Using His Name, Ignoring His Lessons

I went to Sunday school as a little kid and attended church until my early twenties. I listened to what I was told during those years. I found it interesting to hear the stories from the bible, and the lessons they imparted benefited me as a person. The stories and the lessons were, for the most part, very positive or at least what I took from them proved to be positive in my life.

There was one aspect of attending church that always bothered me as far back as I can remember. I dreaded the part where they passed around the plate for donations. See, my family was always seriously financially challenged. We barely had rent and food money let alone money to give to the church. When I would see that donation plate coming my way I would almost panic. While others dropped in folding money, I dropped in a measly amount of change, seldom adding up to a quarter. I always felt ashamed that I wasn’t in a position to give more. That was the worst part of my church experience.

Somewhere along the way I decided that I didn’t need to attend organized religious meetings in order to live the kind of life I knew that I should. I had learned the basic teachings of Jesus. I learned to try to be kind to people in need. I learned to be as good a person as I could be and not to intentionally cause harm to others. I learned to respect people as much as they would let me and to try very hard to understand people with whom I disagreed, no matter what.

Today I see praying as another form of wishing. I don’t believe there is a superior being who is playing traffic cop and controlling which way our lives must lead. I hope there was a person just like the Jesus whose lessons I learned. I hope there was a person like that at least once upon this earth. I sure do hope there was.

Today the Christian Right is the worst enemy of religion. They are intolerant of anyone who doesn’t believe the way they believe, and for some reason, they are grand supporters of this war. My feeling is that these “Christians” never bothered to read the New Testament. That’s the part that’s the most important. The world according to the Old Testament was a miserable mess. Then in the New Testament, along came Jesus to try to get it straightened out. I don’t know how you can claim the word “Christian” if you don’t know the story of Christ.

So to me it’s kind of ironic that I, as an atheist, try so very much to live my life by the teachings of Jesus while the Christians on the Right seem to fight his teachings all along the way. We’ve all heard the question, “What would Jesus do?” Because I remember the lessons and based on what those lessons taught me, I pretty much can guess what he would do in most situations. I think he would be fair and tolerant. I think he would approach each situation with an open mind and a gentle heart.

Too bad, if there really was a person like Jesus, he couldn’t come back now and help us get our world back on track. We could use someone like him right now. The Christian Right says Jesus may return any day. For their sake they better pray it isn’t today. He just might not like them using his name but ignoring his lessons.