On "Religious Freedom"

So after a lovely afternoon in the park being all pagan and stuff, we were on our way home and passed a church.  This church has one of those great changeable light-board things (wonder how much -that- cost out of folks' tithes, but I digress).  It read "STAND UP FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM".

Okay, so I've been hearing this cry a lot again of late -- you know, the "CHRISTIANS ARE BEING PERSECUTED IN THIS NATION" one -- and, well, I'm frankly tired of it.  I find it absolutely laughable, truthfully.  I mean, are people knocking on your doors and dragging you out of your houses to beat you or something, and all the news outlets have either missed it or are participating in some huge cover-up?  Are people burning arcane symbols of some form or another on your lawns?  Are you being killed because you're Christian?  What's that?  Didn't think so. 

Do you even know what "persecution" means?  If you could find someone left over from the Crusades, I'd bet they could tell you.

Some of this, I understand, probably has to do with the gutting of DOMA earlier this week.  You know what?  Get the fuck over it.  You want to believe "traditional" marriage at the time the Christ was alive was 1 male + 1 female?  That's a nice thing to think, but it's pretty wrong.  See, numerous forms of both polygyny and polyandry were common in -many- societies, including -gasp- the Homeland of the Bible!  And and AND!  Abe himself had concubines despite being married to Sarah, which, when you really think about it, means that he (like many other notables in the Bible) kept a harem of women on the side in a form of sexual slavery that's, well, pretty awful.  So shut up, back off, and go have a nice, big, heaping helping of real-live history and anthropology along with your Bible study.  If you start feeling funky when wibbly-wobbly bits of truth start sinking in a little, you might want to talk to a counselor or take a Xanax or something.

Beyond that, okay.  Like I said, I spent the afternoon outdoors, being all pagan-y and suchlike.  I tend to do that, being a pagan and all.  I find my gods in nature and in other people (crazy talk, I know, right?).  I know people who are Christian and are very open about their beliefs -- good for them.  I'm happy that they've found a connection with Deity that serves them well and gives them purpose in life.  The fact that they're unkind and dishonest is, evidently, beside the point to most people, but it burns me something awful.  You know why?  Because their Bible also tells them that  "'A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads" (Our good friend Leviticus, 20:27).  Guess what?  Most of the people I know who are mediums, "spiritists", "fortune-tellers", or whatever Christians call us are actually good, decent, hardworking people who would give you the shirt off their back if it would help someone else.  Moreover, they wouldn't step on an ant, let alone stone another person for any reason (except maaaaaybe something especially heinous like child molestation or murder).  Ever hear of the Jains, for instance?  If you haven't, look them up.  I'll wait here.

[Of course, my standard disclaimer here applies: most of the Christians I count among my friends are also decent, hardworking, shirt-off-their-back people, so please don't get all up in arms thinking I mean you if you're reading this.  Also, there are a whole lot of unkind and dishonest pagans, too, just like there are unkind and dishonest athiests, agnostics, Jews, Muslims, Zoroastrians ... you get the point.]

The one question that crosses my mind is this: do Christians not have faith that Deity is big enough, grand enough, and encompassing enough to believe that there -might- be more than one road to finding Him/Her/It/Them?  Is their faith not great enough to include all of those roads?  Is it not even possible, in their eyes, that their god could be -greater- than even they believe He is?  Is the Christ Himself not remembered as saying " ...Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there." (oh, hey, wait, that's from one of the Gnostic gospels, so I'm betting that doesn't count).

How narrow the Christian view of Deity must be!  How limiting! 

... How sad.  Who are -we-, as tiny meatbags on a bitty marble of a world, to limit the Power of Deity to such an extent?  The vastness of the Universe, the incredible forces that bind us all together -- including Deity -- the fullness of the wonders of Spirit, and all you can worry about is what face it wears?

It breaks my heart to know that people exist this way; but it helps me to understand why so many of the words they speak are from a place of bitterness and hate.

If Deity is limitless to you, and infinite, surely you can find it in your heart to show it in the way you act toward others -- and yourselves.  It's hard, I know it is.  We're human, we're frail, we are fraught with issues and contradictions and fears.  I promise, though, letting go of a fear like that of someone not worshipping the same version as you, or two people who love each other becoming legally married regardless of their sex, is not going to end the world.  It's not even going to put it further on the road toward whatever terrible path we're on --

It's going to pull us back.