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Edited on Fri Jul-29-05 08:14 PM by roguevalley
Today was the last straw. I am so glad for the lounge.
My uncle is the youngest of five boys and for the past two years has worked in an English-speaking school in China. He likes to post idiotic e-mails to his brother, my other uncle, who forwards them to me for fun.
My uncle is a user and fled the country, leaving my dad to pick up the pieces of his failed air freight business, causing my dad shame in his community and finally, two strokes. Jim comes back without telling people and has always avoided us due to the fact that my brothers and I told him if we ever saw him again, he would be a dead man.
So he calls up and says he would be here today to take my dad to lunch. Gutting up, knowing I wouldn't be around for the lunch, we said fine, dad will be ready. Guess who didn't come?
My uncle figures he's a dem, a radical liberal and right. RIGHT. Very, very RIGHT. In reality, he's a bastard, a woman-abusing, debt-deadbeat, two-faced hypocrite with a jones against religion, republicans and people who have more money than him. He loves ... *LOVES* money and married and discarded two women after using their money up. Funny thing is, he married his 'high school sweetheart' that he thought was rich but turned out not to be. So he had to work. Pardon me a moment.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAA! GO, ELLEN!
He likes to send snarky e-mails about religion, denigrating everyone and everything like some kind of swami. I have a few feelings about religion and life that I would LOVE to jam down his throat but I'm afraid I would kill him if I ever saw him.
God doesn't EXPECT you to believe in Him. He DOES expect you to be good, honorable and decent to people. His existence doesn't depend upon your belief. Atheists don't believe in God. That doesn't in my opinion matter to Him. A belief in God does not automatically make you bad or good. You can live your whole life with dignity, decency and joy without believing in God. I don't believe lacking belief makes God a moot point. It just makes him beside the point if you don't believe. However, I just think it doesn't matter to Him if you do what helps and alleviates and is good. If you do that, He's satisfied with the path of your life and your belief or not is irrelevent.
'Religion' as it seemed to be practiced anymore in my opinion sucks. God doesn't suck. That's why I believe in Him. God may have always existed with or without our belief. How He is perceived and believed has changed over the generations and centuries and so form doesn't count in my opinion. Again, Atheists don't believe. They have no form of belief about him other than that he isn't there. Does that make them bad? Hell no. God is bigger than the follies and foibles of Man.
If my uncle was a good man, he would have been better to his family, his brothers, my dad. He would have loved his wife, treated his children well and been better than he is to the world. He wouldn't be a money-grubbing hypocrite who needs to see the inside of a jail and he wouldn't have this wrath from his nieces and nephews.
I believe that religion is an ordered way of putting chaos into context. My belief in God has more to do with thinking about a kindred spirit who wants the best for all than someone who is master to my slave. A god who created a butterfly doesn't want slaves. He wants guardians. Having religion wouldn't help my uncle. Not having one either. He's a drudge, a cautionary tale for our times.
The interesting thing, my father after having two near death experiences is no longer afraid of death. He feels such love and compassion, even more than before 'for all people'. I don't know what my dad saw when he almost died but he speaks with such simple eloquence about the love of someone, God or whomever who expects us to be good to each other. He touched the divine and I get the benefit. My uncle touches nothing, he stands in shit everyday and I could just smack him hard.
I don't know really what I'm trying to say. I just know my dad deserved better. Thanks for the space.
RV
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