Hello, Ive decided to write this in the hopes it will reach the ears and minds of the people who most need to take it in.
I don't have a lot of hope that they will either read it or incorporate what I have to say into their essence, but I will at least have said it.
I'm an American, I have all the bonafides, a veteran with an honorable discharge or two somewhere in my paperwork, born here, of the children of immigrants- also born of the children of natives.
So, I've got that covered. I work daily to provide for me and mine and I vote.
I even worship!
I just don't worship the way too many people seem to think I must, nor do I bend my neck to worship a God they agree with. But I worship in deep awe and solemnity- humility.
Follow me below the fold for the words of a very simple man on all the troubles about Religious America.
Now, I'm not going to tear into the people who believe they are the inheritors of all things American because they follow the same religion their mothers, fathers and great greats did. I'm going to make an appeal.
We know they think they are the only true Americans, they say it often enough that it's pretty plain to see what they think, feel and emote on the subject.
But I'd like them to look around, yeah, you!
Look around you just a little bit, and tell me that you are truly blind to the rest of us. Are you? You can' t be, you mutter bitterly any time we do anything you don't like or disagree with.
Now, I have absolutely no problems with you believing in your God, it just doesn't affect me! I enjoy the feeling of being able to walk past a Christian church, a mosque, a Wiccan temple or a group of people worshiping with a cannabis plant and decide "I'm going to join them!" or not- to feel that my many years of service guaranteed, a little bit, that freedom for everyone.
I'm a pagan, and I suppose the point of this mild rant is, what difference does that make to anyone, anyway?
If I'm okay with you being, oh, heck, whatever you are, if I can see you as a fellow American, in the same boat as I am no matter what your religion is, why can't you see me and him and her the same way?
I've had some hard times, I'm sure each and every one of you have had those too. My faith kept me going when it was really hard, I imagine you can say the same thing. That's a lovely thing!
So, why can't we keep it to ourselves? What is this NEED to spread the joy? What if someone else found a different method that works for them?
Look, in all fairness, I don't believe in your God, you don't believe in my Mother and the Great Spirit and an American atheist thinks we are all deluded. it's COOL! None of us have to change.
But we do have to agree! We have to agree that this nation as it IS now, is polycultural.
That was always the ideal, wasn't it? That people would come here from all over the world, good people, and they would work hard to shape America. Now, with all those cultures come religions, and no, no one gets to have dominion in this country.
We must all get along, America gets to be the dominant ideal within her own borders!
If I'm having a beer with a Muslim friend and he tells me he needs to go pray, why the hell can't I have a beer with him tomorrow? Is that a sin in his religion, I don't know, I don't WISH to know, it is between him and his God!
If a Christian co worker tells me he can't come over for dinner tonight, please make his apologies to the wife but he has to confess a sin or whatever he needs to do- What shall I do other than say, "Okay, you're missing one hell of a dinner, talk to you tomorrow!"
Part of that getting along is we all leave our religious hands off of our communal laws.
This is the part that makes everyone get all itchy under the collar.
Yes, many of us are students of history, we know what has happened in the world when religious people started making laws for everybody that only included their God(s) wishes- "Your belief isn't necessary, the Law is the LAW!" became the guiding principle and it hasn't ever ended well!
I'll make you a deal, if you don't try to force me into your church or to live by your God's laws, I won't try to bring you into the sweat tent or make you swear an oath of office to the four winds with a pipe full of tobacco, okay?
Folks, any and all kidding aside, we MUST get this right. I'm never, ever going to stand idly by while a certain, very vocal, group tries to either take over our government with their church or to carve out exemptions to the laws the rest of us have to follow on the basis of their faith. That is not only against the principles on which this nation was founded, it's damned unfair!
Using their logic, not a cop in the country should be able to bust me for smoking cannabis, a sacrament and medicine given to us by MY Gods according to my beliefs. Just to name one glaring example of exceptions to the rule. Yet they do and can, because until we manage to change the laws through the use of the process, I have to follow that law and accept the consequences of breaking it if I do.
Even if your beliefs rest on, to my mind, a foundation of hate and bigotry (You will notice I didn't say your religion did, only that your beliefs might) hey, that's not my problem, if that's your path for this life, then that's how you have to walk. Again, between you and your creator.
But you will NEVER force it on me, you may as well get past it and find a new fight. You see, I'm not alone in my resistance. I know a lot of people who share your religion- and they share my views, they understand that when your interpretation of the words you hold holy butts up against theirs, they might get the rough end of the stick- and they don't like that idea.
Find a better fight or get used to the idea that you will not win any of the battles, let alone the war.
It's too important to too many people for us to give in.
I will ask you also to note that I didn't mention ANY religion as a perpetrator- because I feel too many people of all religions tend toward this in their fervor.
"We'll MAKE them serve God!" Don't, just don't. It can't work!
If the shoe fits, you wear it, if it doesn't, go barefoot!
Can we agree, because it's important, that in this- we are all Americans and we need to be Americans...
First.