At What Cost?

I have heard that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I would offer that the road to enlightenment or the straight and narrow path is littered with toll booths. Because of my writings, I have been asked if I have a problem with God? I do not have a problem with God but I do have many issues with his front men. I believe that access to God is free and easy, if you choose to believe in a God figure. It seems as though there are myriads of people that try to copyright God and claim to have exclusive access to him. If you will only pay a fee, you too can enjoy full access to all that is God. I can speak from a Christian background. We have often been taught that you can come to God as you are and that salvation is free but of course the free part is for a limited time only. Once we join forces with a church, the fees begin. We are expected to pay tithes and offerings or we are guilty of robbing God. If you are not a faithful tithe payer, then you cannot hold any office in church and you are no longer on the good list. It is amazing how we can go from free access to fee requirements to being a thief.
Christianity is not the only religion that ask for fees. Pretty much all cult set ups ask that you give up all of your material goods and give them to the leader who either is God or has access to God. It is ironic that the person that ask you to give up your possessions and money will then keep your treasure and live like a ruler or a king. Sounds familiar to the prosperity gospel that I have heard on television by what I call the superstar preachers. These folks will tell you that it is God’s will for you to be rich and to have fat bank accounts. This leads to all sorts of problems. An end result is that we now have “Christians” that are against helping the poor directly as well as the vile mixing of politics and religion that breeds hate and contempt for anyone that is not just like you. We transfer the beliefs that all other religions are wrong and we now believe that it is not possible to be a Democrat and a Christian and that all Democrats, Catholics, Muslims, Hindu, Mormans , Jehovah Witness, Atheist, Deist and any other non approved church or political party is wrong and headed for a Hellish end.
The fees for all religions are not always limited to monetary. Inherent in pretty much every religion is the belief that there is only one God and that only that specific faith has the access and that makes all other religions and even all other sects of that faith wrong. The fees can range from submission to the power establishment in the faith to working for free to even laying you life down in the hopes of obtaining a harem is the afterlife. In the current economic times, we are beginning to see the emphasis being placed upon the church member to give till it hurts. To give even at the risk of shorting the needs of your family is the mantra and cannot be supported by biblical scripture or by common sense. The leaders of the churches are concerned first with preserving their current lifestyle. Most pastors are given housing, have their expenses paid, including cars, insurance, utilities and any other expenses that are deemed worthy. This is a pretty sweet system and would be easy to get use to and hard to live without once you are in the system. I recently heard a Pastor state that he could not wait to get back to Church from a vacation so that he could give his tithes. This is a funny statement because it would be easy to give back a small portion as a rebate of what the Church just gave you. I promise that if you will give me $100 right now, I will gladly give you $10 back and we can repeat the process over and over as long as you like. I would sign up for that gig but the positions are few and the aspect of living with yourself and the inherent greed would be more than an honest person could stand.
If you step away from your bias and consider the big picture, each faith is built upon having a God. Most all require living by a moral code and most are based upon eventually reaching an afterlife destination or being punished in the afterlife in a hell or equivalent bad place. The purpose of hell seems to be a threat to keep subjects in line and to maintain the law order and fees required to keep the doors open on buildings required and to support the chosen ones with salaries and all expenses. The threat of hell leads to a guilt complex and makes even the most moral people question their motives and live under a weight and fear of an image of a God with a sledge hammer that is waiting to swing down on the heads of the guilty.
The churches and religions will seem to always demand an almost all voluntary support army. These are the people that out of obligation, guilt or kind heartedness run most all labor functions of the church. Teaching of Sunday school, collection of offerings, cleaning of the church, landscaping, etc. are some of the many examples of free labor demanded so that the upper management that is paid, can enjoy the power and Lordship that they have come to expect. The larger churches seem to have developed a system by which the higher up clergy as well as many chosen business people can profit. The good old boy system is alive and well in the church, especially in the more prosperous ones. There are contracts awarded for lawn maintenance, construction jobs and upkeep of facilities. The purpose of any church or religion should be to serve “God” and provide support and assistance to all who are in need. The purpose should never be to get rich or prosperous at the expense of the less educated and guilt ridden sheep that place their trust in you. If you truly follow the gospels, you would realize that ministry has nothing to do with a payment system, salaries or hording up money to pay for large buildings and political functions. Capitalism should not be welcome in church or in any religion and until we are free to take an honest look at the cost that we are paying and the fees that are being demanded, we can never be free to assist the ones that are in real need.

