THE TYGRRRR EXPRESS

I speak with God every night and every morning. It is a brief conversation. God does all the listening. While I attempt to live my life the way I believe God wishes, at no time do I mistake myself for God. I am responsible for my own actions.

I say this because I am deeply concerned that too many people in society use God to justify their actions. Yes, there are certain things God tells us to do and not do. God tells us not to murder. True, one can be an atheist and still believe murder is wrong, but many people obey aspects of civil and criminal law not because of the police, but because of God.

Having said that, God is not a democrat or a republican. When I write about ideological bigotry, I express my frustration with liberals, especially Jewish liberals, citing the Torah (Old Testament) to justify their liberalism. To me it is a sign of weakness that liberals need to say that God orders them to be liberals through the concept of social justice.

The problem with that argument is that it implies that somebody who is not a liberal is defying the word of God. When Al Gore in 2000 said that the election was a choice between good and evil, he crossed a line that goes beyond civilized discourse. It was a choice between a liberal and a conservative, nothing more.

A very thoughtful liberal emailed me and asked me if I felt the same way regarding Christian Coalition republicans. I stated to him unequivocally that I absolutely do.

I want to make it clear that most evangelicals in this country are wonderful people. Their religious faith and belief in Jesus tells them to love their neighbor, help shelter the homeless, help feed the hungry, help clothe the poor, and help keep kids in school and away from drugs. These are extremely positive aspects of Christianity, and a belief in God is directly correlated to steps taken to act as God would wish.

However, God does not command that they vote republican. The Old Testament does say that “a man that lays next to another man as he would a woman shall be stoned to death.” Does any truly decent human being believe we should take gay people and brutally beat them? Abortion does involve the issue of life, but the word abortion is not mentioned in the Old Testament. To say that God hates those who have abortions is speaking for God.

Yes there should be standards, but that does not mean zealotry is acceptable. Whether it is people on the right yelling “abortion is murder,” or people on the left yelling “meat is murder (Given that meat makes people more aggressive, how are these vegetarians so militant?),” the God I believe in loves you as long as you obey the commandments, which do not in any way specify what diet one has.

I cannot prove God exists, but I do not need to do so. Growing up I thought my dad was all powerful, and he thought the same of his father. Even approaching age 100, my grandfather, rest his soul, could strike fear into the heart of a young man with a flash of anger. Yet my grandfather believed in God, and prayed every day. That tells me this God was one powerful dude. God was a man, because given that women seem to be given the short end of the stick in most areas of society, and they have to give birth to new life, it is obvious God looked after his own.

So other than God being male, the rest is uncertainty. I think about this because my vision of God was that of a corporate CEO. He is busy, and does not have time to worry about nonsense.

When I was a little boy, I would pray that the Oakland Raiders would beat the Broncos or Chiefs in football. Then one day I thought things that even today I am surprised that I could think about at such a young age. What if there was a child in Denver (Broncos) or Kansas City (Chiefs) that was just as good a child as I was, and he deeply prayed to God for the Raiders to lose? What makes his prayer any less valid than mine? Shouldn’t God love all his children equally?

Today it hits me that if we are God’s children, then that makes God our parent. What does every parent want? Well to quote Bill Cosby, “Parents aren’t interested in justice. They want quiet!” My father was an honest and just man, but he was more than willing to sacrifice the childrens’ version of justice for peace and quiet in the home.  

As others in my family had a laundry list of requests for God, ranging from ponies and chocolates to other treasures, all I prayed for…all I still pray for…is for the happiness and health of my parents and grandparents.

As I get older, I am almost hesitant to pray for anything else for fear of asking too much. At work, I do not like asking my boss for things, the same way growing up I did not like asking my parents for things. My dad used to tell me “leave the boss alone. Do your work, and don’t bother him.” Given the reluctance to ask my dad or my boss for things, try asking God for stuff that is not vitally necessary for survival.

The night before the 2004 election, I asked God to help deliver a George W. Bush victory. I had never done that in a political race before. I am well aware that others were praying for his defeat. The reason I asked God to do this was because I do ask God on a regular basis to make the world a better place. I believe winning the War on Terror is vital to that request. I also believed George W. Bush was the right man for this task.

I still occasionally pray for the President. Yet I am under no illusions that God is too busy to deal with such trivial insignificances as the democrat and republican parties.

My dad worked hard all day. When he came home, he wanted the kids to “sit down and shut up.” There was much love in the house, but when dad was eating dinner, the kids needed to let him unwind. Given that God has to watch over 7 billion people, I cannot imagine him wanting to listen to us complain about political issues.

People are politically liberal because they believe in liberalism. People are conservative because they believe in conservatism. They have every right to passionately fight for what they believe.

What people do not have the right to do is sit in judgment of others. To call somebody else a liar, as some on the left have done to the President, merely because they disagree with him, is questioning the decency in his heart. This is vicious, and degrading to society.

I believe in God. I am also a conservative republican. These two matters are completely mutually exclusive. I made the decision to support the War in Iraq, and as of now I will go to my grave believing it was the right thing to do. God did not tell me it was right. I told me it was right. I only ask God that if I turn out to be wrong, and I am standing before him, that he will accept that I believed in my heart it was right, and then forgive me.

As for atheists, I absolutely respect their right to not believe in God. However, I will stand up against anyone that attacks my right to be a believer.

I have many questions, and sometimes I even feel like I have the answers. While my answers may be based on my belief in God, or my reading books and trying to interpet God, my beliefs and actions are not direct orders from God. If I am wrong, it is not because God’s instructions were wrong. It is because I failed to understand and implement the instructions properly.

Human being do not realize how good we have it. Humans get to experience love. There is no “Mrs. God.” How can one find romance when he is busy trying to keep his 7 billion children from destroying his home? God cannot even put his feet on the coffee table and watch the football game. What is the point? He already knows the score. I know how upset I get when I tape the game and somebody ruins it for me. God probably gave up years ago. What is he supposed to do, avoid reading the results in the paper? He created the people who write the papers.

Ignorance can be bliss. Human beings may be ignorant of what God wants, but as any parent knows, being a parent is more stressful than being a child ever could be. God has to sit and watch his children all argue about things that are often nonsensical.

It is a thankless job, and I am glad I am merely one of 7 billion foot soldiers. Anything more would be more responsibility than any of us could bear.

Besides, if I was in charge…I respectfully say…God help us all.

eric     

This entry was posted on Monday, July 16th, 2007 at 1:28 pm and is filed under POLITICS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.