Taking a Long Look

Yesterday, being in the park gave me a chance to think, setting under the trees in the sun and breezes, and I came to a few conclusions I would like to share.

Looking about us, seeing the many problems in the environment, and our lack of care for it, I am worried. There seems to exist in the minds of the powerful, that most Levantine of notions found in all three of the great Levantine religions, Christianity, Islam and Judaism. That is the notion that it will all somehow come out right in the end, that God will bring it all together, because God controls everything right down to the orbit of an atom, and that everything has a meaning. Right? I mean it does, it just has to have meaning beyond what we can see, doesn't it??

Well, no, not really.

All the followers of the Levantine dogmas would do well to read in their 'inerrant' books, the story of Job. God drops the hammer on Job, literally grinding him into the dirt, wiping out everything he had or loved. As Job sets in the dust, his friends show up, bringing out all their dearly held theological 'there is a reason for all this' explanations in order to make the disasters somehow 'meaningful' to Job. He tells them to cram it and shows his true grit and courage. He does not take a stance of his innocence in all that has befallen him. He insists that it is, in fact, meaningless. MEANINGLESS! His friends go away thinking that Job has lost his 'faith', shaking their heads, no doubt. When God does show up, blustering in the whirlwind, God affirms Jobs' position. In doing so God gives the Divine Finger to the 'defenders of the faith.'

The message is that taking refuge in theological niceties in order to blunt the trauma that occurs when a child is murdered, a hurricane devastates, an earthquake destroys, or a genocide happens, is participating in the devastation. The blunt horror that could move us to compassionate help, to doing whatever we can to alleviate suffering, to conserving what we have been given in our lives here, is negated by the 'It's God's Will' bullshit. Tell me you have a "Loving, Merciful God" who would will the slashing rape murder of a child, in order to somehow bring about a 'greater good, and I will probably puke on your shoes.

It all boils down to the fact that people are afraid of losing their God, who guarantees meaning to the whole of creation, who has His fingers on all the strings.

The reason is really quite simple as I see it. Absent the Transcendent God, humanity is left with something that terrifies it, almost beyond words.

The monstrous weight of FREEDOM and RESPONSIBILITY for this wonderful creation we were gifted with, this divine creation which embodies God.

God does not show up on your altars at the beck and call of your priests, rabbis, imams or pastors. God is in every leaf, insect, stone, animal and human person you can conceive of, and as such, WE, collectively and individually, are responsible for the care of God in all the forms God might choose to take. RESPONSIBLE!!!! ALL OF US!!

There are no divine punishments, only the simple consequences of our actions or inactions.

(to be continued tomorrow)

Tim