{"id":125336,"date":"2023-04-18T13:52:21","date_gmt":"2023-04-18T17:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/?p=125336"},"modified":"2023-05-31T18:06:39","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T22:06:39","slug":"on-religious-and-political-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2023\/04\/on-religious-and-political-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"On Religious and Political Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thank God for the freedom of religion and politics!<\/p>\n<p>Someone a long time ago had the right idea about it.<br \/>\nSomeone&#8230; so few remember.<\/p>\n<p>Then again, maybe most just didn&#8217;t listen.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, you do have the right to <b><i>TRY <\/i><\/b>to tell me all about your politics disguised as religion,<br \/>\nand, lucky for you, I will listen politely because I am polite.<\/p>\n<p>HOWEVER, you <em><strong>DO NOT<\/strong><\/em> have the right to force your ideologies or dictate my thoughts!!<\/p>\n<p>To be clear, the <em><strong>fact<\/strong> <\/em>that I do not care to give your &#8220;<em><strong>faith<\/strong><\/em>&#8221; ten percent of my six figure income<br \/>\neach year as a <strong><em>required<\/em> <\/strong>&#8220;tithing&#8221; (aka tax-free tax) does not represent my opinion of God,<\/p>\n<p>or people, or men, or Christianity, or churches, or Sunday, or Easter, or Christmas, or America.<\/p>\n<p>You <em><strong>DO NOT<\/strong> <\/em>have the right to frighten me with abusive behaviors that indicate I <em><strong>OBVIOUSLY<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\nmade the right decision when I chose <em><strong>NOT<\/strong><\/em> to join your politico-religious community.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, I do write specifically about a handful of known individuals.<\/p>\n<p>Am I mad at you? Well, yes, in fact, I am. You are no longer welcome in my social circle.<br \/>\nYou did that to yourself when &#8220;no, thank you&#8221; became a complex phrase.<\/p>\n<p>Why wasn&#8217;t my time and gracious attention to your presentation enough?<\/p>\n<p>If God wants me to go to church, HE will inspire me directly, and He will not<br \/>\nraise red flags like banners billowing behind a prop plane.<\/p>\n<p>All religious texts put forth various similar rules about this kind of thing &#8211; didn&#8217;t you read yours?<\/p>\n<p>God does NOT hate me. Sorry to be the one to let you in on that fact. <em><strong>YOU ARE NOT GOD<\/strong><\/em>.<br \/>\nGod does not hate you, either. I don&#8217;t hate you. I&#8217;m mad at you for violating my civil rights,<\/p>\n<p>and then having your &#8220;flying monkeys&#8221; pretend to represent the divine will of Jesus Christ!<\/p>\n<p>What blasphemy!! I&#8217;m telling you off because I know you will read this, then pretend you didn&#8217;t.<br \/>\nNot familiar with flying monkeys? Google it, and then go check out that Bible you never read.<\/p>\n<p>My favorite Christian religion is Catholicism &#8211; they don&#8217;t proselytize, though some Priests&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Catholicism and Judaism are beautiful. Still determined to save my soul? Well bless your heart!<br \/>\nWith respect to <em>Eastern<\/em> religions and the <em>seat<\/em> of my soul&#8230; please be satisfied that&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>My pap smear was healthy, and Machiavelli was an atheist, so stay in your own lane! The END.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you for requiring your pedophiles and rapists over the last 60 YEARS to wear condoms.<br \/>\nYea, right.. God forgives rapes by proxy of half-Jewish children with beautiful mothers. NOT!!!<\/p>\n<p>I was born in the fall of 1959 to a beauty who married a brilliant, talented Jewish man.<\/p>\n<p>And, I am not interested in joining your church or rallying behind ANY political party.<br \/>\nYes, I&#8217;m mad at you, I would never hurt you, and I can&#8217;t stop you from hurting yourself.<\/p>\n<p>I am not obligated to forgive you. Why should I? Because you think God forgave you?<\/p>\n<p>I am not God. Your relationship with the divine is none of my business. And, vice versa!<br \/>\nGod is not pushing me to join your church. YOU are. Take responsibility, please.<\/p>\n<p>And, while you&#8217;re at it&#8230; <em><strong>THANK GOD<\/strong><\/em> for the freedom from religion and politics.<\/p>\n<p>And, one more little thing&#8230; I genuinely doubt Jesus Christ appreciates your org&#8217;s exploitation<br \/>\nof His holy essence as a psy-op tool. Shame on you! Nice chatting with you yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thank God for the freedom of religion and politics! Someone a long time ago had the right idea about it. Someone&#8230; so few remember. Then again, maybe most just didn&#8217;t listen. Yes, you do have the right to TRY to tell me all about your&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous","category-musings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125336"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125358,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125336\/revisions\/125358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}