Marion “Pat” Robertson – what a christian! I hope you can hear my sarcastic tone.

Why does anyone believe anything this man says? All you have to do is look at litany of his previous statements to know that he isn’t even a christian: calling for the assassination of Chavez, suggesting that the state department be blown up with a nuclear device, on and on it goes. Perhaps he’s a little busy with his power-obsession, his mining operations and other unethical activities to promote the actual christian message. His message is in opposition to grace, forgiveness, compassion, and love. Without those signs, how does one claim to be a christian at all, much less a christian leader?

All eight Dover, Pa., school board members up for re-election were defeated Tuesday after trying to introduce “intelligent design” (the belief that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power) as a “scientific” alternative to any of the scientific models and component of evolution (natural selection, adaptation, survival of the fittest, reproductive advantage, punctuated evolution, catastrophic change, etc.).

Reuters, Nov 10, found at Smirking Chimp.

“I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city,” Robertson said on his daily television show broadcast from Virginia, “The 700 Club.”

“And don’t wonder why He hasn’t helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I’m not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that’s the case, don’t ask for His help because he might not be there,” he said.

Trying to ride on God’s name for his own power – isn’t that a sin against the holy spirit? I am amazed that there are so-called christians in this country who cannot see him for what he is – a hypocritical greedy corrupt false prophet.

Jesus would throw Robertson’s “tables” to the ground. Instead of gathering spirits for prayer in the name of love, his network gathers a hateful den of thieves who prey on their own followers.

Shame on him. Shame on his followers.

Guy, people like you make it extremely difficult to justify christianity. Talking to my husband, I feel like the man I saw on the news last night: “But this only hurts us. This is not islam. It hurts our rule. It is not islam.”

So now I have to explain once again to my semi-atheist hubby: “I know it looks bad, but believe me, this is not the christian message. This is not what christianity is all about. This is not what christianity is. Robertson uses the image of a tribal war god – it is one way to think about God, a very ancient one, but of course he doesn’t bother to put it in context.

That “god” is not God. If Robertson really believes in this “god” of which he speaks, perhaps it is past time to ask its name.

Robertson’s god is not the God that none greater can be thought, not the God of Love.

Some people think of God in terms of the parent metaphor. Well, a parent who can only teach the child using threats of murder is not a wise parent, to say the least. A god who must threaten is not worth worship. But that god is not God. Or Goddess. Or Benevolent Deities Inc. Or the energy that shakes the tiny strings of the universe. Or whatever. That awesome mystery that we talk about as “God” is not threatened at all by the free will that we have.”

And he shakes his head and says, “I’m not seeing the evidence of these christians.”

Although I know, I know for sure, that there are real christians, and that Nietzsche was wrong when he said that the last one died on the cross, I have to say that if the message is gone and the teachings ignored, christianity may have had its couple of centuries. Anyone can believe what they want to, but what I’m seeing is ugly, really very ugly. It’s more than just ignorance and shallow spiritual understanding.

If nothing else, christianity seems to be ready for a transformation. Perhaps someone could take the deeper wisdom of Christianity and make it more widely understood. A new popularizer, perhaps, a new C.S. Lewis or Thomas Merton or Alan Watts. Or maybe now a new work of fiction, a new film that resituates the spiritual liberation of the early Christians in the context of contemporary lives. Since we basically have the Roman empire already…

On days like this, I feel more eclectic. Although there are wonderful people and fascinating research and wise words from this tradition, Christianity is so tainted in so many ways. After my prayers and meditations this morning, I felt much more like a face-to-face ethical Jew, with a handful of philosophical Taoism and two shakes of goddess appreciation. That’s it then. I’m clearly a “postmodern” religionist, bringing pieces of several religious traditions together in new mixtures – to me, it’s a salvaging effort.

But isn’t that the nature of religious communion and questioning in any case? Each are given different gifts and callings. You can choose to work within the community within which you find yourself. Or you can choose not to join, or to leave, or to join another community, or to choose no community. Ultimately, it’s between you and the divine, always.

If you are a member of a traditional community of like-believers, that can be a blessing and a bonus, but not always. I am not a member of a traditional religious community, but I also believe that there is a community of dialogue, a community of religious thinkers, a community of questioners, a community that is perhaps more ethereal and less ritual-based, but is no less grounded in love and the sacred than traditional communities. I have never felt comfortable with the building-oriented congregation in any case. God doesn’t favor buildings in any particular way as far as I can tell.

Finding and following one’s own call and relationship to the divine is not easy, but it is rewarding. There are signposts and precedents – I am not lost. My path is in movement, adjustment, directionality, change, attunement. It is a small path, a path just for me, perhaps.

Here I walk. I can do no other.