"[T]he thundering voice of God answered, 'There's just something about you that pisses me off.'"

Since I don't believe in God, I never have to worry about this

Anyone who thinks sitting in church can make you a Christian must also think that sitting in a garage can make you a car.

• Garrison Keillor

For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.

• Charles Bukowski

There was a time in my life when I was pretty religious. In junior high school, I was part of an Evangelical Christian community, and I felt I’d found something that answered the questions I had at that point in my life.

As I got older, I began to pay more attention to the knowledge that some of those I considered teachers were trying to pass along to me. As I listened to them, I understood that much of what they were trying to teach me had to do with things I wasn’t supposed to do, “sins” I shouldn’t commit.

Some of those things were common-sense, and I had no problem with them, but I began to increasingly feel as if more emphasis was being placed on controlling my behavior.

I was at the point in my life where I didn’t feel much like being controlled. I was getting enough of that at home, where I was engaged in frequent verbal (and sometimes physical) skirmishes with my father. I was tired of not being recognized as a unique human being. I felt like people in my life were trying to stuff a square peg (me) into a round hole. No matter what, I didn’t fit and didn’t particularly want to.

And so the time came when I walked away from Christianity. The religion that had once provided answers left me with nothing but questions. I was tired of Christians and everyone else in my life trying to stuff me into a box they were comfortable with.

The more distance I put between myself and the faith I’d previously claimed, the more I realized that Christianity isn’t about the immutable, inviolable Word of God or the teachings of Jesus Christ. The Word of God is neither immutable nor inviolable; it’s not even direct from the source. The documents used to make up the Bible we know today have been transcribed, retranscribed, translated, and retranslated by innumerable individuals. Imagine playing a game of “Telephone” with the Holy Scriptures, and you’ll be close to envisioning what many today call the “inviolate Word of God.”

Who, indeed?

It’s not. It never was. It never can be. Even IF God exists, something I no longer accept, His words have been through so many iterations that there’s no way to believe they’re anything close to the original.

I wouldn't say I like labels when it comes to religion or philosophy, but humanity abhors a vacuum, and we feel more comfortable when we can pigeonhole people. So, I accept the “atheist” label. I don’t accept the existence of the Christian- or any- deity.

I’m not going to argue that everything in this world can be explained by science, and I accept that there may be things beyond the physical realm that defy conventional understanding. That, to me, at least, still doesn’t constitute evidence for the existence of God.

I’ve long seen the acceptance of “God’s will” as the ceding of control over one’s life to something one can neither see nor explain. It means no longer taking responsibility for one’s life. From a philosophical standpoint, I can see the advantages of such a philosophy, but that still isn’t proof God exists, merely that a person has difficulty being responsible for their own existence.

I know people who are faithful, committed Christians who earnestly strive to lead Christ-like lives as best they understand it. Their faith informs every aspect of their lives- every decision they make and every interaction with people they encounter.

The only way to stop a bad Christian with a gun….

I may not share their faith, but I admire the consistency of their commitment and the comfort it provides them. It’s certainly not the way I would live, but who am I to judge someone who’s chosen a different path and has found happiness and fulfillment in doing so? I accept them for who they are and how they live, and as long as they provide me the same courtesy in return, we’re good. They’re good people, and this world can always use more.

Many things disturb me about religion and confirm my decision to reject it. Modern Christianity has been folded, spindled, and mutilated beyond recognition by those with their own evil agendas. Evangelicals have used their faith as a cudgel as they seek political power.

You know you want one….

Their goal, which they’ve made no effort to camouflage, is to turn America into their own private version of Gilead, straight out of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s not to glorify their God but rather to force their morality and rules on all Americans.

Christianity- and you could say the same thing about most religions- has devolved into a means of enforcing the narrow morality of a small minority. It also allows that minority to install a fear-based system skewed toward the interests of White Conservative Christian Cisgender Heterosexuals.

