Life in the country while preferable to me to living in the city has some decided drawbacks. One of these irritable factors recently had me really going. My laser printer suddenly developed a strange problem. A peculiar asterisk shaped mark began to appear on the pages I was printing.

    I took the printer apart and discovered a small spider embedded on the platen roller. This explained the asterisk having a couple of extra legs. Cleaning off his remains restored the copies satisfactorily.

    Now I don't know how many of you have ever had a spider making his impress on your copy work, but it is a hazard not found in your printer manual. I did take the further precaution of taking my computer apart and, sure enough, little spiders were habitating its innards. Fortunately I discomfited the small arachnids before they began to do weird things to the machine.

    Yes, I know the spider makes his way even into kings' palaces but bugs and various critters and varmints of all descriptions do proliferate more readily in rural environments. Most of us have learned to live with the multitude of gremlins that inhabit printers and computers. But I can't help sharing the one about the spider and reminded me of a reply from a U.S. Senator concerning the amendment for the protection of children from molesters that had this statement: “Thank you for contacting my office and relating your concerns regarding dog eating.”

    I immediately re-read my copy of the letter I had sent the Senator and, sure enough, I had not mentioned anything about my concerns regarding dog eating. I was reasonably sure I hadn't expressed my thoughts about this problem to the Senator but I double-checked anyhow.

    A couple of days later I received a phone call from the Senator's office apologizing for the glitch. Seems some correspondence had become confused in their computer and I can only imagine how the citizen who was concerned about dog eating responded to a reply involving a U.S. Constitutional Amendment for the protection of children from child molesters. Since I prefer cats to dogs, I may look further into this situation.

    Not sure why this reminds me of a recent study that concluded a few things about why children become negative and ill behaved but here they are:

    One: The parents of such children were more anxious, depressed, hostile, and less friendly to each other.

    Two: Such families had lots of work related stress.

    Three: Such families had fewer economic resources.

    Now I know how amazed all of you are about these astounding revelations and might mistake them as taken from an Obama “speech” and his plans for America’s “future.” There is such a thing as dumb and dumber; but there are few as a group that can beat our Congress for the title of “Dumbest!” If more people are found praying these days, there is good and sufficient reason for doing so. However, don’t make the mistake of a great nature being the result of a religious experience, belief or conversion. Consider, rather, how much greater the individual might have been without such artifices!

    According to Benjamin Franklin, the coastal Indians were done in by rum. He reported an old Indian told him that since all things were designed of God for humans to use, surely God provided rum for the use of the Indians. Not to dispute the old Indian's theology or the fact that rum was the invention of men, not God, I don't think he made a distinction concerning moderation. But the coastal Indians of Franklin's time are gone and the rum remains.

    It was thinking of this and re-reading some of Emerson's remarks about moderation and toleration among other things that led me to thinking of how religion, like drunkenness, sometimes seems to bring out the worst in human beings. I make a distinction between Jesus and religion. Religions are the inventions of people. Jesus preached the love of God and your fellow-creatures. In this, he became very confrontational with organized religion, which invariably makes God's love and approval conditional on keeping the rules of the club regardless of the religion.

    Religions make distinctions and set requirements that separate people. But in my own philosophy of belief, I can't accept God's being divided in His own mind concerning acceptable behavior. I believe it is wrong to lie, cheat, steal, betray, molest children, persecute and murder. And most people feel the same way about these things regardless of their religion or philosophy of belief.

    Yet anyone conversant and knowledgeable of the history of religions is fully aware of how prejudicially hateful some people become when given over to a fanatical belief, a belief that they are specially chosen and ordained of God and all others must submit to their belief system. It is easy for civilized people to see the hypocrisy of a system of belief that makes others suffer and leads to superstitious, prejudicial hatred of others. It is not as easy to see the more insidious forms of this in some other systems.

    We look at the history of Christianity and rightly deplore some of the cruelties like the crusades and inquisitions, some of the superstitions and political chicanery that led to some of the vilest acts against humanity in the name of God! There is no such thing as a systematic theology in any religion. They all leave questions of monumental import unanswered. The fanatic is in his element pronouncing damnation against the wicked, i.e. those that don't listen to him and follow him.

    All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win the world is for enough good men to do nothing. The saying is usually attributed to Edmund Burke though it is one that has been recognized from the earliest times of recorded history. If this is true, and most people certainly concur, I would like to call your attention to a very hurtful fallacy in the teaching of religious people who say there is no hope for the world. But Jesus did not question Satan’s claim of owning the kingdoms of the world, of the world being the Evil One’s dominion.

    Here is the conundrum such people face: You simply cannot save your cake and eat it too. Either Burke is right or he isn't. If he is, it is up to good people to confront evil and overcome it. If it is up to people to do this, where does this leave God in the scenario? We generally accept that God will bless, guide and help those who choose to do right. We accept that there is a judgment to come against the wicked. The weakness of the churches and good people generally is the misguided notion that God will overcome evil without our doing our part. I believe God is going to have the last word; in the meantime He expects His people to do the work of legitimate children of God and confront evil.

