God Is In The People



For tonight’s subject, I decided to go with something fairly light, God. That shouldn’t be too hard. I have a lot to say on that subject J 

God equals religion, at least in my mind’s mind. The two are cosmically connected. I didn’t make that rule, it was probably the decision of some lesser Pope who decided his subjects better get their heads out of their asses and listen to his demands… sorry, I meant His demands. It worked, they got their heads out of their asses and started living Godly lives.  Godly lives that included  massacring those that had other crazy ideas that had nothing  to do with their more enlightened ideas. Too bad for them.

So about now, you’re thinking ‘bitter much?’ Yes and no. I don’t really have a problem with God, it’s the religion part that rattles my cage. Gee, why on earth would a gay guy from the deep south have a problem with religion?  Forget religion, I have. Actually, I don’t think I could ever forget religion, the good and bad were a big part of my growing up and forming my identity. But, religion isn’t what I’m writing about, is it?

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned to a friend that I didn’t believe in God. He was horrified, you would have thought I dropped trou and pinched a loaf on his new Vera Wang designer bedspread. I retracted the statement immediately. I do believe in God, I’m just not sure He’s who established religions say He is. Honestly, I don’t know. God never stopped by for tea, called or even e-mailed me, He’s like one of those cute guys I used to pick up back in the day… they never called back.

There came a point in my life a while back where I finally admitted to myself my belief in God wasn’t quite as strong as I thought, or claimed it was. How could it be, I didn’t understand Him or His ways. It was about this same time that I had decided to believe in the Judge Judy Philosophy, ‘If it doesn’t make sense, it’s probably not true.’ God didn’t make sense. Why the bad shit? How could anyone be all powerful and allow what’s happening in the world today to occur? Okay, so it’s a juvenile question, but a valid one. Everyone else had the answer to this… free-will, the devil… Hannah Montana. I think maybe there’s bad things because of random chaos. That’s a heavy thought, and down right depressing if you think about it too much. I thought about it a lot, and in some dark, twisted way, it started to make sense… yes sir, it did. For me the question shifted from who is God to Why God. Why was God so important? Then that silly Pope I mentioned earlier came to mind. He knew the answer, he knew why we need God. For order. Let’s face it, us homosapiens can be dicks. The majority of us are average, we are basically decent (by who’s standards?), but every now and then, we get a bee in our bonnet and go bat-shit-crazy. Admittedly, some of us are more BSC then others, but we try. The point is, we need supervision.  The Pope knew that… so he gave us what we needed. Problem is, we fucked it up. Certain people learned how to manipulate God in order to maintain control over their subjects. I didn’t make that shit up, I learnt in it Theology Schewl (I don’t think my professor liked God all that much).

I know I’m treading on holy ground here, but they are only my thoughts. I do believe in a God, I just have a very unclear impression of Him. But, that’s not really enough, is it? My problem is this, who is there to thank when great things happen? Who was there to thank when I met my beautiful husband, married him… who was there to thank for the wonderful people in my life? That’s the sad part, not having anyone to thank. Sooooooo J Maybe I did what others before me have done… I started to view God in a different light. A view where God is more about connection and compassion; one where He doesn’t sentence his creations to an eternal damnation if they don’t believe in Him. I thought maybe other people had this view too. As time passed, I packed my Samsonite and headed out on spiritual pilgrimage; actually, it was more like an overnight sleepover. But anyway, I began to find out a lot of people felt the same way I did about God. We all came to the same conclusion about God, all on our own, separately. God is a broader, more fluid thing, something that’s in everyone.  He’s the best part of us, and more importantly, our connection to each other. This is my God, the one I honor and thank.

So why all the bad shit? Easy, Newton’s Third Law Of Motion, baby! (Yes, I did have to look it up on the internet before I pretended like I actually knew it right off-hand). For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  Okay, so I’m stretching it, but it’s yin and yang. Every good force/thing has its equal and opposite force/thing. I suppose it’s possible we all have the same dark connection as well. Why else would we mistreat each other at times? Why would we take a perverse enjoyment out of others misfortunes? Why would we hate? I don’t like talking about the bad, so to quote Forrest Gump, ‘That’s all I have to say about that.’

God is in all of us. Your God gives you hope, love and a promise of eternal life, His God gives him guidance in the journey to enlightenment, My God wears bell-bottoms and platform shoes and sings an awful lot like Melissa Etheridge. He’s the same God, and He’s in all of us.