My friend Herb Caen, the late Pulitzer Prize columnist
for the San Francisco Chronicle, made the following observation in
one of his weekly columns, "the trouble with 'born agains' is that
they are a bigger pain in the ass the second time around."
|
An interesting thought to go with your morning coffee.
If we were REALLY born again, we would return to atheism. We would
all be atheists…because that is how we were born the first time around.
All babies come into this world with no belief in God… Goddesses…
Jesus… Buddha… Lao-Tzu… Shiva… Muhammad… or anything else until we
indoctrinate them into some adult belief system, usually the same
one we were brainwashed into as children. Religious beliefs are an
accident of birth. |
Through enculturation we become something other than
what we were at birth. The only reason you are a Methodist Christian
is that you were born in America. I used to ask students in my university
class, "Why are you a Methodist Christian?" They would say "… my parents
were Methodists and they made me go to Sunday school and church with
them from the time I was born." Then I would say, "Right…you are an
enculturated Methodist …you did not choose to be that…you were born
into it." |
...they did not study all of the other great religious
traditions of the world and then make Christianity their choice.
They did not choose to be a Methodist after they had studied all
of the other 400 Protestant denominations.
|
Had you been born in Japan, you would be a Buddhist.
Had you been born in Israel, you would have been a Jew in Judaism.
Had you been born in a Muslim country, you would be Muslim.
|
You were born an atheist but through enculturation,
by indoctrination and coercion, you become something else.
|
I do not know of any phrase that is more meaningless
and nonsensical than a "bible Christian." To illustrate this point,
I used to invite representatives from ten different "Christian"
groups to speak to my university class about their beliefs.
|
I would begin with a Christian Science practitioner…next
would be the Jehovah's Witnesses…then Seventh Day Adventists…Mormons…Pentecostals…a
Roman Catholic priest…a Unity minister…Greek Orthodox…Missouri Synod
Luther…and Methodist or Presbyterian. They ALL quoted the bible
to affirm and justify their positions. The students soon realized
they were listening to TEN TOTALLY DIFFERENT RELIGIONS, all calling
themselves "Christian" and all reading from the same book, the bible,
to "prove" their beliefs.
|
No other religion studied by historians has been…or
is…so completely fragmented as the one we call "Christianity." Protestantism
alone has more than 400 different denominations, all quoting the
bible to validate their beliefs.
|
Perhaps it was this quagmire of babble that moved nationally
syndicated conservative columnist William Buckley to write a recent
column asking, "Are Churches No Longer Relevant?" documenting their
impotence. |
So now…over your morning coffee…you might ask yourself
an honest question…"if I were really born again…is it not true that
I would be a born again atheist…since that is what I was when I
came into the world…back before all the childhood indoctrination
and brainwashing of my parents' religion…and my country's religion…do
I dare to face that question…?
|
You may need to get up and get a stronger cup of coffee.
|
|