     But to call attention to a weakness in Burke's statement is his mentioning only men. Where are the women? As usual, when it comes to philosophy and theology, they are conspicuous by their absence. Now I know the use of the term’s man and men is often generic of the human race including both men and women. But the generic use of the word man does not usually include women in the philosophies of men.

    Burke wrote men because women were not included. Our founding fathers wrote all men are created equal. Women definitely were not included in this equality. Suffice it to say that unless women come to have the same value as men, there will be little expectation for peace in the world. It is this disparity in value between men and women that leads otherwise good men to miss the mark in their philosophies.

    I believe the religious right in this country has some good men in leadership positions, men like James Kennedy and John MacArthur. But, like James Dobson, Pat Robertson and others, they lead male-dominated, religious empires. Though I have changed my views about many things over the years my background, theologically, is exactly the same as men like Kennedy and MacArthur: Conservative and orthodox. In fact, MacArthur and I were contemporaries at Biola/Talbot.

    Because of my own background and knowing good men in the ministry I have the courage, and the knowledge, to find fault with such preaching and teaching. I was one of them. And I know how insulated they become when they surround themselves with only those of their own kind. When you have lived, studied and believed a certain thing all your life, when you associate with only those who reinforce your beliefs, you fall prey to a very narrow view of life. One thing you most certainly do not have is a Weltanschauung, a world-view. And without this, you do not have any concept of Weltschmerz, the pain of the world or the pain of God.

    The sects and cults, religions in general are given to such a narrow view. Whether Christian, Jewish or Moslem, all lack a world-view that is willing, and consequently unable, to consider the whole of humanity.

    My own belief system is Christian based for the greater part. But I came to realize some years ago that God is not a Christian. Nor is He a Jew, Moslem, Hindu or Buddhist. In short, God is not religious.

    Those not steeped in theology as I have been might have read Michener's “Hawaii” or seen the movie. If so, you are acquainted with the Black Calvinism of Reverend Hale and his form of prayer. To pray to God in such a manner goes something like this: Oh, God! I know I am unworthy of Your slightest attention, let alone Your help. I know I am a black-hearted sinner, conceived in sin, that all of my righteousness is nothing but filthy rags before You. I know that You are all-powerful, all-righteous, all-knowing, all-wise and You know the deep evil of my own black heart!

    Now of course if you believe this of yourself, you may believe it of all others as well. It you are totally unworthy of God, if you deserve nothing but damnation and have invited God's righteous wrath so with your neighbors as well. Your duty, then, is to go out and tell everyone else that God is a vengeful, wrathful deity that will punish the slightest infraction of His will. And if you don't belong to this club, you go to hell!

    The biggest problem I had to confront with such teaching was how much I enjoyed telling people to go to hell! It was great! I could stand in that pulpit and tell people that if they didn't believe the way I believed, God was going to punish them; that the flames of the pit yawned before them and they were on the slippery path to perdition! And best of all, I could say such things in love; or so I thought at the time.

    So I watch these preachers and I hear them telling people, just as I used to, that unless you believe their way you're going to hell. But of course they are doing it because they love God and they love you! Your part is to prove you love God and love the preacher enough to give them your money. I finally came to the conclusion that unlike God religion too often brings out the worst in people.

    Of course the Reverend Hale’s all believe in Jesus. But they delight in dwelling on your sinfulness, your unworthiness of eternal bliss. They delight in consigning all who don't agree with them to the eternal flames and outer darkness (How to distinguish between the two, they are never quite clear about). Now you get enough of this kind of preaching and it isn't any wonder you are left powerless to confront evil. Why, you are so unworthy, so evil yourself you can't think beyond that.

    But we face a conundrum at this point. If God is our Heavenly Father, why should he treat with us so differently than earthly parents their own children? If a heart of love, as with earthly parents, motivates God, why should He make impossible, unreasonable demands and be tyrannical, vengeful and despotic?

    I accept and love my children warts and all. My love of them is not conditional. Yes, I expect them to comport themselves in such a fashion that they will not shame or disgrace me as their father; but that is for their sake far more than mine. Should they fail in some manner, I expect contrition, repentance and, wherever possible and justice demands it, restitution. Parents have a right to expect this much from their children. No less does God of us. But He is not standing there with a whip to angrily keep us shaped up. As with an earthly parent, love and mercy, forgiveness is a criterion of God's love as well as discipline. If the grown child, the adult does something that removes the possibility of my helping him, it does not lessen my love, only my ability to help or intervene on his behalf. So I have come to the conclusion that God cannot do some things; that He must, as with any parent, watch the adult child make the mistakes and pay the consequences.