Ron Murdock shares Part 2 of his ideas from the book ‘With or Without God’ By Gretta Vosper. There are times I’ve wondered how many prayers are uttered as a way of coercing God to act in a certain way, or sucking up to get what they want like a child at Christmas or on their birthday. Some prayers sound like a person that doesn’t want to get involved with social justice so they can pass the buck along to someone else to do the job. A person needs to find out what their motives are when praying for something. When praying for a matter of life or death one has to take a look at the whole picture to see which is the better alternative. There is nothing pro-life about being bed ridden hooked up to machines. If there is a God, I don’t see God playing favorites with anyone regardless of their status in life. Same thing with acts of nature like landslides, storms of any size, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes or similar happenings. These are random acts that are under the ‘it just is’ heading.
Those who hold on to their belief systems like a security blanket need to be challenged to re-emerge from their comfort zone. Too many have left the church, chased out of it or been demoted from their church job if they questioned the churches official position on anything. The Christian Church has had a monopoly in religion for close to 1775 years and they don’t like anyone cutting into their power base. It must be easy to ignore the big picture on spiritual matters when at the top of the pyramid scheme. The churches collective ego keeps it from looking at other viewpoints no matter how keep or observant it is. In short the church has become a larger than life schoolyard bully, especially with Matthew 10:32 to 33 and Luke 12: 8 to 9 in mind.
Things are always in a continual state of flux. Some changes do a 180 degree turn in an instant. Others take thousands of years to do such as continental drift. The land mass you are on now was once a super continent called Pangaea.
I do wonder if God exists what ‘His’ thoughts are on the song and dance routine we do to gain ‘His’ attention. Those thoughts, if expressed, may be stuff we don’t want to hear or deal with. It’s a good thing to try to make sense of things seen and unseen but does this God character really pay attention to everything that happens on our planet? What kind of God uses fear and blind obedience to keep us Earthlings in line? Maybe this is why we love our rituals so much.
I can’t see God being impressed with the priestly robes, church processions, keeping strictly to the script that is printed in the Sunday church bulletin. Three words describe a typical church service – sterile, boring and predictable. Then some church people wonder why some of us rather be doing something else with my time.
I’ve been to churches where it’s more of a closed shop where only long term members are part of the service or in attendance. I guess they ignore the second chapter of James in the New Testament. A lot of church people need to be told that the Universe runs itself just fine without our help. We just have to realize that and get our egos out of the way. As for any notions on the afterlife, it’s 100% speculation or wishful thinking. No one will know for sure until they pass over, and so far no one’s come back to tell of what is exactly there.
If one has read some of the biblical verses throughout the Bible, especially the 5 books of Moses, God is portrayed more of a Mafia boss who gets his ‘hired guns’ to eliminate those who oppose the Israelites.
Just because one is a Christian doesn’t mean they have any special status in our world. This mindset separates them from the rest of us unnecessarily. I still can’t see how God prefers one group over another. There is no reason for this as it reinforces the tribe mentality that keeps the global village from being a cohesive unit. It’s time for the church to take the earplugs out and listen to those outside the church parameters. They will find that non-Christians have more wisdom than what we are given credit for.
By Ron Murdock
