Who is God? This question, along with other religious inquisitions, has tortured scientists, theologians, religious scholars, believers and non-believers alike. It’s a question that has yet to be given a definite answer by any human – we have only Biblical text and faith to guide us. Because of this lack of knowledge, room has been left for the imagination to bloom into a horrific monster of enormous strength harboring potentially harmful intentions.
According to Baylor University’s Institute for the Study of Religion, there are four personalities bestowed upon the unknown being called God: authoritarian, benevolent, critical and distant. It’s those categories which define the political views and values of an individual.
The study also found that 74.5 percent of those who identify themselves as believers in an authoritarian God believe that the United States’ government should “advocate Christian values” within the system. Much of these Authoritarian beliefs are carried over into specific religious affiliations such as the evangelical faith. Here is where the problems and threats primarily lie within America.
Evangelists firmly believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, ordered them to go out into the world and preach the “gospel”. In their minds, this is a gift to the rest of us – their way of sharing a wonderful blessing. Although I am not a believer or supporter of the Christian faith, or any faith for that matter, I attempt to not discourage faith for it is a significant necessity for many of us?
After recently viewing a new documentary titled “Jesus Camp,” I found myself questioning the rights and intentions of evangelical ministries. In the film, children are introduced to God at an unreasonable age and stand, hands raised in the air, tears streaming, blurting unrecognizable sounds – all long before puberty, before the age of innocence has died and before true temptation and real sin has been introduced. Of the evangelical population, 43 percent accepts Jesus Christ as their savior before the age of 13. Oftentimes, it’s long before that age that the children begin to speak in tongues, profess their love for God and even offer up their lives in his name.
Home schooling is a definite culprit behind the mass brainwashing of America’s children. They pledge to the Christian flag, to the American flag and to the Bible before they sit down to learn. Parents teach their children the science of creation as opposed to the evolution. They laugh together at the concept of Darwin’s theories.
But these children, the ones too young to know any better, are corrupted by these lies at such an early age that they lack opposition. Their minds are free and welcoming, willing to learn anything. And that’s exactly the point – long before they are able to think independently, their minds are structured thoroughly and they are indoctrinated with even more bogus theories than Darwin’s.
Even though I firmly disagree with the views of extremist Evangelists, should I really mind? Yes, and so should you. The world within the walls of their churches and the world outside of them are completely different. So, when a minister asks his audience how many children would lay down their lives for God and every little hand goes up, as they did in “Jesus Camp” – every person with a single I.Q. point should be rushing to save these innocent minds before they mirror other religious extremists and begin their war cry.
Children are taught to watch for “the signs of the times” and to be on the lookout for Christ’s return. Their minds are raped with extreme views and individual thought is eliminated.
Don’t fret over issues such as global warming because it is God’s work and will. Avoid the television, that sinful abomination of entertainment, because all you see are the faces of the damned.
I can only wonder how radical we will allow them to become before we step in, and end what may otherwise prove to be dangerous. How long before planes begin flying into government buildings with evangelical extremists as the pilots? Is it only then that someone might stand up and protest the indoctrination of America’s children?
Additional problems arise when extreme religious views have the potential to sway elections and dominate other arenas of politics. This government should not be ruled so greatly by religion, yet it is, and through these children comes another generation more extreme than the last. The few liberal minds that exist today are fading into the background once again and being governed by the inescapable God.
We live in a nation where religion dominates all: we claim a separation in church and state while watching bills fall flat due to moral judgement and ministers such as Ted Haggard can preach to hundreds on any given Sunday and then resign due to use of meth and the alleged payment for gay sex. Meanwhile, parents home school their children with the supposed intention of protecting them from the lunatics in public school, even though most murders occur within the family and oftentimes with the words, “It was God’s will” somewhere in the mix.
We need to think of new, more productive ways of exposing religion. Already this is happening in books such as “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins and “God: The Failed Hypothesis” by Victor J. Stenger in which both science and logic aim to prove what thousands of years of blind faith have misled us to believe.
Radical Christians are similar to caged animals in a zoo. From a distance they might seem harmless and good-natured but up close, once their fangs are visible, the knowledge of their impending bite can be horrific. Others, more lax and liberal Christians, non-believers and agnostics, are domesticated creatures. We all know what happens when the cages are opened and the panther, the grizzly bear or the alligator are let loose to prowl.
For many, religion is a necessary restriction. It’s the only thing that’s keeping them tame because, without God saying, “They’re wrong but you must love them”, and radicals interpreting that as, “They’re wrong, hate them but do no harm”, it would be an even scarier nation.
For now, I suppose they’ll have to carry on with their teachings until science can poke a real hole in their theory. Until then, they’ll live in denial and continue to threaten the rest of us.
All I can do as of now is watch. Watch children too young to know what’s happening proclaim to be bored with life until they have God, scream and shout sounds that scare them into tears and experience overwhelming happiness at seeing their parents cry with joy. If God does somehow exist, I hope He’s logical enough to have more wrath on a person who taints the innocent and who has stolen from them one of His most prized creations: free will – than on someone like myself.
Perhaps the next time a fundamentalist says that good news is God’s blessing and bad news is God’s will being worked in mysterious ways, they might consider the famine that Sub-Saharan African countries such as Niger, Chad, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Somalia and Zimbabwe are suffering each day before they waste another bottle of Nestle water to cleanse already innocent 5-year-olds.

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