This isn’t the Christianity I grew up with. I don’t even recognize it. What I grew up with was based on love, tolerance, and acceptance…at least insofar as I remember it. What’s in fashion today is a mean-spirited theology based on the teachings of Republican Jesus, the better-known brother of Supply-Side Jesus.

The American Taliban, which is what modern Christianity has deteriorated into, believes that they are the One, True, and ONLY Faith…and therefore they and ONLY they have the God-ordained right to assume control of the government and force their agenda on all Americans.

And then there’s the hate. Why the American Taliban harbors such deep-seated hatred for the LGBTQ community is something I have difficulty understanding. What I do know is that there’s nothing “Christian” about such revulsion.

The Jesus found in the Christian Bible didn’t teach animosity. I’ve been through enough Sunday School classes to remember that much. It’s pretty sick and twisted, but it’s definitely not Christian.

Sinful. Destructive. Morally wrong. Physically dangerous. Inherently unnatural. Deviant. Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson has spared no invective in describing the LGBTQ community. He’s gone as far as saying same-sex marriage will destroy “the entire democratic system.” His legislative record points to an obsession with gay sex….

[O]n LGBTQ rights, he’s shown no willingness to compromise. The bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act passed last year with 39 Republicans and all of the Democrats in the House voting in favor. The law balances protections for same-sex and interracial marriages with religious liberty concerns. But that type of bipartisan compromise didn’t move Johnson, who has said same-sex marriage will lead us down the road to acceptance of pedophilia and marrying animals.

WTF?? Pedophilia? Marrying animals? Seriously? Someone’s been obsessing WAY too much for his views to be considered with a straight face. Why is he so consumed by what others do behind closed doors? Does the sexual behavior of other people impact him directly?

No, it doesn’t. That being the case, there’s a straightforward solution available to Speaker Johnson. He can STFU.

Johnson proposed a federal “don’t say gay” bill that restricts any type of LGBTQ content for kindergarten through third-grade classes because the prohibition on “sexually oriented” content is defined as anything related to gender identity or sexual orientation. The Human Rights Campaign has consistently given him zeros on its congressional scorecard.

But even more concerning is what he advocated prior to his election to Congress, when he voiced strong support for the criminalization of gay sex. So-called sodomy laws were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2003.

Regardless of his religious views, his hatred of homosexuality is pure Old Testament, which leads me to assume that he’s sworn off shellfish and clothing made of mixed fibers. Oh, and that he’ll be selling all his material goods and donating the proceeds to the poor.

But what’s disturbing is how much Mike Johnson’s opposition to the LGBTQ community runs counter to what Lawrence v. Texas determined to be the petitioner’s right “to respect for their private lives.” Johnson would criminalize homosexuality.

First, how would he propose to enforce such a gross invasion of personal privacy?

Second, how would he square such a law with Lawrence v. Texas?

Third, how can he justify legislating such hatred towards a minority class of people as somehow being a “Christian” act?

Then there’s the separation of Church and State, which the Founding Fathers put in place to keep religious zealots like the American Taliban from dissolving the wall between religion and government.

Mike Johnson and his fellow American Taliban zealots refuse to acknowledge the validity of the separation between Church and State.

Those zealots are merely one reason why I refuse to recognize the existence of a deity of any sort. Religion, at its most fundamental, is a good and positive thing. Still, it’s invariably polluted and bastardized by people with their self-interested agendas- people like Mike Johnson, who are Christians like I’m a Nobel laureate.

I’d much rather take responsibility for myself and my life than cede control to an outside force I can’t see, hear, or feel. And I certainly don’t want anyone who shares Mike Johnson’s ideology attempting to take over the government out of a lust for power.

Our system has worked for 247 years; why would we allow zealot like Johnson to destroy it now in the name of creating an American Taliban theocracy?

(All of my posts are now public. Any reader financial support will be considered pledges- support that’s greatly appreciated but not required to get to all of my work. I’ll trust my readers to determine if my work is worthy of their financial support and at what level. To those who do offer their support, thank you. It means more than you know.)