2025-01-12 at 19

Despite having tried mightily for many years, I've never experienced a moment of true belief in God in all my time on planet Earth. I grew up attending church. I took my kids to church. I've been baptized in three different denominations. I owe my life to a program that is riddled through and through with references to God (there are loopholes) and yet I just can't muster up any conviction that there's anything like a deity. I just can't do it.

I'm not angry with religion. I don't think religious people are stupid or always deluded. I think there's a lot of wisdom and practical life advice in many tenets of various faiths, including Christianity, the one with which I am most familiar. If you don't believe the golden rule has practical applications in personal relationships, we probably won't be friends. Unlike a lot of in your face Christians though, I am much more comfortable with the Beatitudes than I am with the 10 Commandments. "Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are the merciful" I can get behind that.

My sister is a minister in the Methodist Church. Aside from religion, we share a lot of similar beliefs about the world and about the solutions for its problems. I get angry when someone makes it known how much they love Jesus and yet they vote for a party or politicians who promise to cut food programs for the poor, as an example. My sister explained how some people truly believe that the answer to poverty is the food kitchen at their church, where they donate their time and money, taking a personal interest in the people who show up there. OK. I think that kind of labor and commitment is admirable. I don't think it's a comprehensive answer to poverty, but I don't look down on it.

When there are natural disasters, and I live in hurricane country where they are common, there are organized teams from faith based organizations who show up with boots on the ground to help people. The provide food and other necessities to anyone who needs it. Habitat for Humanity has a great record of helping people achieve home ownership. Mission teams routinely go to Haiti and other impoverished counties in this hemisphere to provide medical care and construction labor. That's real tangible stuff.

Yes, there are massive problems and contradictions with religion worldwide and particularly in my country. Covering up the sexual abuse of children by priests for decades is inexcusable. The church's attitude toward the LGBT community is a direct contradiction to the premise that God is love. The right-wing claim to be the party of God is offensive to anyone, even non-believers, who have ever read the Bible. The persecution of immigrants, the denial of food, shelter and medical care to people in need in a country with so much excess wealth is obscene. I'm not making any excuses for that.

Except for the believing in God part, most of my personal ethical and moral standards would past muster with the church. When I see someone who is comforted by their faith, I am nothing but happy for them. It's a damn cruel world and all of us has to take comfort wherever we can find it.

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