Gene's Blog

About Larry Craig

This is from another place, where a friend of mine was castigating republicans  (NO, I will never capitalize a political party’s name, I have little respect for those who think in two year election cycles, for those who will not support a thing, an idea, or a need because it won’t make them popular today or help them win their next election, we need statespeople, what we get are shortsighted, often meanspirited, politicians) for hypocrisies because there have been so many instances where those of, okay, this part is political, conservative persuasion are very vocal about that which they, themselves, are.  So here is that conversation, and then a little commentary.

“They stand for family values, yet cheat on their wives they stand for truth and the american way, yet they live a lie They say they are Christians, yet are about as far removed from the spirit of Jesus as one can be They say gay and bisexual people are evil,  and promote hate against people who are born gay, yet they have gay and bi feelings, not only have them ,practice them and we are supposed to think they are the moral majority, god help us if they are the more moral ones.”

And my reply:

“It isn’t quite that bad. There are SO people who are conflicted in this way. They hate what is IN them and so they do the exact wrong, thing, but the only “safe” thing they can imagine. They vilify everyone who feels the way they do. I hold religion accountable for this. It is religion that teaches that only some go to heaven. It is religion that separates us into camps of “us and them”. “WE” know the truth and the path to salvation is through our teaching alone. This is necessary to maintain their hold on their people. But a hold like that is based on fear. How long can you hold people’s attention by fear? How can you trust “love” that is based on fear? Were it not for such teachings people could jsut love whomever they love, without judgment, without conflict and without fear. It is in trying to make only one kind of love legitimate that religions do their greatest disservice to humanity. They should be teaching that love is love, and it isn’t really love if you place conditions on it, if you withdraw it when someone displeases you. That is manipulation, not love. And this world should have no place for any tradition which separtates into camps all of whom are teaching that they are right and everyone else is condemned. That whole idea, so wrongly thought out, of what religion calls the last day, when those who are “bad” are left behind and those who are “good” are taken “home”, is based on dividing us, paralyzing us, with fear. I tell you this. When we lose that fear, when we come to understand that life is not a game to be won or lost but an experience to be had, an opportunity given us by our creator. That we can’t lose this love, that, in the end, we all go home, where we are always loved and welcome, well, then we might truly begin to make this place the paradise in relativity that is designed to be. Love, of whatever persuasion, is love, and while we don’t have to experience personally all forms of that, no one MAKES us other than what we are, but when we accept all AS they are, without judgment, then our conflict over this separation, this teaching of fear, could be over. And our growing together, as one people, one world, with all manner of differences to love and celebrate can really begin. We have some maturing as a species to get that place. But I think that place is where we are going, inevitably. I see that hope in the history of humanity. There have been backward steps, this past decade is one of them, but for most of our history we have grown toward more loving acceptance of each other. That is the future I see, that is the future I want to help build.”

So, here is where I go with that.  I DO blame religion for this.  It is religion that teaches us to hate that which is different from us.  And, hate is NOT too strong a word.   Though I wish it was.   I am not talking here about nuns rapping your knuckles with a ruler for misbehaving.  I am talking about the irresolvable conflict that occurs when you are raised to believe something is horrible and then find yourself feeling that very thing.  You “know” it is wrong, yet you FEEL it, so that must mean YOU are wrong, so not only do you fight it, you become very vocal about how wrong it is.  That, my friends, is  the definition, or should be, of hypocrisy, and we do not bring that upon ourselves.  We are taught it, those of us raised in most western religious traditions are anyway.   Were it NOT for religion, we might understand that love is love, no matter how or why or when it occurs.  I recommend that anyone reading this, all of you, giggle, see the movie Gray Matters.  Though it has a sort of story-book ending, it also shows eternal truth.  We ARE what we ARE.   We don’t “choose” to be bi or gay or straight, we are born with a predilection and, I believe we do so intentionally, to have an experience, to understand an experience, to experience something that we chose to come here to experiene for our own souls growth and evolution.   I don’t think there is “right” or “wrong” about this, there is only us, living what we came here to live.   And none of that is “bad”, it only IS.   If you must think about this in religious terms, and I get that some of you must, then think of it this way, “judge not, lest ye be judged.”

All that really means, is let other people be other people.  And let you, be you.  There is no need for hate, but there is an enormous need for tolerance.  And understanding.  People do not have to be like US to be worthy of our love.  Love does not require anything, love tolerates everything.  Love is unconditional or it is not love.  And love, in all truth, is what we came here to observe, to experience, to BE.   We come to remember the love with which we were created, unconditional, never-ending, infinite.  When we grow to a place where THAT is our truth, we have come to understand “home” and the truth of who we really are.   And then, maybe then, we will be able to recreate that here in the relative world on this beautiful blue planet we all share.  much love, :^) gene