God Hates Me, This I Know… For The Bible Tells Me So

According to Bible legend, the first humans were created in goodness and dwelt in a garden of goodness. The interesting factor about this goodness is that in the middle of it, there was an evil tree. There was also an evil snake. Apparently, what God called good also included evil.

Fast forward about four millenia and a prophesied Jewish messiah explains to humanity that God so loved the world. All of the human tragedies of the past which had included a flood, slavery and wars and captivities hadn’t meant that God was angry with anyone. Behind every tragedy, God still loved the world.

For God so loved the world…. God loved the world before the Christ was sent just as much as God loved the world after the Savior died and rose again. But if God always loved the world, why did the world need a Savior in order to restore us to God?

It would appear that humanity misunderstood a few things about God – uhhhh, as if that is any kind of a surprise. Somehow God’s people, the nation of Israel, believed that God was a punisher and not a lover. The majority of the Bible seems to be written from this point of view. And this punisher God mentality seems to be carried on today through God’s other people who call themselves the church.

Christian Fundamentals Have One Purpose: To Separate You From God

The title of this post is something that has been slowly coming into view for me as I’ve been attempting to understand God apart from the Christian religion. By wrestling through many faith issues which I address in previous blog posts, I’ve currently concluded that Christianity doesn’t lead people to God. Its general nature actually steers people away from God.

So here I am. It feels kind of like going to the doctor for the majority of your life and then realizing the doctor is what has been making you sick. I think I would be so much healthier (have a better understanding of God) had I not seen the doctor at all.

This is a pretty unconventional viewpoint. I mean, just like everybody “knows” you go to the doctor when you need to stay alive, everybody “knows” you go to church in order to grow in eternal life. After three decades of  living this kind of eternal life, however, I have to say that this supposed new life is intended to kill.

I was instantly fooled by institutional Christianity’s claim to Christ. Jesus seemed like a wonderful man, no matter who he was, so how could a church go wrong there? Yet it’s surprising to me just how much the love of a man could be twisted to portray not love but hate. Allow me to explain.

How Deep Is The Love Within An Institutional Church?

How deep can friendships go within the confines of a church institution, or any systematized hierarchical institution for that matter, such as a public school or prison facility?

Personally speaking, although not so black and white, I think we might as well ask how two people can make love in an airplane lavatory. It’s entirely possible as the mile high club might testify. It’s just not very convenient or conducive, as that is not the primary purpose of a toilet.

Now that I’ve got your mind on sex, I’m going to be really cruel and change the subject….

Even though I couldn’t presume to define love and its infinite expressions, I think I’ve had some glimpses of friendship love here and there within the church institution, but especially outside of it. Imagine my shock when, thanks to the invention of social networks, I became closer to people I met online within a few short months than to those I had known for decades at my church. How is that even possible?

Dealing With Religious Fear (And General All-Around Fundamental Assholeness)

As a Christian, I remember how we (I) viewed and treated Non-christians, gays, boyfriends and girlfriends living together, New Agers, Wiccans, liberals, people who cussed, Jehovah’s Witnesses and anyone in the “wrong” church denomination. It was almost like, “Let’s see now, how many sinners can we cut ourselves off from?”

The most amazing and wonderful part about coming out of religion is being able to love the sinners. And I’m not just talking about saying I love them. I’m talking about actually liking these people and, gasp, having a normal friendship with them. It’s about not giving a second thought who they sleep with but getting to know their likes and dislikes, occupations, relationship issues, favorite movies and books, political views, the car they drive (or don’t drive) and what they ate for breakfast that morning. It’s about real friends hanging out with real friends and enjoying the friendship.

It’s so nice to have actual, real friends involved in real life experiences where we laugh together, cry together, question things together, talk philosophy, new shoes, parenting, the latest Comedy Central comedian, the weather, religion, sports, finances – basically, anything and everything pertaining to life, and without judgment because friends don’t do that. Becoming free from the mentality of the Superior Us vs. the Inferior Them causes a whole new beautiful, heavenly world to open up.