Daily writing prompt
Do you practice religion?
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Here’s why my above title replied in that manner…
As a twelve-year-young boy, I found organized religion to be rather hollow and unholy, so much so, that when the Catholic church left me, I didn’t shed any tears. My dissatisfaction was less about Clerical errors, more about some of the congregants’ erroneous interpretations of what it means to be, in general, a good Christian; more specifically, a righteous Catholic.
In essence, their soulless, sole motivation for showing up each Sunday was to shamelessly flaunt their their Godless, stratospheric station in life. As if what? Acting all high and mighty might get them closer to God?
Well, since “they” say the devil is in the details, let’s now dig (aptly enough) deeper down.
BTW, I’ve chosen to illustrate these unwise parishioners thru my wise-guy eyes. While my nearing the deep end, cheeky exaggerations do run rampant throughout my narrative, nonetheless, the net result does accurately portray the depth of my bygone displeasure. And, maybe it’s just me, but once my words stripped back their artifice, fakery and superficiality, that even elicited a few of my chuckles. Hopefully, you’ll react similarly? And, that said, here goes…
When it came down to Sunday services in my small hometown, quite the spectacle played out on a regular basis; their bad behavior now broken down along provincial cis gender lines.
The womenfolk seemed to be viewing our church’s center aisle as if it were some NYC catwalk designed for strutting their stuff (i.e., haute couture); where their finery’s flow-able fabric was free to flutter within the breezy wake created by each, preceding parishioner / supermodel.
As for the menfolk, it was ALMOST as if their burning desires were limited to tooling up in the parking lot; sporting their pride fueled facial glow (ditto that wasted energy re their eyeballs’ flashing dollar signs). Hell, upon exiting their shiny, swanky luxury rides, even that new car smell was heavy in the air. Palpable, too, was each patriarch’s temptation to pop open the bonnets (hoods); in hopes of turning the less fortunate passersby green with envy. Yep, even the Motor City’s gas guzzler engines were capable of roaring to life; strutting their Sunday best.
Naturally, no Sunday service would be complete sans the benediction; in this case, really driven home, courtesy of these Indy 500 wannabes devolving into eat-my-dirt mode; indulging their puerile desires to full throttle speed off, homeward; the ample corroborating (carburetor-ing?) evidence? Their billowing heavenward, hellish, acrid, cloudy, dense, dark, carbon monoxide saturated smog.
Now, that above story is what I’d classify as an unsightly, brand of un-Godliness!
It’s easy to conclude that anyone turned on by that sort of snooty, sooty irreverence is likely beyond redemption. It’d also be no shocker were we to discover that such mindsets have (regrettably so) survived intact; into the 21st century.
To flesh that out, they’d be today’s imbecilic, theocratic, FOX News talking heads; Iran’s intolerant mullahs; and treasonous Trumper / MAGA magnitude Republican insurrectionists; all of these bad actors’ job #1 being to…
- misinterpret, mutilate and expurgate scripture
- ram their bastardized religious dogma down decent folks’ throats
- mete out death sentences to punish women for mere dress code violations
- burn down hallowed human decency / precious American democracy
Now, let’s classify, below, what an upbeat, inclusive, brand of spirituality is…
My belief system is all about us, wholeheartedly, respecting all respectable people; that the only labels that accurately assess folks’ character are Good, Bad and In-Between. Also, we must always give credence to the Golden Rule’s Prime Directive; namely, that succinctly, eloquently worded, honest to God creed…
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!”
In closing… I’d like to expand on this day’s writing prompt, “Do you practice religion?”
Too many people in our world do need all the practice they can possibly get; for they seldom, if ever, practice what their preachers are preaching. Worse yet, what too damned many preachers are preaching, nowadays, is accompanied, not by church organs but by dog-whistles; regrettably, such tweets are inclusive of xenophobia, misogyny, homophobia, and fascism.
In the end… those indoctrinated along those deplorable lines will wind up raring to go on their science silencing, book burning, freedom gutting, rampaging crusades.
And God help us all, should their un-Godly behavior ever prevail!
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Be humans Vaxxed OR Unvaxxed, We
can still shed and spread the batcrap
crazy contagious coronavirus which,
in turn, spawns new variants; which,
in turn, could, eventually, render the
available vaccines worthless; which,
in turn, will drag out the pandemic’s
needless suffering, illness and death!
HENCE… this easy as pie, cover your
nose and pie-hole/hole-up heads-up:
Stay Publicly / Properly Masked!
Stay Safe at Home!
Stay Healthy!
-30-
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CommonSenseTom 