no hate

“We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love.”

 David Mitchell, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

“To hate man and worship God seems to be the sum of all the creeds.”

 Robert Ingersoll, Some Mistakes of Moses

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I was taught to follow Jesus

by a father who was a healer

and a mother who, although she rarely “spoke love”

lived love, doing things for others

I was taught to “keep it simple”

to love God

and

to love those around me

So I will admit that I do not understand

those who say they love God

but have no problem hating other people

its endemic

this hate

every morning I am assaulted by hate

it is like a stream of fetid sewage

springing up out of the heart of our nation

(not just ours to be sure)

racism, overt and growing bolder

violence, with a red hat assaulting a British photojournalist

lies, lies, lies and more lies,

designed to nurture hate and fear

greed, causing such economic inequity that the poor are literally dying in our streets

and all of this is supported

by religion

I cannot call it Christianity for it cannot and does not come from Christ

I cannot call it faith, for such fear driven behavior is the antithesis of faith

It is simply religion

Which is not necessarily spiritual at all

Spirituality is about our connection with what is Sacred

It is our being touched, changed, driven, empowered by Sacred Presence

Religion is about ritual, and dogma

It is about buildings and program

And all too often, instead of it being the place with the Spirit roars like wind

And consumes like fire

Impelling us into the Sacred’s “new thing”

It is fearful people

Huddled together in a building

Windows closed

The wind of the Spirit still

Listening to fearful people

Instilling fear

It is nothing more than an institution

Trying as hard as it can to maintain a social cultural status quote

And using hate as one of its primary weapons

Religion allied with politics

killed Jesus

Religion created the inquisition

It burned my ancestors (Mennonites) at the stake

I caused the Crusades and has been the driving force behind many a war

It has prompted the genocide of indigenous peoples around the world

Today in America

Religion has joined hands with a political agenda

It has closed its heart to people in need

And allied itself with people in greed

It has chosen to close its ears to lies

And support hate and fear

It has chosen to believe that money is more important than people

And more important than the earth

It has chosen to rely on power

and on guns

on walls

on brutality

rather than on the God who says

“do not be afraid’

which is why each morning

I try to remind myself

That the way of the Sacred was embodied in Jesus

Not in the Pharisees and Sadducees

That the way of the Sacred was lived out around tables

in the homes of common people

not in the Temple in Jerusalem (which had become, as many of our mega-churches, a den of thieves).

That the way of the Sacred, which bubbled up out of Jesus

like a Spring of Living water

caused him to accept, and welcome all

feed all, with no eye to merit

love all

forgive all

heal all

die for all

and he only asked us to do two things

love God

and love the people

God places in our path

hate bubbles up

it is so easy to drink from that cup

but we are called to drink from a different cup