Post reblogged from the Little Mermaid
“Religion and politics are nothing but a stinking by-product of man’s gargantuan greed for power. The two evils go hand-in-hand; if politics is the rich man, religion is his unchaste mistress, both having a discreet love-hate relationship. Terrorism only happens to be their spoiled rotten love child whom they can neither extol nor disown.”
-The Little Mermaid, MMXVII
I thought this brave post was worth retelling, particularly since I am both a disciple of Jesus and someone who studied political science at the university. Whenever people discuss either religion or politics, some duck behind solid objects, some have their own horror stories to tell, and still others mount a defense of the particular hill on which they are encamped.
Sadly, this is what both topics have come to – a cauldron that no good can come from for a majority of people who disavow politics and religion. Yet it is exactly the human element that spoils everything. I have never met one unflawed human being: never made a mistake, never been critical, never damaged (emotionally or physically) another animate being nor misused a kindness shown them. Politics is a game of control wielded by as equally-messed up human beings as those who put them in power. Religion, when corrupted by these same corruptible human beings, rob the religion of the Spiritual truth and creates discord and confusion.
If religion is pure expression of LOVE, COMPASSION, and CARE, you would think everyone would want to adopt that. We then could have a discussion of how one belief system expresses these better than another. Yet people mess up the message. I happen, late in my life, to believe in the existence of spiritual Truth as real as the field of gravity. I know and have experienced its positive effects as certainly as I know that I am standing upon Earth due to the gravitational field it exhibits – in spite of not actually seeing it.
If politics was only about SOCIAL welfare – the natural freedoms that the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution talk about – everyone should embrace that. But again, people mess it up with their own particular take on things. And their own demand for power to deny others their power. And so we have a “cold” as well as a violent war within societies to not become better people, but to deny others their opportunity to be better people.
Since I, and those whom I have come to know as my “spiritual family”, believe in the inherent triumph of the unseen force that embodies Truth, Love, compassion, over the negative forces that plague our existence, I have Hope. It has little to do with whatever human construct – religious traditions or political institutions. I am still a corrupt being and a mess, but with a spiritual connection I endeavor to continually improve.
Truths, Half-truths, and Sea Stories 