I just can't become a believer. As I get older and the more I reflect on my life I find myself drifting farther away from the church than moving closer to it. Some of it could be when my heart stopped for six minutes. Mostly it is because the lessons I learned in the church as a child and as a young adult don't seem to be working today.  What I see people practicing today is not what I learned in my youth. 

I have never had trouble resolving the difference between science and the Bible. It was always easy for me to understand the science that we know today would never be understood when many of the books of the Bible were written. 2000 years ago most people couldn't read or write. They believed what their eyes told them and their eyes told them that the world was flat and that everything revolved around the world. We were the center of the universe as far as they were concerned. Everything they were told they would have to be able to understand so things were written as stories so they could understand. If we would always denied science because it is not in the Bible we would have never been able to reach some of the great heights that we have. 

Now they want to post the Ten Commandments in the public schools like they have some educational value. Just look at the first four commandments. 1, You shall have no other gods before me. 2. You shall make no idols. 3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. 4. Keep the Sabbath day holy. What do any of them have to do with a child's behavior in school. Those four commandments don't apply to our laws or streets, so how in God's name do they apply to anything in a public school. 5. Honor your father and your mother. Doesn't really apply to anything in a school but at least it deals with behavior. The last 5 commandments do at least apply to the law somewhat. 6. You shall not murder is really a law. 7. You shall not commit adultery. If that was a law Trump would be in jail along with a whole lot of other people. 8. You shall not steal. Yes, stealing is against the law. 9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. If you would do away with lying we wouldn't have to fact-check anything but guess what? Lying is a big part of the political landscape. Just look how Trump is lying about Biden and FEMA. Vance objected to being fact-checked. Why? You really know that honest answer to that one. 10. You shall not covet. That is all part of everyday life.  That is why January 6th happened, Trump coveted something that he didn't win and tried to just take it. Posting the Ten Commandments in our schools does more to show the hypocrisy of organized religion and the Bible than it will actually have any meaning to the students. 

When I was growing up I went to a Lutheran Church. On Sunday morning the children would go to Sunday School and the Parents would go to regular church. Starting in 7th grade, we would have to go to confirmation classes on Saturday mornings to learn the teachings of the church and the Gospel. Once we were confirmed we were eligible to take communion. I wonder if kids still have to do that. One thing I never heard talked about but we had to learn in confirmation classes was the Sermon on the Mount in the Book of Matthew. Those are the true teachings of Jesus.  Why? Could it be the words of Jesus just don't have any meaning today? After reading about the Sermon on the Mount I know that most of the Christian world has turned their back on the teaching of Jesus. I can also tell Trump has never read them and, if Vance has he just ignores them. When Jesus talked a lot of the time he wasn't talking about how we were to treat God. He was talking about how we were supposed to treat others. He even talked about how we should treat immigration, again it is in the Book of Matthew. Just read Matthew 25:35-40. It ends with his saying "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me". Immigration is mentioned in more than just in the Book of Matthew but I always liked that one. 

I used to be envious of those who have really found true faith and thought I was missing something. As I have gotten older and, as I have followed the events of the last eight years I have realized that maybe I haven't missed a thing. I see many people talk about Trump as some type of prophet sent by god and I get totally confused. I see the refugees who according to the Gospel we are supposed to be treating them as we would treat Jesus being called rapists and murderers. I have seen those so-called religious people separate immigrant children from their parents and throw them into cages. I have seen the so-called religious people reject almost all the teachings of Jesus and follow a man who has cheated people out of money and acts like he is above all of us. I have seen people condemn things that Jesus never talked about but they praise people for doing what Jesus actually condemned. Do you know that Jesus never said anything about abortion? Nothing and yes abortion was going on even back then. 

I think back through history over the last couple of centuries and I see many atrocities that have been committed by Christians. It was Christians who enslaved blacks and suppressed them with the whip against the teachings of Jesus. The KKK that burned crosses and hunted blacks were Christians. It was Christians who killed 6 million Jews and minorities following a man who thought he should be worshipped. At the bloody bridge outside Selma, Alabama it was Christians that beat those who were marching for civil rights. Today it is Christians that are demonizing and suppressing immigrants who are just trying to have a better life in what they think is the promised land. I think that today too many people have turned their backs on the teaching of their Jesus and worship at the feet of a man more like Herod with all his makeup or Pontious Pilate with his air of superiority. 

Please leave the religion of hate out of my government.