It is a lovely October day. As I perused the woods this afternoon I noticed a family who had representations from the young to the old. They were helping Grandma negotiate the uneven ground of the park as they held her hand. As they sat at a picnic table I could see the joy of nature in their eyes as they drank in the autumn splendor. I often listen to articles from the Washington Post on my iPhone as I walk and snap photographs…or multitask. An article caught my attention that was about the need for more atheists in our nation. Now, this seemed a bit obtuse until I listened to the piece’s thesis. The idea that Christians have inserted themselves into government and their quest and success in having the god they represent transfigured into laws that govern the rest of us.

The author’s contention is that there are many more atheists in the United States than are self-identified due to their fear of being persecuted or set apart by a fundamentalist tsunami of political/Christians. This assertion stirred my imagination and agreed with something that I have been observing for the past 50 years. First, if you demand that prayer be returned to school…are you speaking of all prayers or the prayers of your narrow faith? In addition…how do you know that you are right? If the John Wayne Gospel is the Gospel that Jesus preached why did he exhort us, ‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another?’ It is clear to me that with the surge in fundamentalist teaching and their current immersion in the political process the term Christian has been eroded into what people see in the media.

‘Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.’ Hate and hurting your fellow human can not be found in
Christ’s gospel. The disintegration of political/religious speech has damaged the cause of Christ. When those who claim no faith are motivated to help their neighbor and to battle global warming and open Warming Centers to keep the homeless from freezing to death and those of us who claim a direct line to God…worry not about the babies or the children who are hungry and say that the homeless should pull themselves up by their bootstraps when they do not have boots…what fruits of faith have we demonstrated?

Thoughts and Prayers we offer when there is another mass shooting. Mass shootings are more prevalent than a change in the weather…have the thoughts and prayers accomplished their purpose? Those who believe in the Dominion Doctrine…do you see evidence that God had asserted dominion over any aspect of life other than your peculiar religious doctrine? Do we really believe that to follow Jesus is to exclude everyone who is not exactly like us…and we have yet to define what that likeness is?

How do we Christians convince a suffering world that we have hope and peace and a morsel of bread and water to slake their thirsty souls…