YOU ARE ALL GOING TO ROT IN HELL!

This, as I’m sure you all know, is the epithet that the religious right wing-nut jobs – and others – are constantly throwing in our faces as divine retribution for our sin of loving other men.  It’s true that the Bible does condemn sex between men, but I’m thinking this was just a reaction to the Greco-Roman acceptance of same-sex sex that lusciously pervades the literature of both cultures.  An effort, let’s say, not unlike our current right-wing family values organizations who condemn us all over the place in every venue they possibly can.  And they seem to have no end of outlets for their vitriol. 

But when you really look at the punishments for moral lapses contained in the Bible such as being stoned to death for eating shellfish (shrimp, lobster, crabs, etc.) or for having sex with someone’s else’s wife and many, many more, (Biblical passages, NOT wives!) it’s all a bit harsh.  Same goes for the “it is an abomination to lay with another man” and similar interpretations of Leviticus and other passages in the Bible presumably condemning homosexuality.    

So how can you come to terms with the very strong, Biblically based, moral strictures that our culture inculcates us with from the moment of our birth?  Well this may come as a surprise to some of you, (not, I know, to my roommate) but I honestly haven’t a clue.  I ditched religion at the age of 13.  It was the first time I had ever seen my mother cry and she had just come back from a “counseling” session with our pastor.  My brother, 5 years my senior, was somewhat of a rebel and was always in trouble with school officials, neighbors, the Boy Scouts, our father and virtually every other authority figure imaginable. Oh yeah, and he got a cheerleader pregnant when he was 16.   But this time he had really crossed the line by robbing a local convenience store of the $12 in their cash register. (There were no weapons involved – he did tell me that he had a coke bottle in his coat pocket that the owner assumed was a gun). So my mother, at wits end, had gone to our pastor seeking his advice on what to do.  His response:  “Forget about him.”  Like my mother, I was shocked, hurt and angry and although I had been a faithful churchgoer until then, I never went back from that day on.  

So since turning my back on religion as a young, hurt and angry teenager, I’ve spent much of my life creating what I would call a personal religion.  And, yes, I suppose this isn’t “kosher” in the accepted scheme of all things religious but I had to do something.  I have to say though, that I'm at  peace with my simplistic, unadorned, ad-hoc creation that I like to call my "personal spiritual fuzzy bubble."  Hopefully a pathway to forgiveness and redemption should I ever need such, but who knows.  I'm as much in the dark about all of this as most of us who might be called non-believers in the arena of organized religion.  I’ve never really “codified” my personal spiritual belief system, but there are a few basic precepts that I’ve tried to follow.  These include (but are not necessarily limited to - it is a work in progress after all!)  the following: 

            Do no harm to yourself or anyone else if at all possible. 

            God is real, within each of us, and it is our task to find him/her/it.

            Love is the ground of all being and it is God’s love that we all seek.

No religion has all the answers but we can learn from all religions. (Ancient belief systems - Egyptian, Native American, African, Asian  – are worth learning about).  

             Heaven and hell are right here on earth and it is we who create both.

Help everyone you can in whatever way you can because there is nothing else that  better reflects what God wants us to do with our lives on earth.

Do not be judgmental – none of us have lived our lives without transgression.

Everything is connected to everything else and our actions affect others so try your best to be kind, generous, compassionate and loving in all that you do.

So that’s about it.   I do try but it ain’t easy.  As for being condemned to Hell?  Hey, how many people do you know who have suffered so much hell right here on earth?  Haven’t we all in one way or another?  I should think that if there is some sort of afterlife, some sort of “other” cosmic or spiritual realm post-brain-wave stoppage, a heaven or a hell to which our souls are sent – we all deserve a peaceful paradise where we can “live” without fear, without condemnation and within the warm embrace of God’s love.

Peace and love my brothers and sisters. 

Scott-tay