Looking Closer at Religion

I think it’s abundantly clear that I have a thing or two to say about religion, the Abrahamic religions in general, but the Christian religion in particular. Some people say I’m focusing inappropriate angst on something that is largely irrelevant to the current state of affairs, and that politics, elections and socioeconomic issues are more important causes for concern. To that I say, really? Are you not aware of how much of the crap we’re dealing with right now stems precisely from that Christian religion you practice? Oh, and by the way, how many centuries of “practice” does it take to get something right? If you were students in my classroom most of you would have to repeat the course — imagine a bunch of 80-year-old first-graders.

Anyway...

Let’s look at some of our current issues and see just how much of a role the Christian religion has played in actually creating them, and for what, because “it’s in the Bible”?

1 - The right to have an abortion. (No comment.) 2 - Anything and everything that has to do with the basic human rights of the LGBTQ community. (Again, no comment.)

3 - Racial tensions. To the best of my knowledge Christians were the ones who purchased, shipped, and used Africans as slaves, and when that era ended those same Christians segregated them and lynched them out of shear fear and hatred — and Jesus wept. Similar atrocities were committed against the original natives of this land and anyone else who wouldn’t genuflect before the Christian cross, or yoke, rather. Slavery and genocide in the name of Jesus Christ, (your) Lord and Savior, Amen.

4 - The Republican Party. How the evangelicals and the Christian right have coopted that party is not only astonishing, it’s downright deplorable. I view the influence of the Christian religion as the single biggest cause of the Republican Party’s going sideways if not downward altogether. I don’t care where you come from, get with the times, you don’t know where you are.

5 - Liberals. Why do we even have liberals? Liberals arose to curb and correct the bigoted intolerance and oppressive excesses and abuses of conservatives — namely Christians.

6 - Some wounds will never heal. Just look in the mirror and say, “Well, that sucks.”

Is that not enough? Do you want to hear more? You’re all so worried about the ugliness of the branches and the leaves (politics and economics). I’m asking you to chop down the tree they stem from (yeah, that religion). If you can’t see the connection then you deserve to live in the world you created.

Thank you for listening.

Arthur Saginian Santa Clarita