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Whence Poop Hangs


    I'm going to say some good things, positive things about Christianity. But not yet.

    A while back I sat and listened to a sermon in a Christian church. I am not a Christian so it was a unique opportunity, one spanning from my long-ago Methodist upbringing in rural Indiana.

    A friend of mine had died and so I attended his funeral out of respect — and wanting to see him officially sent on from his recent life here on this beautiful but often miserable Earth. 

    This was not some out-there evangelical cult; this was a mainstream American small-town Lutheran church. I sat there quietly in the pew on an inside aisle near the middle of the sanctuary, unable to not listen to the Protestant minister as he used the event of my friend's passing to preach his passionate message which was essentially, "Get lost."

      Seriously; no joke. He said, "Lose yourself to Jesus." He  went on to explain that we should not put our trust in "logic and reason" and to "trust only in Jesus." 

    Yeah, yeah, this did not start out to be a rant against Christianity and honestly I don't hold any person's religion against them.

    But I must mention that all we know about Jesus is what other people have said about him plus what they tell us how to think about it, (him) — including the idea that Jesus talks through them. So, in a sense, they say they are Jesus talking to you so you better do what they tell you or you'll be in big doo-doo for all your sins.

    So, okay, I guess that was a bit of a rant. But if only that preacher had preached, "Trust only in the church and nobody else!" (I doubt it would have been accepted so nicely)

      Sitting there amongst pews of rapt listeners I felt somewhat threatened. Preacher guy then said that my friend had gone on to "a better place."

    I respect facts. Logic and reason are my friends.  "a better place?" I'm happy where I am, thank you. I live and work to make this world around me, around us, a better place. I don't always do a great job of it, but by making this a better place it becomes a better place right here.  Right?

     I tend to question things, meaning I look for myself; to evaluate differences and similarities; to find suspicion in things that don't add up, which prompts me to look further, dig deeper. That preacher would call that, "having doubts."

    Thus the title, "From Whence Poop Hangs." 

    Back to saying nice things. Christian certainty is factually better than hanging in doubt. Doubt is a terrible place to live —  as Shakespeare put it, "To be or not to be" and not somewhere in between: doubt. To be with Jesus, or not at all? "Ay! there's the rub."

    Let the turds of life flush away by whatever means you can muster. But I strongly suggest doing so by being yourself, thinking for yourself, and looking at life for yourself.

pazooter








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Location: Washington, USA

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