We are equal, but only if you are....

Looking at the past history of man I find myself more and more ashamed of who we are. Throughout history we have fought with one another, weaker being enslaved by stronger, more advanced overcoming the less advanced instead of sharing in what they know and have. Just because one culture or country or type of person is different does not make them inferior.
Example: Explorers come across the ocean and discover a “New World”, and thus begins hundreds of years of enslavement, rape, pilfering, and destruction. We come across civilizations and think they are primitive and backwards, think that we are special, because we have God on our side and these people are one step above cavemen. Never mind the fact that many of these societies had reading, writing, large cities, medicine and many other advancements while the European nations were still living in mud huts and were illiterate for the most part. In fact we find ourselves today marveling at the achievements they had in the sciences, architecture, language and medicine. We find that we are discovering all sorts of plants that are helping in medicine only to discover these ”primitives” knew about it hundreds of years ago. The same goes with mathematics, science and astronomy…instead of learning from them we crushed them and set ourselves backwards.
Fast forward…we are now MUCH more civilized and have created a new country. We find that we can plant, harvest and be much more civilized than Europeans. We draw up a document that will be the basis for this new country. In it we state, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
However, this did not hold true for all. If you were not white or male you were not afforded these. We touted ourselves as being advanced and freethinkers, above the tyranny that was rampant in Europe. Uh huh, yeah, right…women were considered chattel, could not own property or have a say in financial matters..but we did correct that over the next 100 years.
Even worse than that was the fact that we would travel to Africa, capture, kill, enslave, terrorize an entire nation of people. And why would we do that? Simply for the fact that they had a different level of Melanin in their genetic makeup than we did, and that makes us superior… because God says so. Remember god is white right?!? Let’s stop and take a look at that why don’t we? God as we worship him is Yahweh and Christianity is based on the religious worship of his son. Now please remember at this time the Jewish faith was based out of what is now the Middle East. This region was NOT populated by Caucasians, and in fact the region that Christ is believed to come from that he would actually have been much darker than what is portrayed in many images used by the church. But as is shown throughout history, politics, religion and all that is associated with it, is controlled by the ruling class. So over time the image of God and Christ as become more and more anglicized.
So while we are spouting how everyone should be given the same rights and treated equally, we are enslaving an entire nation and destroying yet another civilization. While the young America was expounding on how they were throwing off the shackles of tyranny, we just took those shackles and threw them on to someone else. While most of Europe was abolishing slavery, as far back as 1500, the new country was setting humans rights back hundreds of years. Yes yes yes I know that we “corrected” that injustice starting in 1861…almost a hundred years after we declared ourselves a country. During this “Civil” war..an oxymoron if I ever heard one..over 600,000 people died. To put this in perspective only 53,000 military personnel died during the Vietnam war. Another fact that most people don’t know is that African Americans fought during the civil war..on both sides. In fact they have fought in every single war that America has been in, yet up to 1964 the country had in effect what was referred to as “Jim Crow” laws. Even the term “Jim Crow” is offensive, taking the name from a song and dance routine called “Jump Jim Crow”, that was performed by a white actor in blackface, named Thomas D. Rice. These laws mandated de jure segregation, supposedly giving a separate but equal status to African Americans. What this did in reality is create separate and unequal rules that remained in effect until 1964. Yet even then the changes took over 40 years and still take place even today. For a country that prides itself on tolerance and equality we have a pretty good history of actually practicing what we do not preach. I’ve argued this many times when my friends and I get into this discussion. I have argued that for a society that preaches tolerance we have a history of slavery and bigotry..hell we have a whole organization that likes to spout ignorant hate, and commit horrible acts against people, all the while wearing white sheets over themselves because they are too cowardly to show their faces. We have a history of females and anyone who is not a white male having to claw, scratch, and fight to be treated with equal rights and to be afforded the most basic of privileges that are freely given to others.
“But things are not as bad as they used to be”, you say. True we have come a long way, but nowadays there is a new type of racism rearing its ugly head. I heard someone comment the other day how great this country is in how it grants freedoms to people, and then not a minute later in their conversation talk about how it is disgusting that California is allowing gays and lesbians marry. All that is, is just a different form of bigotry, nowhere does it say that “All men are created equal unless you are in love with someone of the same gender”. I listen to how all these politicians, individuals, and churches protest this, and push to get laws in place to ban “gay marriage”. I listen to how they want the “don’t ask, don’t tell” to stay in place, and in fact how they believe if you are gay you should not be allowed to serve your country. How horrible crimes and abuses are committed against people who happen to love someone that is the same sex, and how many times people say “it’s a shame” and look the other way and don’t do anything to help or change things. When you ask most of these people what is their big objection with homosexuality…their response is that it is a crime in the eyes of God.
OK this country was founded on the belief of separation of church and state. i.e.: letter from the third president Thomas Jefferson in 1802 to a committee of Baptists in Connecticut. Jefferson referred to the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United Sates as creating a "wall of separation" between church and state. The phrase was quoted by the United States Supreme Court first in 1878, and then in a series of cases starting in 1947.
I am going to break that down for some of you out there that may not get it…until Democracy in America was founded governments of the world were governed typically by “divine right”. Depending on the country that typically meant that the ruler was given that position from God himself or was a direct descendant of whatever divine being that area believed in. We were founded by people trying to escape that tyranny. That is why this separation was determined as being needed so that the government could do the work it needed to do without unjust and unneeded influence from the church. 200 years later though we have too many politicians espousing how God is offended and would not want this law or that law in place…we are forgetting that main belief that this country was based on, and that is, in my opinion, a dangerous area we are going into. Because if we are going to ignore this then we need to remember that America is also called “the Melting Pot”. We have peoples from all countries, races, religions, and belief systems here. So if that is the case and we want to ignore that separation fine, but which god do we need to use, Yahweh, God, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad, Vishnu, Mother Earth, Satan, etc? We have people in this country that worship all of these and many more, so which one do we need to use in making the laws and guidelines for our country to go on?
Now I know that many of these politicians spout scripture stating, “god says this, god says that”. Fine, but take any small snippet of any writing and it can be twisted into almost any meaning you want. Here’s an example “See Jane run. Run Jane run.” Now let me make a slight change and edit “Run Jane! Run!”. I have taken a well known reading primer sentence and have now changed it in to apparently a situation where Spot has gone rabid and Jane’s life is in mortal danger. This is how many laypeople in today’s society use the scriptures. They take a small snippet and use it without looking at the whole picture. Most people don’t even realize that the bible that is used today is not the same as what was originally written. The church has over the centuries deleted this or changed that, removed whole gospels, there were not only four written , in fact there were dozens. But the early Catholic church did not think they all mattered and in fact the early church actually took the gospels it agreed with most and only used them. Not to mention that as the centuries went by language itself changes. For example the word “Man” originally meant a person, then later came to mean a male, while the word “wif” came about meaning woman in Old English and came of course later to be the word “wife”. In fact males were referred to as "wer", the word "man" meaning mankind. So when you read the word “man” in the bible there is a very good likelihood that at one time it meant man as a whole not man as only male.
So when you listen to representatives of our government spouting what God says and what the Bile says we should be doing, when it comes to what the government should be doing remember those points. Remember that the scriptures we have today are not the same from when they were first written. Remember that we are built on the belief in a separation of church and state. Remember that this country is built on diversity, this country is made for everyone no matter if they are straight, gay, male, female, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Pagan, or whatever. We are all created equal..not created equal only if (insert ignorant bigoted belief here). It is time that people think, people educate themselves, and that people act. Remember you do not have to do any of this, but don't complain when you realize your rights have been decided for you and YOU are that next group that is now not equal to your fellow humans.

