Hellfire & Brimstone

You know I what I love about so many religions?



The hypocrisy.



God is supposed to be infallible but all of us are so very much the opposite. We are wrong about so much and our pitiful fears and hopes and conflicts play such a big part in who we are that religion itself is more like a play than an actual philosophy. You show up dressed for the part of good Christian or whatever else you may be and you go through the motions, you read your lines, you do everything the way you're expected to do. Then you come home the dress robes come off and your tattoos and piercings are shown, you have a drink while listenin' to the devil's music, and lookin' up Internet porn.



Who you are in church is never who you really are. You will never be a complete person unless you have a complete range of experiences and you're prolly the only person that can say what a complete range of experiences really is for you. A lotta people drink themselves into a stupor at least once. They smoke a lil pot in college. They may take time to question their sexuality. They can listen to crap music or wear hideous clothes that they thought were cool at the time. They will most likely do sumthin' they'll regret and carry with them forever. But all of that is their freedom.



I have found that religion, while a nice device for advice and guidance, should never be taken to be the end all be all of all your life. There will never be one book, The Bible or otherwise, that should dominate your life. I don't remember findin' calculus in The Bible and I think keepin' my track of my money is a lil important. The Bible can't tell you everything you need to know, The Qur'an, or Cat's Cradle either. I recommend readin' everything you can. I recommend doin' anything you can so long as it's not harmful to you. I don't recommend smokin' but I do it. I don't recommend havin' a few drinks and drivin' but I've done it. I don't recommend heroin and I've never touched the stuff but I hear it's too much trouble to even sound appealin' to me. There are things you are gonna try for yourself whether they're stupid or not and nuthin's gonna change your mind about it 'cept your own bad experiences with it.



As people we are very much fallible, fragile, stupid, stubborn creatures. We must first admit this to ourselves. Then we can acknowledge that we can be better and probably should at least try to be. But never should we condemn those around us for makin' different choices than we have or even the same mistakes that we did.



It's that hypocrisy that amuses me so much about all different religions. If we don't adhere and believe and follow as sheep then we are going to Hell in the afterlife or must at least be stoned ,sometimes literally, to learn that our difference of opinions will not be tolerated.



I can't help but laugh at a high and mighty who oppresses and brainwashes his flock while he is thinkin' about naked men or rubbin' one out to this month's Victoria Secret catalog. Sex isn't a sin, it's the root of life and an important part of love. Gay, straight, Bi, or whatever is fine so long as it's consensual. Love is love and there's too little of it in this world as it is, find it with whomever you can.



I can't help but feel sorry for those in that flock bein' suppressed into bein' someone they ain't. Missin' out on your prime years of dancin' drinkin' and havin' some crazy but safe fun to sit at home readin' a book that you find yourself disagreein' with more and more. There's a whole world out there, some of it dangerous, some of it heavenly, all of it just outside your doorstep. There's no hidin' from it. Embrace it and learn to stand on your own two feet for the parts you love and against the parts that promate hate and pain.



And that's what I dislike most about these saintly types. Some of them are so genuine. Some of them love everyone regardless of social class or misdeeds of the past. That is wonderful and refreshing. Spritual tyrants turn their religion into vocal whips and chains of the mind with which to control people that would otherwise be much happier bein' free and creative. The Bible was never meant to be an atom bomb against the soul. You can't pray the gay away. Jesus drank wine, why be opposed to my beer? Mary Magdelene was never called a "slut" by Jesus. He was born the lowly son of a carpenter and defender of mankind not an elitest punk kid of a closet racist senator.



If religion should teach the people anything it's to be open-minded, loving, forgiving, and respectful. All important lessons but still not all a person needs to truly live.