by James Glaser
December 30, 2003

First off, I should tell you who the Religious Right is for me. That would be any Christian church that thinks they can tell me who will and who will not make it to heaven. Churches that think their way is the only way. To be truthful I have never attended these churches, but have listened to their ministers talk. Sunday morning on television there are TV ministers that fit this description.. TV ministers so full of themselves that they are willing to claim that they, and only they, know what God is thinking.

I am sure that in every one of their congregations there are people sincerely trying to live their lives the best they can, it is just that I find those leading them to be less than honest about what it means to be a Christian.

It bothers me when a person professes to know exactly what God has planned. When someone knows all the answers, I start to think they are delusional. In my way of thinking, God is the only one that really knows what is what. How can anyone start telling everyone else that they know the only way to heaven.

There could be a hundred ways to get to heaven. I have to follow the one I think God has given me, but I am not about to question your way. A hundred people can read the Christian Bible and come away with a hundred different paths. I am not going to tell everyone that they are wrong, but I am right, and you have to follow my way. That is what I see the Religious Right doing and it makes me wonder why their way always involves my giving some money to them.

I don't know if God is going to let Muslims into heaven, I don't even care, my job is to get myself there. God might have plans that he never told us about, who are we to judge others.

Here is what else upsets me with these faiths. All of them think that they can make God do what they want. They believe that if they can get things in Israel going the direction they want, then God will have no choice and he will have to come down here.

These people really believe that it is no longer up to God, that the Bible controls everything God does. They believe Christ's second coming is controlled by their interpretation of the Bible. I think Jesus will come when ever he wants to and there is nothing we can do to hurry him along.. If Jesus decides to wait for a million years, it is his choice. What is a million of our years to God?

I have to smile when I hear these people rant and rave about what is going to happen and that all the signs point to the fact that the end is near. Other people in other centuries thought they could predict God's plan too.

Some of the Sunday morning TV ministers even have their own edition of the bible with the words they think are important in bold type. You can buy one for $59.95. Now a cynical person would think this was a money making scam. Call me cynical. If the end is near, then why even charge for "God's Book"? Something that is always the same with every one of these people expounding from the right is that we must protect Israel at all costs. Do you think there is money involved in that too?

I have to ask, if the "right" wasn't pushing for Israel, would Congress keep giving billions of tax dollars to them every year? Is there a pay off here some place? I don't know the answer to that, but it makes me wonder.

Then that brings us to the question of just how long before the end is here? If it will be a few years off, then these ministers might want to make a few million off the backs of the faithful, if it is going to be more than a few years, then they might want to build a new church and maybe a school would be in order too. If however the end is very close by and that is the thrust of all of these ministries, then money is of no value at all. You really can't take it with you.

So, if a guy is asking for money for his building program, but he is talking about the second coming just around the corner, you have to wonder what he really believes.

If some minister tells you that he knows who is going to heaven and who is going to hell, you have to think that God is talking directly to him. Most of the Ministers that I have talked to that profess a leaning to the American Right, will come out and say that all Muslims are going to hell. They have no doubt about this, so our killing of people over there makes no difference. The American Religious Right is in a War with Islam and they are more than willing to push our government into doing battle for them.

These leaders on the Right believe that they know what the Bible really means and that their interpretation is the correct one. The problem I have with this, is that every one of them will condone killing and maiming of people in foreign lands and infer that Christ, the Prince of Peace would want this. Some of them will use the Bible and its words to prove that this killing is necessary to bring about the return of God.

I don't claim to know the answers. I do know killing is wrong. Not because it is in the Ten Commandments, but because it is in the heart of man. Some would call this a conscience. You do wrong, you sin, and God lets you know you have done wrong. He can make you physically sick our mentally ill with guilt. He can also take that guilt away

America today is out there killing in God's name, just as countries have done forever. That is why the President keeps telling us that we are attacking Evil. Well, the people in that Evil country think they are being attacked by Evil. Someday, we as a nation are going to suffer a collective guilt. I don't know what that punishment will be. I do know that it will be worse for those that goad us on to war and killing.

I have to think that God looks down at us and shakes his head and says, "how can they be such fools."