Jesus is not alright with me.

This is not about AIG, Prop 8, HR645 (coming to an empty field near you), gay rights, Geithner, Michelle Obama’s arms, Iraq, Ruwanda, the octo-mom, Cheney or any of that. It is about GOD, dammit.

We used to enjoy four seasons in the cycle of life: spring, summer, fall and winter (even when it was one of discontent), but now we seem to have five. Just as cyclical and predictable as the other four, the silly season of pre-occupation with “God” shows up, regularly now. Alternet had these two, just this morning:

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/132781/zombie_newt_gingrich_wants_more_brains%2C_er_religion/
and
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/132775/this_week_in_god%3A_religion_costs_counties_cash%2C_%27i_believe%27_license_plates%2C_and_evolution/

Over the past few months, OpEdNews has posted “articles”, written by noted authorities like Brian Wisenheimer-Schmutz, on the importance of “God” in society, why and how religion is “subtly” re-shaping the world and why, without faith, the world will end next Tuesday afternoon. Many of these have threatened to be a “series” of articles (God help us), and when OEN runs the good ideological narcissists off, they pop up elsewhere, threatening their serial abominations, there. After many others beside me have (presumably) protested and objected, the threats and the extended, vapid and pointless diatribes mysteriously disappear (thank God).
Cyclical and periodic episodes and outbreaks such as these always prompted a flood of comments, many of them from self-proclaimed atheists, whose use of space and waste of literary oxygen are as pointless as the ones the God-people offer, these last only a day or three, and then inevitably re-surface shortly thereafter, seemingly unable to resist uninvited repeat performances. I guess pointless misery loves pointless company. The crux of my complaint and criticism is that these writings mention nothing about ethics and never address the pragmatic issues of our world. They prattle on about faith and belief and then pass the collection plate.

Born Again Crustaceans (they have the shelf-life of a shell fish), proponents of Jesusology (which has nothing to do with Christianity), adherents of Mariology and the like (which are the antithesis of any substantive theology) and the ravings of condemn-mental-ists ( who preach that anyone who is black, Muslim, Hindu, gay or not willing to swear that Jesus is lord and at least acknowledge anemic Presbyterianism, are driving me NUTS. God. Dammit.
We have a financial crisis (largely brought on by a collapse of morals and ethics), war and starvation in places like Darfur, homeless crowds, empty food pantries, no reasonable health care programs for the common man, racial and sociological iniquities and battered stem cell research programs, and yet…

We have huge numbers of people with nothing better to do, and insist upon attempting to distract everyone with palaver-like talk of the “God machine” (unintelligent design), the vengeful deity of something-or-other and meaningless gobbledygook about faith and silly thoughts of rescued fetuses flying upward towards heaven, right after the abortion doctor is murdered and his family left to pick up the pieces.

This all needs to stop. Freedom of thought and speech is one thing; ideological abuse and the routine torture of logic is another. We cannot afford to be diverted from the real agonies of the day, distracted from the urgent realities of abject poverty, murderous dictators and despots, armies that use rape as weapon (in lieu of bullets),the insipid and dangerous thinking of homophobes and racists and selfish, narrow-minded bigots who attempt to routinely deny the basic rights of life to anyone who does not fit their vision of nirvana. Anyone, that is, who does not fit comfortably behind their mysterious shields of theistically –inspired ignorance or a completely warped picture of salvation, which is manifested in a saccharine-like portrait of a Jesus figure, with (absurdly) blonde hair and blue eyes.

This is the 21rst century and we should have long-since outgrown this pseudo-mysticism by now. We should be beyond any allegiance to a papal figure or uber-ministerial, Billy Graham-like ideologue, either or both of whom may have the gall to absolve holocaust deniers, blame aids on condom use or dictate moral principles to a world they do not understand (if you don’t follow my reasoning, here, ask Sarah Palin’s daughter about abstinence). Primitive Baptist churches are primitive only in their stunted brain development, Mormon-esque restrictive thinking is a form of intellectual and spiritual slavery (human belittlement), the selling of indulgences should be as illegal as selling heroine to kids on the street and pointless anti-philosophical theosophical meanderings (done in order to bolster one’s hapless ego) should be forced to go before a jury of rational thinkers before the words are unleashed on an innocent general public, already at risk for spiritual and humanitarian starvation. Preying on the weary to pray is a really cheap shot.

To add insult to injurious behavior, the Huffington Post reports today that there is an emerging relationship between Sarah Palin (and hubby) and the scientologists. Apparently, “Jesus is just alright with me”, until you find another God machine mode which is better suited to your lifestyle and temporal convictions. This is to say that loyalty among the God-people is subject to modifications and contortions.

Ah. There’s the word I’ve been missing in all of this: Integrity. I guess that one is not in the God machine dictionary.

Stop wasting my time, god. Dammit.