Saturday, December 11, 2010

good or bad

Dear Good Jesus,

I am Jewish and for the record don't pray to you, but respect those who do. However, we are both 'luntzmen' (people of the same tribe), so through that association I thought I might write you this letter. I know how busy you must be especially this time of year. We are told that peace on earth, good tidings and miracles abound in the celebration of your birth, so I am asking for a divine intervention this time of year if possible.

It seems that there are a whole bunch of folk who identify themselves as Christians but I think they are worshipping a Bad Jesus. I would find it hard to imagine that anyone who believes in your glory, your power, your goodness could possibly be homophobes, racists, anti Semites, hate the poor and those of color. But somehow Jesus, they do. And not only do they, but they invoke your name when they hate. They quote from Scripture they say you inspired and they quickly play the 'that's what Jesus would want' card when anyone disputes them.

The self proclaimed Reverend Fred Phelps bangs your Bible on the graves of fallen soldiers, he shouts your name stating that those who died with valor and honor are hated by you, because they fought in an army that permits closeted Gays to serve. He says you hate just like humans do. He says you didn't create Gays but the Devil did. He speaks for you an awful lot and says you say a whole lot of negative things about people on Earth.

Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family says you only consider opposite sex partners the people who can marry and raise a family. He says that you pontificated that same sex couples don't really love one another, and all they want to do is raise little boys so they can sodomize them or raise little girls to use a double sided dildo. He discounts the opposite sex couples who take joy in infidelity and who find jubilation in adultery as slight failings. But he preaches that no matter what, two men or two women can NEVER find true love. He says you said so in Leviticus, or your ghost writer said so.

Sarah Palin, John McCain, Newt Gingrich and Glenn Beck all say they know you well. They quote you on topics ranging from gays serving openly in the military, to you making the USA the holiest place on Earth, that if it is a conservative idea it was yours, and that poor people are poor because they are lazy. They find passages in the New Testament and then add some of their own interpretations and swear on a stack of your Bibles that they know exactly what you meant even if you didn't say it.

Is there a Bad Jesus masquerading as you? Is there a Bad Jesus whose strength grows when humans hate, find dissension, blame, act as bigots demonstrate bias and as they do so in invoking your name? Is there a bad Jesus who permits those awful people to swear hate while they swear their allegiance to you?

I am a Jew, a Gay man, a Middle Class American, and I mean no disrespect Good Jesus, but I am tired of the Bad Jesus getting away with the kind violent, vehement venomous vitriolic via his followers...especially when they attack me being a Jew, Gay and Middle Class.

So, please let me know what is going on. And please tell me there is a Good Jesus who has the strength to fight those who worship a Bad Jesus. By the way the silence is deafening from those who call themselves Pastors, Preachers, Elders, Popes, Bishops and Priests.

Thank you,

Gerry

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