Backstage w/Supak: organic, progressive, environmentalist

In response to an article about the terror that a friend sent me....

Leonard,

I really wish people would get off this our god vs. your god crap. The more quabbling I see between people over this god vs. that god the more sick I get of it... Religious fanatics are spewing their mighty god crap everywhere. People are killing people in the name of god. God bless this and that. God blesses us but not you. It's been going on forever. And I'm sick of it. These religions are the cause of the wars, the death, the destruction: all in the name of god. I dream of a day when I can turn on the news without hearing about god blessing America. How about just being proud - saying United We Stand - America the Beautiful - etc.... When America does something, it should be because it's the right thing, not because it's the religious thing.

And then, when I say something about this, I get told I'm going to burn in hell. I love that. Even if I'm the most moral, ethical person on earth, even if I save babies and feed the poor, just because I don't believe in your god I'm going to hell. This insinuates somehow that I can't be moral without God. Hell, even resident Bush made that suggestion. That people can only be moral if there's some higher authority to make them pay if they're not. This is sick. This means that the resident only acts morally because he's afraid he's going to burn in hell if he doesn't. Why not do the moral thing for it's own sake? Why not be ethical because it's the right thing to do - because PEOPLE - decent people say it's the right thing to do.

These fanatics killed thousands of people because of some perverted view of god and religion. Christians have done the same. So have Jews, Muslims, Hindus and many other religions. Only Budhists, and I'm not sure of this, really practice peace. It's time to stop talking about religion while we're all trying to get along. We have to talk about morality for morality's sake. We need to do the right thing because people deserve to live free to believe what they want. I don't need to be condemned for not believing any more than some Muslim needs to be condemned for believing in Allah, some Jew in God, or some Christian in Jesus. We need to stop condeming our beliefs and start condemning our bad actions. And we really need to praise our good actions more.

So please, when you talk of that just and loving god of America's, remember that a big chunk of people in this country believe in a fire and brimstone god, and a sizeable chunk believe in no god at all. But a vast majority of us do believe in doing the right, decent, and honest thing, no matter what happens to us when we die.

Since the terrorists struck, I've heard a lot about standing together. But, in the same breath, I'm being asked to sing songs like God Bless America. I don't sing. I don't pray. It's my right. But, It's like I'm back in grade school in the south and I have to go stand in the hall because, even in the sixth grade, I knew I believed in evolution, in science, in what I could prove, not some book that was full of contradictions that said not to kill that people who were advocating the death penalty and war against communists were trying to shove down my throat. Why should I be forced to stand out in the hall, to be stared at by my co-workers and neighbors, all because I am excercising my rights as an American. My right to believe what I want is one of the things people have been protecting all these years. I shouldn't have to be outcast for my beliefs any more than any religious person should.

Justice will bless America if we do the right thing. For the sake of everyone involved, we should keep these competing gods out of it. We should try to talk to each other as PEOPLE, respectful of our widely varying beliefs, and moral because it's right, not because we're afraid of a vengeful god. We are angry because these terrorists have forced their extremist religious views down our throats. We should be careful not do the same.

In the days just before the terror, a story came out that the Bush administration was not going to enforce a federal law that prohibits selling arms to nations that use them for anything other than self defense. The Bush administration said they were going to continue selling arms to the Israelis, even though we knew they were using the weapons offensively. I thought the president was supposed to enforce the laws, even if he disagrees with them. This outraged the Arab world. I am not trying to justify the horrible acts of violence. I am only trying to point out that the US should be actively seeking to broker peace in the region by treating both sides equally. Since Bush took over we have been favoring the Israelis and pulling out of the peace process. This is wrong. It is unethical. And it is immoral. While the Bush administration is looking for things to do to bring an end to these kinds of attacks, hopefully it will look to the bargaining agreements that Clinton worked so hard for, that Bush has decided to leave behind.

Keep counting those ballots down there, Leonard. I want to know how many votes Al Gore actually won by, because I think America should be just and ethical, especially when we're about to fight a war with people who believe it's a holy one.

Scott Supak
http://supak.com

Please excuse any spelling errors. I'm at work and don't have a working spell checker here. I know, I know. A moral outrage.