One or the other

“People are just as wonderful as sunsets if you let them be. When I look at a sunset, I don't find myself saying, "Soften the orange a bit on the right hand corner." I don't try to control a sunset. I watch with awe as it unfolds.”

 Carl R. Rogers, A Way of Being

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my fingers hover of the keyboard

there is no gentle way to say this

and yet I do not want to offend

but I am offended

perhaps there are better words

bigger words

the best words

but I am hurt,

pained

wounded

part of me simply unravels

when I see the hate filled faces of those with their signs

“God hates you”

“Repent or Burn”

I believe that God is love

Not just that God loves

But that the very nature of God is love

There is nothing in God that is not love

and yet

this religion called Christianity

is an active affront to this very idea

that God is Love

for woven through the fabric of this faith system

are many darker threads

and fundamentally, for many

even those who would insist it is a religion of love

it is a religion of fear

believe the right things

vote for the right person

follow the right rules

have the right ideology

belong to the right religion

say the right words

or you will burn in conscious torment for all eternity

you will be cursed by God, your life will be awful

God will hate you

you will be excluded from God’s grace

excluded from the church

what I see is not a religion of love

but a religion of coercion and retribution

what I see is a religion focused on power and control

not on acceptance and service

Oh, if we fit the prototype

if we can snuggle down inside the ‘community’

if we are on the correct side of the equation,

it all works splendidly

we don’t even notice our own language

our own attitudes

we just roll out the formulas

the talking points

we are like walking talking religious memes

we don’t notice that we exclude, and judge

we don’t notice that our faith is about domination

not servanthood

until things get hard

until the challenges come

and then our God is revealed

Our God is revealed when a refugee shows up at our border

Our God is revealed when we must choose between profit and the planet

Our God is revealed when we are asked to accept and welcome one who is different

Our God is revealed when the poor show up on our doorstep

Our God is revealed when people hurt us, or disappoint us

Our God is revealed in how we use power

Does the God we really follow

Judge?  Exclude?  Threaten?

Does that God have unconditional love (agape), or is that love extremely conditional?

Is our faith centered around fear, satisfying God, earning merit, being on the “right side?”

Or is our God love

And is our faith centered on participating in love, and sharing that love with all?

It has to be one or the other