Who is this God guy anyway?

The name gets thrown around a lot. You know: oh my God, thank God, God knows. But who is this guy God? For someone who is so all pervasive he sure is conspicuous by his absence. Sure, he may have created the world, but what’s he done lately? He talks a good talk but for someone with such a vested interest in humanity he sure is saving those walking shoes.

Then you hit the complicating factor of him delegating most of the heavy lifting to his late son. So who do you go to if you have a complaint? The company God & Son doesn’t even have a website for God’s sake.

Alright, enough frivolity in the intro. This is actually a serious topic, because the phenomenon of Christianity has done more damage to the world than any other human construct over the last couple of thousand years, and continues to do so as we speak. The initial rationale behind Christianity was pretty straight forward, and everyone needs some rules to live by. So don’t kill, don’t steal and don’t lie. I get that. That makes sense. I think most people can accept that and go on with their lives.

But then you start going beyond that into the moral rules and the religious clauses. That’s when it starts getting dodgy. Especially when you read the potential punishment for breaking said rules. For someone who professes to love humanity so much, the punishment for crossing him seems a bit extreme. I mean pardon me, but being burned for eternity while demons stick pins in your flesh seems a bit disproportionate for envying your neighbour’s donkey and cussing the big G and J out. And where is the appeal process and probation option? It strikes me as being a bit narcissistic – I love you as long as you grovel at my feet, but I will unleash hell on you if you dare to cross me. Fuck that! That sounds like the approach of every despot in human history, and they all were, are and will be, scum. If someone like Putin or Trump thinks I’ll be swallowing their shit, they have many thinks coming. Same goes for Mr God, whoever he is.

I think the biggest problem with Christianity is the way it has been used as a tool by the empowered elite as a method of ensuring compliance and control. How many of them have said they are God’s appointed representative, or that they are blessed by said representative in the Vatican. The two go hand in hand. The religion sets the rules with the dagger of divine punishment hanging over everyone, then the power hungry among us latch onto it and say they are chosen, so if you don’t follow my regime then you are going against God, so hell awaits if you go against me. That fear factor is what ensures compliance. Occasionally that system breaks and you have events like the French Revolution and American War of Independence where people realised the Emperor was, in fact, naked. But then the replacement regime finds they need legitimacy so they run back to the Pope or whoever for some endorsement and off you go again. Power hungry people love to put themselves up there with the big guy, whether through birth right or by self appointment. More on this later.

The second biggest problem with the whole corrupt system is the opening book in the bible, which states that God made the world for the benefit of mankind. That has opened the door for absurd exploitation and environmental damage. All the rape and pillage merchants who dig up the ground, pollute the air and poison the water justify it through that book. God said it’s a smorgasbord so we can go for it. Get yours while you can and never mind those that come after. And when we run out over here we’ll find some other part of the world to exploit. It isn’t coveting your neighbour when God says it’s okay right? That’s just grabbing what he said is yours.

Those sharp-eyed readers will have noticed the glimmering of hypocrisy in there, which is the third major aspect of Christianity that needs to be called out. Never mind the abuse of power and the destruction of the planet. That can all be justified by selective application of the bible. But what about when you cross the line and start drifting into lying, stealing and killing to get what you want? Well, you use your get out jail card by saying it’s God’s will. Let’s take it for a spin to see how it works shall we?

Racism: those other races don’t believe in our God, therefor they don’t fit into his plans and can be ostracized, abused and, if they get stroppy, killed. They are sinners because they have other Gods before ours right? And our God doesn’t like sinners, especially the type that talk back and don’t grovel for forgiveness.

Colonialism: natural progression from racism and a major contributor to how fucked up the world is under Christian authority. Those uneducated, pagan, barbaric people need to be “saved”. And if they don’t want to be saved they can be punished as sinners, which means forfeiting their culture, land and resources to those enacting God’s will. We warned them. It’s God’s way or the highway.

War: natural progression from colonliasm when you are dealing with whole countries that don’t buy your shit. Since God doesn’t like heathens, because they are sinful and won’t put him first, they need to be shown the error of their ways. The medieval crusades were all about this, even though their opponents actually followed the same God. But details, huh? They didn’t believe in his son, so that had to be straightened out. You name just about any other war involving, say, America and you will see them pushing the Christian side of things to deal with “Godless communism”, “criminal juntas” and “Islamic terror”. Napalming villages is what God would do if he could, right? The US army is just acting as his right hand.

Greed: This one applies in spades when looking at modern American style evangelism. I could devote several pages to how ugly and corrupt that is, but let’s look at the broad strokes. Evangelists believe that God provides to the holy. That the devout get rewarded. Anything you need, pray for it and God will give it to you, because you can have a personal relationship with the big guy and he knows what you want. And what do most people want? Well, money of course. And God rewards charity too, so once God rewards you with the cash you can give it all to your local church, which is a tax free charity, and you will be doubly rewarded. See how that one works. Your private jet having, diamond Rolex wearing, Ferrari driving mother fucker of a preacher gets you so pious and devout you don’t know which way is up, then says all you have was given to you by God, so it’s His money anyway, so why not give it back to Him so you can prove how charitable you are. But as there’s no return address you can give it to the church, which represents God, and that will cover it. I, your preacher and God’s chosen representative (and I know this because I can talk to him and have a better personal relationship with him than you ever will) will use it to do God’s work; and buy a couple of mansions and helicopters and gifts for my mistress on the side too, but that’s okay because I am more devout than you and God wants to reward me (he told me so).

Yes, piousness is a sweet thing once you know how to use it. Wealth is equal to Godliness, and since wealth is power, all your political leaders have to do is pretend to be pious and say they are getting closer to God by following the American dream (through sucking up to oil barons and billionaires) on their way into congress. So now you can extrapolate it even further by saying that political power, enabled by wealth, is God given. Jesus is my saviour and Trump is my president. Tidy, no? And very effective as we have just seen.

Apologies to those who can’t deal with speaking truth to power, but these things have to be said. Allowing corrupt people to run over you is no longer acceptable when the future of the planet is at stake. People fret about zero oil. How about zero water? How about apocalyptic genocides in God’s name? How about cataclysmic shifts in weather patterns destroying food supplies while “Christians” drill, baby, drill.

If you are honest, faithful and trusting you have my sympathy, but you need to also need to realise that you are being played. Don’t lie, don’t steal and don’t kill is all you need. Everything else is a bunch of bull pucky.

For a bit of light relief I recommend this channel: Mrs Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian. It will educate and enlighten and have you doubled over laughing if you let it. Don’t be afraid to say no to evil manipulation. It’s like exiting a bad relationship. After the initial pain and confusion has passed you will feel a whole lot better. Just replace that devotion with an equal commitment to the planet and to respecting the good in other people. And when other people aren’t good? Don’t give them anything, not even time, and certainly not money or power. That’s how we got into this mess in the first place.

You’re welcome.