A CHRISTMAS TALE
To Dare To Wish A Happy Christmas
Religions are the major targets when we wish to find scapegoats or convenient, rational explanations in order to excuse ourselves from human appalling behaviour and horrendous cruelty versus one another as if atheism and gnosticism were more peaceful. Stalin. Pol Pot. Need I say more? The structural violence in the name of science allow us the dump dangerous medical substances in the third world and pollute vast areas of land in the name of rationality and progress. Well..
Since the seventies (in Sweden) Christendom seems to be the very epitome of provoking, ruthless and unethical religious colonialism resting solely on brutality, domination and superstition although the religion in reality is rapidly loosing in impact and influence and, even if the vicar or pastor of your childhood threatened you with eternal burning in hell and could name ten thousand deadly sins, few people are scared witless with these medivial concepts when Christianity spoke more of terror and retribution than love and and compassion.
To live up to some degree of contemporary premiered intellectual standards you simply ignore Christendom, whereas you analyze, attack or defend Islam or Hinduism and maybe find some kind of spiritual relief in Buddhism or Asian philosophies.
The idea of finding your spiritual inner peace whether labelled, or not, is a blessing and can never ever go hand in hand with intolerance, bigotry and domination.
We still try to escape the hideous fact that genocide and fraticide are carried out by us, whether in the name of a god or gods, conveniently calling upon them to legalize our own beastiality.
We are the responsible. Everything else is self-deception. We live under personal responsibility as far as our cognitive, intellectual and emotional conditions allow us.
No matter how loud or how dramatically you display your religious belief in shouting contest or battles, you won´t fool anyone if you stop to reflect... You are acting in your own selfish interest, of fright or have been brought to believe that you are defending god, which often coincides and which, to put it bluntly, is an offense to the god you call upon because no God of the Abrahamic religions allows you to kill and He/She does not need you to defend Her/Him.
The widespread idea that living a life with a religious belief is an irrational, ”anachronistic” and cowardly ”hide behind the skirts” lifestyle is as arrogant and ignorant as the pious denial of all scientific and socio-psychological progress and development. We are all idiots and obviously proud of it.
I am a follower of Jesus of Nazareth. I am not impressed by his follower Paulus ( I may not be sufficiently smart) or many of the innumerable theologists who, in order to adapt to socio economical conditions and their own social standing, dictated convenient dogmas which, rather than being guidelines, turned out to be ways of controlling the followers, much like the ongoing Muslim amendments, the haddiths or Ijtinuds like the previous Christian, the abortion of verses in the Qúran and the censorship of early Christian gospels by the church fathers.
I allow myself to wish my next ”A Happy Christmas”, because Christmas has a significance for me from early childhood and the sleighrides on early Christmas Day to the parrish church to the immensly secular contemporary Sweden, as well as I may wish somedbody ”Happy Hanukkha” and ”Happy Eidr al fitr”.
I will, of course, be correct and wish everbody ” Happy Seasonal Greetings” but I will not censor myself to avoid ”A Very Happy Christmas”, because we are approaching Christmas, whether Jesus was born in December or June. It does not matter. Jesus does, however, to me. The mild carpenter has taken a place in my heart since childhood, not by overzealous or overly religious parents, not by dogma, but by what He said and did...
I will not ask to be forgiven for daring to have faith. Who can can threaten me? With what? Knowledge ? Knowing it all? Well...
I am not prepared to insult, mock, defame, injure or kill somebody in the name of Jesus. I am not allowed. By Jesus Himself. Nor do I wish to for exactly the same reason...
Just a thought
Douglas
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