overtly patriotic Americans are even less decent and less nice.”
This is yet another example of the clear and direct attempt of the self proclaimed progressive left, to demonize religion and minimize the effect of religious thought on society. It comes about every time we are headed into an election cycle.
Does anyone recall the terrible libel and slander leveled against Mitt Romney for his religion? Or against Gingrich because of his assertion of personal faith?
What is faith?
Faith can be defined as aspiration toward divine potential. If we aspire to be more than we are, to be stronger, to be wiser, to overcome adversity, to be the greatest example of the handiwork of creation we can possibly be, and do so with the intent of achieving just that, we have succeeded in keeping faith.
Faith is inspiration toward following the ideal of perfection. It is the aspiration toward the divine potential of mankind. And I think that more people are coming to that conclusion. More people are beginning to realize that what matters is family, friends, and the future. More people are beginning to see that there has to be something more to this life than mere existence.
- To have faith in your ability to achieve your highest potential is to be fortified and made stronger in times of challenge.
- To have faith in the ability of mankind to become a peaceful and cohesive species is to perpetuate the possibility.
- To have faith in the plan and wisdom of whatever God you choose to believe in is to maintain your link with the divine.
- To keep the faith, is to keep courage, strength, wisdom, and power at your disposal.
Without faith, we wither and die. I have been very near losing all of my faith in all of the above many times. I have spent a great deal of time pondering the meaning of existence. What I have discovered is that life requires more than just existence. To merely exist is not enough.
“Freedom is to be in possession of yourself.”
(The Zohar)
We have to take possessions of ourselves. We have to gain control over the body, the mind, and the spirit. It won’t always be easy. Some things will come along and challenge that control. But you can achieve a higher sense of self, if you really want to.
The more you work, the easier it will become to take possession of yourself and gain freedom. And we must be thankful for that freedom.
Being thankful for life is a repeated message in the writing and speeches of many a leader. Being grateful for the fact that you still exist seems to be the first principle of knowing how to live. This is perhaps the idea that we most take for granted…that we exist at all. I believe the fact that we exist is a statement of our universal right and obligation to live.
“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, At least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, At least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, At least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.”
(Buddha)
I am not a practicing member of any religion and in fact, would be considered a Pagan for many of my personal beliefs in terns of life and the universe. But I am continually disgusted at the utter travesty of intellect and the utter hypocrisy of the “I should be free to do, think, and say what I choose,” crowd concerning religion and in particular Christianity.
I wonder if the self same writers would dare speak their vitriol against Islam and the fact that it is the ONLY one of the patriarchal religions that condones AS A TENET OF FAITH, the practices of pedophilia, spousal rape, mutilation, stoning, beheading, and “convert or die.”
No, always, it is far easier for them to attack the religions that are truly peaceful and will not declare a fatwa on them for what they write. They are cowards.
There is nothing rational about hatred for religion. What must be taken into account is the ACTS of the religious, not that they ARE religious. Hating them because they choose a title, or disparaging them as irrational for having faith in a god is as illogical as to attack people who place their faith in a particular political party or politician.
It is always funny to me, that the very people attacking faith in God, have what can only be described as personal faith in the as yet not totally proven theory of evolution.
The very same people attacking faith in a creator, have what can only be described as personal faith in the proven faulty information concerning global warming.
But, the religionists are an easy target because those placing faith in global warming, in evolution, or in the rainbows and unicorns of Obama can always fall back on the words, “rational,” “scientific,” or “progressive” to justify equally irrational faith.
After thought:
And it is also funny to me that the “progressives” who talk about how “evil” the Christians are to women, never want to talk about Islam. Anti-xtians don’t want to talk about this:
1. The Burqa Covers Up Abuse,
2. The Burqa Justifies Sexual Assault on Women Who Don’t Wear It,
3. Civic Participation is nil in Islamic females,
4. Segregation of females from society is Discrimination,
5. The Wearing of the Burqa is Enforced Through Violence,
6. Girls as young as nine are married off to Islamic patriarchs,
7. Girls are circumcised from as early as age 3,
8. Girls as young as 4 have been prostituted to Imams visiting homes,
9. Women are ritually stoned to death for casting their eyes in the wrong direction,
10. Women can be gang raped in the town square if they are accused of sleeping with the wrong man.
But flying spaghetti monster forbid that a Christian male actually provide for, respect, not abuse, and not rape his wife in exchange for asking her to subjugate herself and sink to the menial tasks of raising children or cooking meals, right?