STOP In The Name of God...You Have The Right to Remain Christian
by Matt Scheeren (mattisdx at hotmail dot com)
Today I was walking downtown in the streets of Pittsburgh, when I came across a nice older gentleman handing out Christian End of the World Apocalyptic literature. While at the time I didn’t think this was so out of place, later I got to thinking, what if this man had been Muslim? And what if the literature he had been handing out cited passages from the Koran and talked about “The End Times”. BAM! This guy would have automatically been labeled a terrorist, arrested, and thrown in some rudimentary prison cell while being harassed and harangued by armed guards and police dogs.
Why is it that in today’s society it seems so taboo to be anything but Christian ? Could it be because our founding fathers were Christian ? No, certainly not. Because it was people like them that actually supported religious freedom. Than maybe it was our parents, who so harshly pushed their ideas and ideals upon us. While half true, most of them have grown weary of the same old repetisous sermons every Sunday for years on end. Than it must be the Churches. Yes, those great institutions of deliverance, that can be found in every city, and on every corner. Can you even walk down a street now and not find a church ? From where I live, I can see 3 different churches, all of different “denominations”. It’s like we’re living back in Nazi Germany and the Re-Education centers are popping up everywhere.
“We’ve got to educate the people…We’ve got to educate the children,” is their mantra. And anything said enough times, becomes the truth. I forget who said that, but they were exactly right. Look back on your childhood. Every year around December 25th your parents would be going on and on about this man named Santa Claus, who, if you were good enough and deserved his “gifts”, that you could be privy to a visitation from him. Gee that kind of sounds familiar doesn’t it. Kind of like the “Jesus” story. Someone, somewhere, it always ready to tell you that Jesus is coming back. Some say tomorrow, some say next week, some say in a few years. But one thing that their sure of is, he’s coming back. Just like Santa Claus. Of course, only if we’re good enough. And if we promise to do exactly what “he” and the Church tells us to do. Because if didn’t, than we wouldn’t be good Christians. And we all know where bad “Christians” end up, don’t we?
Like a vicious cycle this goes on everyday, except no one ever seems to acknowledge it. It’s like the elephant in the living room, no one wants to talk about it. Maybe out of fear, maybe out of ignorance, maybe because they just don’t care. But anything like this that goes on for so long eventually has to be stopped. It’s like a giant beast bearing down on you in your dreams. You wake up and it’s not there. But you realize that sometime, somewhere, when you close your eyes again, your going to see that beast one more time. Just like the Church. It’s power isn’t with people marching around with guns (yet) , but rather it’s power is found in the mind. And the sheep go around every day and proclaim the words and wisdom of the Church, and condemn me and everyone else who doesn’t believe them just because that “mind beast” is constantly watching over them. And if they stray, than what ? They’ll go back to the only book that they’ve known. The Bible. And what will Bible tell them ? It tells them that everything they’ve been brought up to believe and think on a daily basis is true. Heck, if they only book you ever read was Winnie the Pooh, you would think he was real too. And that’s where a lot of Christians get it messed up. They disobey their own religion. OH MY GOD ! If they only knew. How can a person who follows something so blindly go around telling other people to join him in following him in the same mindless pattern. Like the blind leading the blind, the only man who controls the world has 1 good eye. And that’s where the high ups in the Church are. They know not to take what they preach literally, but rather symbolically and metaphorically. And with this knowledge they wield power. And with this power, they create fear. And with this fear, the churches control the masses. This mental beast that they’ve created has gotten so far out of their control, which is exactly what they wanted. This beast that controls the minds and the lives of billions of Christians everyday around the world tells them what to think, what to say, what to do, what is and isn’t good, and most importantly, what is and isn’t the truth.
With truth you hold all the marbles. But if you can skew the truth or totally change it, than you’re the one whose in charge of reality. Look at the ministers and look at the priests, who bi-weekly spread their messages to the billions of sheep, just waiting to accept whatever they have to say and swallow it whole. How many Chirstians actually research their faith ? I for one was brought up in the Church, living a so-called good Christain life, but than at the age of 22 I finally started researching what I had so valantly believed in and defended for all these years. And like any lie, when you start to scrape the surface the rest falls apart. And that’s what happened for me, but luckily what I discovered in it’s place was far more accepting than what any Christian had ever taught me. Far more loving than what any person had ever shown me. What I found was myself, and I came to realization that we’re not all that different. What makes me so different than the black family living down the street ? Except for our skin color, nothing. We’re exactly the same. And I don’t if they’re Christians, frankly I don’t care. But looking at what is so easily believed these days, if a Christian has a non-Christian friend, than that relationship isn’t going to last that long. Because they’re going to get to talking, and the Christian is going to be faced with radical new ideas that are so far different than anything they’ve been brought up to believe. Acceptance of gays. Freedom of actions and speech. Freedom of Love. And that’s really what it’s all about. Embracing our differences. Because if we were all the same, than there’d be nothing to live for.
Freedom doesn’t come from the Governments of the world, it comes from ourselves. We’ve forgotten that, but some people are starting to wake up again. And like 200 years ago when our forefathers rose up against the British, we’re eventually going to have to rise up against our oppressors. Whoever, and whatever they may be.
