My Thoughts on Religious Extremism ~ Michael Hoyt

~ Michael Hoyt:

"When I was a kid I used to go to church. Now I’m not a Christian, I don’t pretend to be one. Usually I would go because a girl I liked invited me to go. So when I was invited to go to church I would put on my best go to meeting clothes. My life more closely resembled that of Tom Sawyer than it did little Lord Fauntleroy so my choice of go to meeting clothes was limited. I would put on my best clothes and head off to church. I would sit in the pews next to my girlfriend and I would pretend to pray when they prayed and I would hold the book and sing the hymns.
As I recall, preachers back then talked a lot about the Ten Commandments. You know “thou shall not kill, love thy neighbor, do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” and other things. One quote that I remember quite well is “it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it would be for a rich man to enter the gates of heaven.” 
As little amount of time that I spent in church I did learn a lot. I learned that Jesus was a good guy. He advocated for the poor and even told the wealthy that they should use their wealth to help the poor. As I recall, he even threw the vendors out of a temple because they were plying their goods inside the temple. Jesus was also a healer. There is even a story about how he brought one person back from the dead."

"I don’t want you to think that I am confusing Jesus with the Ten Commandments. I know the commandments were given to Moses by God sometime before Jesus’ birth, so don’t anybody think I’m getting confused."

"My point is this; you never hear those on the right who claim to be good Christians talking about these things anymore. Now you hear a “therapist and school counselor” on Fox saying things like “it is a teaching moment when hungry kids can’t get school lunches.” I ask you, is that Christian like? I wouldn’t want this guy anywhere near my kids."

"And then there is the so called religious leader John McTernan, who claims that Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Isaac were all due to the fact that God was systematically destroying America because of the “homosexual agenda.” Several conservative lawmakers repeated this ridicules claim."

 
"OH!!! I almost forgot my favorite one. Glenn Beck, who claims to be some kind of leader (not sure what kind) made the statement that liberals should be hunted down like Nazi’s. (Presumably the last part of that would be to have them executed.) And Pat Robertson suggests that gays wore special rings to intentionally spread Aids. Just because he’s a cruel idiot doesn’t mean everybody else is.
What I’m getting at here is that I am sick and tired of these so called right wing conservatives claiming to speak for God or claiming God told them to do something. I seriously doubt that God told anybody, especially not Bachmann, Perry or Cain to run for president. I don’t think He much cares who the leader of any country is. These right winger people seem to be able to go into the bible and find passages that appear to justify any mean, cruel injustice they want to perpetuate on humanity. New Testament or Old Testament, it doesn’t matter. As I’ve said before, there are many good Christians. Their religion has been taken over by right wing extremists much as some of the Muslim religion has been taken over by extremists. What religion needs to do is get back to teaching the basics-love thy fellow man, the Ten Commandments, and the love that Jesus taught. Maybe then more people would accept religion."