I will probably lose all my readers over this one:
Organized Religion:
Pass the (poor box) as it was known in my day, get your wallet out, they smile and fawn and tell you that GOD will be with you forever if throw that $20 dollar bill in the basket, give them $50 and they will go out in the parking lot and bless your car so you won't get killed on the way home (they want you back next week with another $50)
This past week we had a "Church Going God Man" bring his gun to church, along with his wallet. He said a couple of prayers then started shooting, he killed seven of Gods Children then blew his own brains out. Why, "he didn't like the sermon".
All through History, Wars, Most Murders, Genocide, Beheadings, Hangings, and almost anything and everything that is evil is caused by two things, "MONEY/RELIGION".
When you go to Church this Sunday, look around, there are some nice decent kind and caring people sitting with you, Church is good for some of them, it makes them feel good, it lifts their spirits, it gives them hope in today's world of "Maniacs" and "Anything Goes Society".
But, there are many NUTS in Church. The man in Georgia that killed a Judge and three other human beings, says he is a "Born Again Christian" imagine what he must of been before he was "Born Again"
After he slaughtered four people he held a women hostage, she made him pancakes and they talked about, "who else" GOD, they talked about God for 24 hours. As I said, when you are sitting in church, look around, Jack The Ripper may be the guy sitting right beside you singing hymns.
I don't care for "Organized Religion", the Church you attend will tell you that they are "Right" they tell you that your friend Joe's religion is "Wrong". You will spend eternity in Heaven, "Joe won't be there".
The leader will spend a whole hour Bellowing about what a dastardly shameful sinner you are, then he will tell you who to vote for in the next Governors race.
They will then inform you, that if you really want to go to heaven you go out and get into your "Recently Blessed Automobile" when the service is over, go out and find some Smelly Wino who is sleeping under a bridge with his new friend that arrived last month from a germ infested swamp in some third world jungle shit hole, when you do find them, your Church wants you to bring them home to dinner.
Then when the "Church Leader" is all done calling you names, telling you who to vote for, and telling you who to bring home to dinner, guess what, out comes the old "Poor Box", get your wallet out. "Praise God"
I Do Not Like Organized Religion:
I believe in a "Supreme Being", I worship privately. I haven't put my suit on and gone to a Church Service in fifty years, I will attend weddings, baptisms and funerals, I will not attend a regular Sunday Morning brow beating, I refuse to be called a sinner by some guy waving a Bible around and telling me who to vote for.
If some of you are like me, do what I do, late in the evening and when there is a cloudless sky, pour yourself a glass of wine, (Jesus Loved Wine, whenever Peter, Paul or Mary Magdalene gave him a glass of water he turned it into wine) get a chair and go out into your yard, look up at the stars, feel the silence, think of your departed friends and relatives, sip some wine, soon you will be talking to the heavens, you will feel the Supreme Being.
Far up in the universe a star will start to flicker, someone is listening, my father once told me when I was a young boy that someday he would be gone and I would be grown, he said "when you are all alone some night and suddenly the leaves in the trees around you start to rustle and a gentle breeze comes and goes, that will be me" saying, "everything is fine". That's what he said.
I don't need organized Religion, God is out in my back yard at night, no matter where I am living, he is in yours too, some night go out and meet him.
A "God Nut" killed seven people this week, but all the people you see sitting around you in Church this Sunday are not "God Nuts", they are good people.
If you know a "God Nut" be careful though.