Easter- High Holy Day Free Parking column March 15

[WhiteTara]

http://eureka.news/free-parking-24/
This column is my true belief about religion and it's place in our lives.


Soon it will be Easter, a high holy day in the Christian religion. Many people proclaim that Easter proves that Jesus died for our sins; it also shows that you carry the seeds of your actions with you. Jesus arose to be with God because his actions led him there. I believe that we are each responsible for what we do here on Earth and that we create heaven and hell by our daily actions.

During this time of great reflection on what His teachings mean to us today, I think of the young black teenage boy lying in a hospital bed suffering from bullet wounds to his 17 year old body. He is suffering because instead of hiding from the gunman at MDS High School, he rushed to bar the door to keep his fellow classmates from being murdered.

I think of the young black woman who saved the life of a bigoted congressman even though she knew he hated her for the color of her skin. While he outwardly thanked her for saving his life, he maintains his bigotry and hard heart even today.

What does it take to soften one’s heart to be so compassionate that you would die a horrible death so that others might follow your example of extreme love for all living beings?

the rest of the column is at the link http://eureka.news/free-parking-24/

[MineralMan]

1. Also from that essay:

I think the question we must each ask ourselves; when we die (and we all do) will you meet God with a heart filled with love and gratitude for His Creation of life, or with an empty husk blackened by hate and bigotry?

That's one way to think about it. There is another way. As I age and approach death, I look at myself and ask myself how I have lived my life. Did I treat others as I wished to be treated? Or did I treat them with hatred and bigotry. That is the judgment I face, as an atheist who does not believe than any supernatural entities exist.

It's the same thing, really. Throughout my life, I've been aware that I would have to assess my own life at some point. In fact, I've been assessing my own life for decades already, due to that awareness. Living one's life in mindfulness makes things easier. No deity is required - just awareness and mindfulness.

[WhiteTara]

5. Well, as an atheist myself, that was

what I hoped would be a language that Christians would be able to hear. We live in a very rural red county with lots of little white churches filled with little black hearts and I was trying to offer a message of softening one's heart was the real message of Easter.

I think all the messages we have ever received from any spiritual source says treating others well was a way to happiness. Treating others poorly was a way to misery.

[MineralMan]

7. Well, the difference between the recorded things Jesus

was supposed to have taught and how people really behave is always ironic. That irony is a good part of why I stopped being able to believe in any of it.

Jesus supposedly said, "Do this." Why, then do you do the exact opposite? That's the question I would ask anyone at any time. I don't ask it, though, personally, of anyone. They never have a reasonable answer.

Why are they not afraid of judgment? I've never understood that. Maybe that's the secret of Christianity. Once you believe, apparently, you no longer have to worry about judgment, I guess.

[WhiteTara]

10. It is a conumdrum, I agree.

My mother would never let me play with preachers kids because she told me they were the worst. Then Annie Lenox reminded me that you can mess with your brother, but stay away from the preacher man. (That's probably a paraphrase.)

I talked with a man at the deli counter at the grocery store who was wearing an oxygen mask who told me that if he dropped dead today he would be in heaven because...Jesus. I reminded him that he was master of his fate and the captain of his soul. He rushed away without his purchase...hence the column. Also, I met a woman at water aerobics class who proudly told me she was a Deplorable...I told her how sorry I was for her and for her being a racist and a bigot. This column was for her as well. Will they read it? Will they change their hearts? It's not for me to say. I write because I have to write, I am just grateful my editor will publish me at all.

[Act_of_Reparation]

2. Ask a silly question...

What does it take to soften one’s heart to be so compassionate that you would die a horrible death so that others might follow your example of extreme love for all living beings?

Absolute certainty that you're not really doing to die? The certainty that instead of pushing up the daisies, you'll spend the next three days harrowing Hell and kicking it with the other two versions of yourself at your utopian castle in the clouds before resurrecting yourself because you're God and why the hell not?

It's not really a sacrifice if you don't lose anything.

[WhiteTara]

6. Somehow I don't think that was what the story

of Jesus was trying to portray...but I'm sure that is what many people hear.

[Voltaire2]

14. And yet given the common assertions

of Christian faith that Jesus was an eternal divine being, there is no way to avoid the conclusion that this immortal being’s sacrifice was not at all like that of a mortal willingly sacrificing its own life.

[NeoGreen]

3. And yet...

Last edited Fri Mar 16, 2018, 03:03 PM - Edit history (1)

...while:

the young black teenage boy lying in a hospital bed suffering from bullet wounds to his 17 year old body. He is suffering because instead of hiding from the gunman at MDS High School, he rushed to bar the door to keep his fellow classmates from being murdered.

Not one call to prayer (during this "high holy" season):
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1225

And apparently ZERO calls for prayers in the last 90-days despite all the recent travesties that have been reported, and upon further review, ZERO calls in the last 171 days.

Would this be due to a new found understanding of "scripture"?:

Matthew 6:
5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Or, have theists conceded the point, that "thoughts and prayers" don't work and are an empty gesture, as many of Generation Z, their parents and supporters have concluded:

[WhiteTara]

8. Thank you for pointing that out to me.

I never go to that forum and he need thoughts and prayers. His is a story of great courage. I'll add them to that and maybe some others will think of him. Also, since that forum exists, it seems that they think thoughts and prayers will work, but have very small circles for their prayers.

Also, thanks for the Matthew 6 verse...that is the one of the few things that resonated with me about Christianity. But also another reason why I left the church and all that that implies.

[NeoGreen]

12. Oh the irony...

...it took an atheist to prompt the prayers.

[WhiteTara]

13. And another to lead the prayer

Being an atheist doesn't mean we have no compassion.

[trotsky]

4. Alternately, one might ask what it takes to harden one's heart to be bigoted and judgmental.

Surprise answer: also religion.

[WhiteTara]

9. Indeed, my friend, indeed.

I have always wanted to put up a billboard next to one that says "Jesus is the answer" My billboard would say "Why are there wars?"

[Cartoonist]

11. Aw, don't pin that on Jesus.

If he ever lived, he's dead now.

I put the blame on the philosophy of religion and those who spout it in times of war.

Also in peacetime and the run up to war.

Not to mention war's aftermath. You get the picture?