If you know me, you know I’m relentlessly passionate on certain topics. If you don’t know me, but follow me on Twitter or friend me on Facebook, well, you know I’m relentlessly passionate on certain topics. Though not everyone will agree with what I say or think, nor will I ever be accused of standing on middle ground, I embrace criticism, argument, & correction. When proven wrong, when a different perspective shatters my worldview, I acknowledge it as such and become a better person for it.
Given our current climate, my posts hold some reoccurring themes these days: I call out the religious for intolerance, the powerful for exploiting the weak, the wealthy for demonizing the poor, the corporations for manipulating the truth. I post articles. I open up dialogue. We discuss & we learn. And yet, not all posts are debatable, not all stories divisive.
Given the time of year, many of these recent posts have had a religious slant. Let’s be honest here, folks, modern America has more churches than strip malls and some of those churches house these very hypocrites, those who proselytize in the name of Jesus while terrorizing the very same folks Jesus himself would’ve embraced, or, crying “War on Christmas” moments before assaulting one another over a $2.99 waffle iron at the local Walmart.
Backstory: my extended family is very religious and, rather than joining me in my disdain for these groups, they’ve instead turned on me. In recent days, my Jewish-born father, who is not a religious man, called and with anger in his voice asked why I was posting “anti-religious rants” on Facebook, an accusation that came from my sister. As a matter of fact, my father isn’t even on Facebook. Thankfully.
Within days, I received a letter from my grandmother, who in her eighties is as sharp-tongued & witty as a grad student, encouraging me to rethink my views and embrace Jesus. It was a polite offering, if not a desperate act of love, and one that required a thoughtful, honest, & philosophical response. I’ve posted it here if for no other reason than because it illustrates my variety of spirituality better than anything I’ve written in the past on the topic.
To be fair to family, I’ll keep the backstory here personal, though between these lines it’s quite easy to read that my Grandma has lived a tragic yet admirable life. Her son, whose name I’ve changed, is a brilliant Minister, an even finer man, & the purveyor of the very words that saved me from drowning at my Mom’s funeral.
Grandma,
First off, I need you to know that you are an absolute hero to me. Your inner strength, wonderful spirit, & compassionate approach to life is a way of being I try to replicate on a daily basis. To survive what you’ve survived, to cope with what you’ve had to cope with, and to come out still being a remarkable & faithful person is something worth infinite respect. I love Daniel- not just as a man, but as a messenger of his God- & would’ve been truly lost without his support & wise words during my Mom’s funeral. He provided words so comforting and a shoulder so soft that I could never begin to formulate words to represent just how much I appreciate him. As for the signs in the sky, I’ve attached a photo that I took one day driving back to Boulder from a rural town east of us. It was eye-opening & certainly enlightened the imagination. So let it be known that despite how I may react to organized religion, I am as spiritual as anyone out there.
I accept Jesus as the very essence of what humans should strive to be & I have no doubt He was as saintly a figure as the Bible indicates. I live my life as if I believe in Jesus: I’m empathetic, benevolent, tolerant, & open-minded.
My disconnect comes with formal religion. I think oftentimes the message is lost & confused, the true spirit muddled by false action. For me, spirituality is a very individual, very personal process, one that creates & defines us & leads us to live the best possible life. While I understand & respect the Church, I’ve chosen for myself a path that leads around the Church rather than through it. Let’s be clear: that makes me no less spiritual. It simply leaves me outside the Church door.
I’ve met far too many people in this life who believe so many varying things: Muslims with good hearts, Buddhists & Jews & Hindus & Atheists, all of whom work so hard in this life to live and be as good a person as those following in the footsteps of Jesus. In that way, we’re all Jesus figures even if some of us refer to Jesus by a different name. My moral & philosophical issue with organized religion is that I cannot fathom a world in which these wonderful people will be excluded from a Heaven simply because they DO refer to that Jesus by a different name. That’s no message I can follow, even if there’s an ultimate consequence should I be wrong.
I love & respect everyone no matter what they believe in this crazy life. But what I love most is when belief & action coincide, when those that preach live by those same words. You do. Daniel does. And, in my own defense, so too do I.
Wishing you a very, very Merry Christmas. I miss you & can’t wait for you to see my little boy.
With love & respect,
Michael