Today I was walking downtown in the streets of Pittsburgh, when I came across a nice older gentleman handing out Christian End of the World Apocalyptic literature. While at the time I didn’t think this was so out of place, later I got to thinking, what if this man had been Muslim? And what if the literature he had been handing out cited passages from the Koran and talked about “The End Times”. BAM! This guy would have automatically been labeled a terrorist, arrested, and thrown in some rudimentary prison cell while being harassed and harangued by armed guards and police dogs.
Why is it that in today’s society it seems so taboo to be anything but Christian ? Could it be because our founding fathers were Christian ? No, certainly not. Because it was people like them that actually supported religious freedom. Than maybe it was our parents, who so harshly pushed their ideas and ideals upon us. While half true, most of them have grown weary of the same old repetisous sermons every Sunday for years on end. Than it must be the Churches. Yes, those great institutions of deliverance, that can be found in every city, and on every corner. Can you even walk down a street now and not find a church ? From where I live, I can see 3 different churches, all of different “denominations”. It’s like we’re living back in Nazi Germany and the Re-Education centers are popping up everywhere.
“We’ve got to educate the people…We’ve got to educate the children,” is their mantra. And anything said enough times, becomes the truth. I forget who said that, but they were exactly right. Look back on your childhood. Every year around December 25th your parents would be going on and on about this man named Santa Claus, who, if you were good enough and deserved his “gifts”, that you could be privy to a visitation from him. Gee that kind of sounds familiar doesn’t it. Kind of like the “Jesus” story. Someone, somewhere, it always ready to tell you that Jesus is coming back. Some say tomorrow, some say next week, some say in a few years. But one thing that their sure of is, he’s coming back. Just like Santa Claus. Of course, only if we’re good enough. And if we promise to do exactly what “he” and the Church tells us to do. Because if didn’t, than we wouldn’t be good Christians. And we all know where bad “Christians” end up, don’t we?
Like a vicious cycle this goes on everyday, except no one ever seems to acknowledge it. It’s like the elephant in the living room, no one wants to talk about it. Maybe out of fear, maybe out of ignorance, maybe because they just don’t care. But anything like this that goes on for so long eventually has to be stopped. It’s like a giant beast bearing down on you in your dreams. You wake up and it’s not there. But you realize that sometime, somewhere, when you close your eyes again, your going to see that beast one more time. Just like the Church. It’s power isn’t with people marching around with guns (yet) , but rather it’s power is found in the mind. And the sheep go around every day and proclaim the words and wisdom of the Church, and condemn me and everyone else who doesn’t believe them just because that “mind beast” is constantly watching over them. And if they stray, than what ? They’ll go back to the only book that they’ve known. The Bible. And what will Bible tell them ? It tells them that everything they’ve been brought up to believe and think on a daily basis is true. Heck, if they only book you ever read was Winnie the Pooh, you would think he was real too. And that’s where a lot of Christians get it messed up. They disobey their own religion. OH MY GOD ! If they only knew. How can a person who follows something so blindly go around telling other people to join him in following him in the same mindless pattern. Like the blind leading the blind, the only man who controls the world has 1 good eye. And that’s where the high ups in the Church are. They know not to take what they preach literally, but rather symbolically and metaphorically. And with this knowledge they wield power. And with this power, they create fear. And with this fear, the churches control the masses. This mental beast that they’ve created has gotten so far out of their control, which is exactly what they wanted. This beast that controls the minds and the lives of billions of Christians everyday around the world tells them what to think, what to say, what to do, what is and isn’t good, and most importantly, what is and isn’t the truth.
With truth you hold all the marbles. But if you can skew the truth or totally change it, than you’re the one whose in charge of reality. Look at the ministers and look at the priests, who bi-weekly spread their messages to the billions of sheep, just waiting to accept whatever they have to say and swallow it whole. How many Chirstians actually research their faith ? I for one was brought up in the Church, living a so-called good Christain life, but than at the age of 22 I finally started researching what I had so valantly believed in and defended for all these years. And like any lie, when you start to scrape the surface the rest falls apart. And that’s what happened for me, but luckily what I discovered in it’s place was far more accepting than what any Christian had ever taught me. Far more loving than what any person had ever shown me. What I found was myself, and I came to realization that we’re not all that different. What makes me so different than the black family living down the street ? Except for our skin color, nothing. We’re exactly the same. And I don’t if they’re Christians, frankly I don’t care. But looking at what is so easily believed these days, if a Christian has a non-Christian friend, than that relationship isn’t going to last that long. Because they’re going to get to talking, and the Christian is going to be faced with radical new ideas that are so far different than anything they’ve been brought up to believe. Acceptance of gays. Freedom of actions and speech. Freedom of Love. And that’s really what it’s all about. Embracing our differences. Because if we were all the same, than there’d be nothing to live for.
Freedom doesn’t come from the Governments of the world, it comes from ourselves. We’ve forgotten that, but some people are starting to wake up again. And like 200 years ago when our forefathers rose up against the British, we’re eventually going to have to rise up against our oppressors. Whoever, and whatever they may be.
Comments
Post a Comment