Uniquely American

Religion

Now I don’t discuss religion at length because quite frankly, they’re my beliefs and my business just as it’s your belief and your business. However, given my recent commentary the last few days and the exposure I have had to some Christians who drop like a Brazilian soccer player screaming “I’m Hit! I’m Bleeding! You’re attacking my FAAAAITH!” whenever someone criticizes the actions of the Political Christian Right, I thought I should make my stance on Christianity clear. I am not a Neo-pagan because I hate Christianity or I resent a male dominated (and Protestantism really is) religion (though stereotypically neo-pagans are viewed that way). I first left the church because I didn’t get it.

First of all, Christ’s torture and death seems monstrously unfair. I still get choked up when I think about what that innocent and wise man/being (I wasn’t there, I don’t know) went through when he was guilty for nothing. He is not guilty of my sins, for him to be the scapegoat for my wrongdoing just isn’t right. He didn’t screw up. I did. My screw-ups are my look out, my responsibility. And secondly, I didn’t get how the mechanism of redemption worked. “O.K. so this dude, this really bona-fide cool dude, dies 2000 years ago and that somehow makes up for my wrongdoing?....How? Seriously, how does that work?”

And see, that’s where the faith comes in. That is what Christians believe just as I believe that the divine is a Yin and Yang of a God and Goddess. Both beliefs probably sound equally nonsensical to the adherents of the other, but we have faith that is how the divine works.

But that’s the only reason I am not a Christian, because I don’t believe. (Well, that and the whole “Ghandi is in Hell” thing.) Taken as Christ taught it, Christianity is an elegantly simple religion of faith and forgiveness, charity and hope. Christians just need to stop listening to preachers and just read the New Testament. You’ve got an awesome Messiah, you should pay attention to what he had to say.

And it’s not even that I think all Christians are screwed up. My mom is the coolest Christian I know and she is seriously into it. Her faith has been a life’s journey for her and though sometimes, y’know, it took her places the rest of us couldn’t follow, the end result (at the moment) is a woman who believes so strongly that even when the Church failed her, she still believes and lives with God everyday.

Temper has been a bit of a struggle (I did come by that quite naturally) *chuckle*. I actually had a dream once in which Mom had died, but she kept coming back to borrow books because she had gotten into an argument with Paul.

Anyway, my mom is no saint but she actually tries to live by what Christ taught and her faith is very strong, strong enough not to be threatened by other’s faith, even her children. After I left the church I went on a book search to find something that felt Right. That rang true to me. (I leaned towards Buddhism for a while, but found it a little too esoteric. Nirvana? Shouldn’t you be a little more concerned about how you are living this life now? And the denial of this world seemed unnatural.) Anyway, when I found Neo-paganism, my mother went out and bought “Wicca for Dummies” because she wanted to know what it was I was getting into. She wishes I would come back to Christianity, but she has never preached, threatened, cut off relations or tried to con me into it. Her faith is not bound up in her children and she actually believes in her God enough to know that he doesn’t need her to convert people.

Because that’s what it comes down to: Belief. I can’t sit here and tell you how wonderful my faith is (and it is) and expect you to believe it. People cannot be taught what God (or no God) they believe in, they just do. Which makes all beliefs (so long as they don’t involve hurting others) equally valid.

And when you think about it, who’s to say we aren’t all right in some way? I mean think about the Universe. Think about how truly awsome and complex a creation the entirety of the Universe is, from Galactic clusters down to microbes. Do you really think the being who came up with a universe that quite frankly, staggers our ability to conceptualize is somehow easier visualize than his creation? God is far too vast and subtle for man to comprehend fully. So who to say that he/she/it didn’t reveal different aspect of his/her/it-self to different peoples? Maybe we’re all just seeing different facets of God.

"I came to the conclusion long ago … that all religions were true and also that all had some error in them, and whilst I hold by my own, I should hold others as dear as Hinduism. So we can only pray, if we are Hindus, not that a Christian should become a Hindu … But our innermost prayer should be a Hindu should be a better Hindu, a Muslim a better Muslim, a Christian a better Christian." ~ Ghandi

What I do have an issue with is unholy alliance between the Christian Right and the Neo-conservatives: Neoconservatives promising religious agendas to get the Church’s votes, the Christian Right using Neoconservative politicians to further their agenda of religious zealotry. This sort of thing is exactly what the Founding Fathers were trying to guard against: Politicians setting religious dogma and religion setting public policy. Worship as you want, just stay the hell out of my government.

This isn't a Reeces Peanut Butter Cup.

O.K. I Have To Get This Off My Chest.

I want to declare my Love for the Dixie Chicks who slammed back into the world of Music this week with a massive “Fuck You” to the their critics and Clear Channel and many radio stations who banned their music after they made some jokes about Bush on a London radio programme. After this video I want to bear their children.

Love the “Drink to Kool-Aid” reference at the end.

Anyway, if you go on the various boards the number of jack*sses calling them traitors for speaking their mind on a London radio is pretty ridiculous.

Let me make this clear morons:

Jane Fonda went to North Vietnam, our enemy in arms, and did a press junket supporting their cause and handed them a big check. Natalie Maines went on a British radio programme, our allies in arms, and made a joke about George Bush.

If you can’t tell the difference, you are an idiot.

If you are, let me spell it out for you: The Dixie Chicks did NOT travel to the Middle East to have a chummy photo-op with Hussien or bin Laden, nor did they give a big check to Ba'athist party or al Queda.

Get it?

I made my bed and I sleep like a baby
With no regrets and I don’t mind sayin’
It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over
I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

What amazes me is the level of hatred these girls have incited. John Stewart and Al Franken bash the Bush administration all day, everyday, yet I have never seen the vindictive and hated filled commentary I have seen leveled at the Chicks. Even after Maines apologized for the joke (without retracting her stance on the war I might add; it’s called courtesy with integrity, Whatttaconcept!) the Dixie Chicks were still vilified beyond the basic "They're traitors and they hate the troops!!!" neo-con Bullshit. "Trangendered" was applied to them, "Lesbian/dyke", "Untalented", "Trashy", "Sluts", "Whores", "The only thing they are good for is a spread in Playboy/Penthouse/Hustler", "The only thing they are good for is lying on their backs..." Not only are their words attacked (in fact, rarely are their words attacked) they have to be devauled and demeaned as human beings. And not just demeaned, sexually demeaned. Perhaps more of that: “Uppity wimmin’s need to be put in thar place” BS? Men can speak their mind and argue as strongly as they want, but women argue their opinions just as strongly and they’re somehow how more deserving of crude insult and violent hatred maybe? Seems like there are a bunch of NeoCons who feel pretty darn threatened by these PEOPLE speaking their minds.

“America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've got to want it bad, because it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil who is standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the 'land of the free'? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the 'land of the free.'" ~ The American President (1995)

This country was founded on the idea that the government worked for the people, that citizens not only had a right to critize the government, but a duty to watch over it.

“I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it” ~ Voltaire

I will say that the Chicks have been getting a lot of support across the internet as well, but it is sad that so many Americans seem to have confused their country with Communist China.

P.S.

I've been watching that DVD for NASCAR 2005. Can someone tell Jeremy Mayfield that the length of braided grass he has in the cabinet in his trailer is not a "good luck charm", but a sweet grass braid used for smudging? You light it like inscene so that it smolders and gives off smoke to spiritually purify a space.

Just a PSA from your Friendly Neighborhood Pagan. :D

Best of luck to Elliott, Dale and Mark and their crews this week at Martinsville!