Trinity Episcopal Church

June 21, 2009

I turned on PBS again this past week, and again some show was on talking about the praises of humanism and the dread of religion. The show was called A history of Unbelief and the narrator was some stuffy English guy in a cardigan sweater telling his audience that smart people aren’t religious. I don’t know, it must be “national celebrate atheism week” or something this month. (I didn’t see that listed on my Episcopal calendar). And of course, once again I heard about all the terrible acts done in the name of Christianity (by the way, I don’t remember hearing any other of the world’s religions mentioned) and how many were killed in the Crusades and Salem Witch hunts or the Inquisition, or how many abuses there were in the organized church through the centuries.

So, once again, let me make a defense, but not against those atrocious acts listed above. There is every reason to easily see they are evil acts and therefore every reason to see they are not from God. Jesus was the first on the list to condemn violent acts and abuses of the church done in God’s name. He said it would be better if a person who does these evil things had never been born---it would be better to tie a big stone to yourself and jump in the Black River and be eaten by the dreaded two-headed Croswell eels.

To me these horrific crimes in religion are propagated by warped, greedy, power mongering, selfish, sinful men whose perverted religion is just a tool to get what they want. So to say that man did terrible things in the name of Christ is a reflection on the man, not Christ. It says to me that man, i.e. humankind, can take the most beautiful story (the Gospels) of hope and love and peace and turn it into evil, therefore there is something internally wrong with man. The bible calls that internal wrongness “sin.”

And frankly, when I think of all the wars and tyrannies and crazy secular dictators (Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot regime to mention a few) and the millions upon millions upon millions that they slaughtered, I ask myself, why aren’t they talking about this? It seems to me that secular humanism has fared quite worse than religion. Why can’t they figure out that whether it’s spears, swords, tanks, missiles, or religion, these are all tools that can be wielded by sinful humanity to wage war and terror? Belief in the way of Jesus isn’t the problem---it’s the answer!

Trinity Episcopal Church

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June 21, 2009