damn and damned

It was seventh grade, I was in Miss McAtier’s social studies class. We had been discussing the Middle Eastern countries, their political systems, and their religious practices. It was 1962 in Pittsburgh and for the most part the world was seen as a very white male, Christian oriented place in which to live. Miss McAtier made two comments that day, both which still linger in some of the cobwebs of my mind. The first comment was that the Middle Eastern countries are run by people who have little regard for Judeo/Christian values (in seventh grade I was not sure what those values were). The second comment was that in spite of their non Christian belief system most Middle Eastern rulers did honor their God with high esteem. Miss McAtier stated without a moments hesitation that if you speak poorly of God in most Middle Eastern nations you could face a death penalty. The class provided that comment with a collective sigh. Then with just a few minutes before the bell rang to change classes Miss McAtier placed her hands on the tiny podium from which she often stood and said, this nation should learn a few lessons about God and respect for him. There are too many Americans out in the world in which we live who use God’s name in vein by saying the word damn after saying God. (Another collective sigh because we heard our teacher swear—damn was a bad word in those days). Maybe, Miss McAtier continued, our democracy should follow the examples of the Middle Eastern countries  and make it a crime to disparage the name of God. I was scared and even though I never said the phrase God damn, I knew that I would never ever start saying it. 

It is 2014 and it seems that the most noteworthy of events from the previous year were focused on issues of God and how those who believe they speak for God or that God has spoken to them found it necessary to become his crusader and make things better. For the men and women who love to use God as a scapegoat for their human hatred of others we were informed that Gays if given any kind of equality like marriage, adoption serving openly in the military would end democracy as we know it and immediately stop heterosexuals from marrying and of course reproducing. For those men and women who love to scan the Bible rather then read it for more then propaganda we were told that God loved his guns, hated poor people and had no intention of the sick being healed via any kind of affordable health care. For those men and women who truly feel guilty for their own bias and bigotry and love to play victim as they bully those around them we were informed that people of color are drug addicts and love living off the dole, that immigrants can never be true Americans, that if you are unemployed you are lazy. For the lost souls never wanting to be found 2013 we were lectured that God did not give a damn for a whole lot of folks deemed different.

From Sarah Palin’s war on Christmas, to Duck Grandpa’s scripturized baloney, to the billionaire CEO of Home Depots disappointment that the Pope’s belief that trickle down economics never trickles down to GOP candidates saying rape is a gift from God, we are lectured that not enough people do give a damn about God. We are told that freedom of religion is being denied but forget that freedom from religion is really the thing we need to be afraid of. People who feel free to hate, restrict, segregate always seem to talk loud and insist that no one give a good God damn about God. No longer is the Constitution the law of the land but instead passages from a Bible edited and abridged by people with selective reasoning the only laws we need. I believe we all need to give a damn about God, but worry that the damed are the ones playing God.