shilling for god

god is a many petaled flower and each petal is essential to the whole

Proselytizers came to my door last week.  It’s surprising how often this happens here at the country house.  I’m used to it happening occasionally in the city, but here in small town Texas, it’s like preaching to the choir.  I mean every small town in Texas is so religious the churches almost outnumber the residents.  Every small town in Texas IS the choir.  Except for the occasional heathen in their midst.  Like me.  

I’m against the whole idea of proselytizing.  I think it is an arrogant behavior, one that shows no respect for the variety of life, ideas, cultures, ways of being, ways of seeing.     

I have no problem with religions welcoming seekers who come to them.  It’s the ones who go out in the world armed with self-righteousness, the ones who see you as lost to the grace of god because you believe or worship differently that I find repugnant.  Especially the ones that offer aid only so long as they can count on collecting your soul.

I was raised a christian, I raised my children jewish, I am currently a heathen.  I define a heathen as someone who is without religion.  That does not exclude a belief system that may or may not include a ‘creator’ or a spiritual outlook and practice or an acceptance of a ‘higher power’.  I do not equate religion with knowing god.

A couple of weeks ago, I was doing my pecan meditation, just starting really, when I looked up to see these two young men crossing the vacant half acre from the street, making a beeline for me.  As soon as we make eye contact, they hail me.

“Good morning!” he says.  

“Hello”, I return with a faint smile and a small movement of the hand.  I can see immediately that they are proselytizers by the way they are dressed and the fact that they are carrying written material.  I don’t like proselytizing but I do like to engage them in conversation when I have the time.  Or I guess you chould say, I like to challenge them.  

After some preliminary niceties, he asks “Wouldn’t it be nice if we knew what god wanted us to do?”

Can’t argue with that so I agreed, “Yes it would.”

“Do you think that god has sent prophets to us to tell us what he wants?” he asks.

“Oh yes”, I say, “there have been many prophets in the past, now today, and will be in the future.  Many paths, one destination, all beloved”

I kept on in this manner, agreeing while disagreeing until he finally got around to presenting his agenda, his prophet, his church.  I told him I didn’t do religion, that I had a personal relationship with the deity, that I didn’t find it particularly difficult to know how god wanted me to behave.  He tried again and that is when I politely told him that I disagreed and would like to get on with my meditation and my day.

Last week another pair stopped by.  Husband went out to engage the ladies.  I was busy trying to get the house buttoned down for our three days in the city.

“The end times are near”, she says.

“No they’re not”, he says.  “Dates have come and gone even within your own religion, and the world is still here.”

“The signs have never been so numerous, famine never so severe” she replies.

“No, they’re not,” he says, “The world has never been so prosperous or abundant, the only reason there is famine is for political reasons.  People have never had so much, been so healthy, lived so long.”  Food is grown in abundance and shipped all over the globe.  

Armageddon is not a concept we have ever entertained.  I’m sure we humans will probably do ourselves in sooner rather than later because we are so destructive in nature.  And by destructive, I don’t mean evil.  Eventually we will pass and the next great thing will come along just as we replaced the dominant life forms before us.  But the world destroyed during a battle between good and evil, the righteous being raised up to heaven in bodily form, all who do not accept their version of the almighty laid waste and condemned?  A horror tale to scare us into submission.

I used to agree with them about Armageddon, that yes it had already happened, the world that those soothsayers knew is gone, their way of life destroyed, the people scattered to the winds.

I don’t like proselytizing but I will talk to them, challenge them, hopefully even make them think and maybe question or at the very least become more open minded about the nature of the godhead and it’s capacity for love and acceptance of all.  But I would never go to their door, their home, their country and assume they need saving because their beliefs were different than mine.