Religion in the South

I look at things today when it comes to religion and I wonder what happened. I try and teach my son the difference of right and wrong, to learn that he needs to speak up when he does not think something is just or is unfair. I see things like this "Dove" church in Florida and I am ashamed. I listen to this man who should be preaching about tolerance and fairness (I seem to remember one of the Christian tenets being "turn the other cheek"), instead he is spewing the most ignorant, foul, slurs and racist trash I have heard in years. This man is planning on commemorating the anniversary of 9/11 by burning Korans. Stating that this is due to the Muslim faith causing more wars than any other religion in history. I don't know...I was raised Catholic and I know my history pretty well. I think the Christians of all sects can give them a run for their money, if its from the crusades, Ireland, to manifest destiny and the plight of the native Americans. This act has been admonished by Jewish leaders, Muslim leaders, and even the Pope. Even Gen. Peterus has asked that this not be done as it will more than likely cause a horrid backlash, endangering our troops serving in the middle east, which in turn may endanger innocents as well if the past history of bombings takes place. This preacher, this "man of God", and I use this term loosely has stated that he will continue on with this no matter what. He states that this is to stand up against "evil", he stated the Koran is evil because it is not in the Bible. Well by that reasoning so is almost any religious text, any book in the library from "Tale of Two Cities" to "Everybody Poops". Hell, while we are at it lets just go ahead and start burning those, and any other book that does not fit into our neat, tidy, ignorant, space. Lest just start throwing music and art in that too..what a marvellously new concept. Oh wait...this was done before...think you may have heard about it...movement in the forties..he hated another religious group too..blamed them for everything too..what was his name...oh yeah..ADOLPH HITLER.
What we have here is a sad little man that wants to grab his time in the spotlight, even if doing this may cause death to others who have nothing to do with it. And yes I know he has every right under the first amendment, but seems to me using it to cause uproar and panic, and harm is not what was envisioned to be used as. The first amendment is a weapon, and like any weapon it can be used for good or bad. It can be thought of as say a knife, in the hands of a master chef or a skilled surgeon a knife can create and heal, or in the hands of Jack the ripper...well we all know what happened there. Basically what it comes down to we need to tell our news stations and news outlets, do NOT cover this insane man, do not give him airtime. This is what he wants, ignore him and maybe he will go away...don't and people like that eat it up and will try to come up with something more shocking, more hurtful, more outrageous. I hear people saying how horrible it is, well I heard one person say the smartest thing about this. If she hears or sees a story about this man and his idiocy, she turns it off.
Good for her, good for us if we do it too.
This type of hate is what is causing the schisms in churches today. Hearing supposed men of God preach bigotry and hate against, gays and lesbians, Muslims, Jews, protestants,baptists, catholics, black, white, Asian, middle eastern, etc, etc, etc. This is why me, as person raised in a very Catholic household, baptisms, first communions, confirmations, etc, were all big deals in my family, but I turned my back and walked away from my Church that was a huge part of my life. This is also why I have not baptised my son, who is now 13, and does not attend church either and a very limited knowledge of who Jesus Christ is. I try to teach the best i can as to what is right, what is wrong, and then when he is old enough he can make that decision for himself. and if chooses Christianity, fine, if he wants to become Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Wiccan, Pagan, or worship a giant polka dotted Velociraptor that is his decision and I will stand behind him because I love him. AND THAT IS WHAT RELIGION IS ABOUT UNABASHED, UNEQUIVOCAL, UNASKING LOVE.