The Way To Salvation?

Recently I received three copies of a pamphlet entitled “What Must I Do to Be Saved?”, accompanied by a handwritten note declaring, “REPENT GAYS REPENT. JESUS IS COMING VERY, VERY SOON… JESUS IS COMING. BE READY TO REPENT”.

While these came from a very conservative/evangelistic/in-your-face homophobe, whom I do not know, it appalls yet amuses me to know that not all persons are capable of making up their own minds and those of us who are not anointed or saved have to be badgered by such reactionaries. I, for one, do not have to be washed in the blood of no damn lamb.

I am and always have been an independent thinker. In fact, a couple of weeks ago Mom and I were reflecting back on my independent streak and what she and Dad had to deal with as I grew up and was exposed to the wider world in college. I praise Mom and Dad for letting me find my own way and walk my own path. As a teenager when we moved to Arlington, our family started attending the local Methodist church. Mom and Dad were not very taken with the church or its members, so they started attending another nearby one. They did not force me to go with them. They let me stay with the new friends I had made and never even suggested I attend their church.

While I have not attended a church in over 40 years, such is not to say I have rejected church as a vehicle for traveling anyone’s path; it’s just not my way. I like to say, “I don’t belong to an organized church; I’m a Quaker”. I don’t consider myself religious. I consider myself spiritual. I don’t believe in force feeding beliefs to anyone. I believe in continuing revelation and letting them discover for themselves what’s right for them.

That is what is so great about this country. We are not a theocracy, although I’m sure the most rabid evangelicals would love to have it that way. We are and should always be a democracy. I may disagree with you and you with me, but don’t try to beat me over the head with your version of the way it should be. As erroneously attributed to Voltaire, while I may not agree with what you say, I will defend to the death your right to say it. My prayer is that we all can live in a civil society, treating all--be they liberal or conservative; gay or straight; Jew, Gentile, Muslim, or Buddhist—may they all be respected and allowed to proceed unfettered on their own separate paths.

Ronald Reagan vs Barack Obama

Ronald Reagan:

• Gave amnesty to undocumented aliens;
• Grew the size of the federal government and the budget;
• Added a whole new cabinet agency;
• Added tens of thousands of government workers to the federal payroll;
• Tripled the federal deficit;
• Expanded Social Security with a big fat tax increase;
• Raised corporate taxes by hundreds of billions of dollars;
• Raised taxes on gasoline;
• Signed into law the largest tax increase in history;
• Supported federal handgun controls;
• Called for a world without nuclear weapons.

Barack Obama

• Passed health reform;
• Stimulus package pumped over $100 billion into crumbling infrastructure;
• $60 billion for renewable energy sources;
• Expanded state children’s health insurance for 4 million kids;
• Signed the Lilly Leadbetter Act, insuring equal pay for women for equal work;
• Signed nuclear reduction treat with Russia to reduce each country’s nuclear weapons stock by a third;
• Created new nuclear non-proliferation agreement designed to keep nuclear materials out of the hands of terrorists;
• Signed the Hate Crimes Prevention Act aka the Matthew Shepherd Act;
• FDA permitted, for the first time, to regulate tobacco;
• Dismantled the Minerals Management Service;
• Fired two wartime generals in little more than a year;
• Overhauled the student loan program;
• Cancelled weapons program that was bloated, unnecessary and totally irrelevant to the two wars we are involved in;
• Don’t ask; don’t tell;
• Closing Gittmo.