Just some simple ideas.

If we are truly a Nation of the the people, by the people and for the people, why do we not take care of the people? Did you realize that if we simply ended the 2 wars that we are in, we could provide health care for everyone, make everyone tax exempt for 1 year and give a rebate to everyone in an amount to pay off their mortgages? Can you imagine the economic growth and job growth that could be created in this scenario? I know...I am just dreaming here but maybe if we ever got back to America first, we could rally and finally help each other out.

An Epiphany and the Oil from Hell

TSD has had an epiphany and although I wish I were wrong, you be the judge. In my humble opinion, the flames that burn in the pits of hell are fueled by big oil. It has become obvious that big oil runs the world. There was a time when big oil and the automobile industry were hand in hand and seemed to conspire to keep modern advances in fuel economy, carburetor improvements and electric car equipment in the dark ages. I have heard stories for years about people that figured out ways to make cars run on water, trash, vegetable oil and all sorts of common items. I personally knew a man that figured out a way to increase fuel economy in large cars to an estimated 70 mpg with items that he purchased at a grocery store. Big oil made this guy an offer of $500,000 to start. The guy got nervous about it and eventually was made an offer that he could not refuse and he moved away. These stories are made out to be fantastical and are treated as make believe which is exactly what the big oil folks want. We learned who the boss was between big oil and the car companies when the economy began to tank. Big oil did not save the car industry but let the Government step in and keep them from the final curtain call. You would think that the car makers would have learned their lesson and would push forward with technology to end their reliance and dependence on big oil but the solution may not be that simple. I firmly believe that big oil has established ownership of the Government to the highest level and that they control the energy policy for the Country and they use the car makers and congress to do their bidding. We as progressives often think of ourselves as fighting the man and the large corporations that run the world. It is a noble cause however, it is a loosing battle as we do not have the numbers and influence and all the kings horses and all the kings gold can not match the billions and billions that big oil has. Take a look as the little slice of heaven called the Gulf of Mexico is being bombed with a lethal dose of oil with no end in sight. The ugly truth is that we have the technology to stop the well but we are witnessing another example of big oil exerting it's dominance over us and the environment. The worse the spill, the more the profits will be for big oil. The prices for fuel will begin to creep up because big oil will never pay their profits for the clean ups and recovery, they will simple increase prices to cover any clean up and recovery required. Why do the other big oil brothers not come to help BP? They have many ships and much technology to offer. They know that they stand to profit as standing in opposition to BP. We boycott BP and we use Exxon and big oil gets bigger and richer. I have said that the quickest way to stop the oil well from leaking would be to take BP executives from the top down and shove them in the hole and if it does not stop, then shove their money, cars, etc. in the hole. Funny thing is, I figure that after you shove the first one in, the leak would magically get fixed. Of course, when big oil is pulling the puppet strings, this would never be an option. Maybe it is time to realize that big oil is too big to fight. It is a global monster and lives on the souls and dollars of hard working people. The minions that have profited from big oil, have sold their souls for profit and you can not bargain with someone or something that has no soul. Perhaps we should allow big oil to profit from clean energy for the sake of future generations and for the sake of the environment. Big oil could be allowed to distribute solar power and wind turbines and all the technology to reduce the earth's carbon footprint. A handsome profit could be made by the over lords and we could begin to heal the planet. If it sounds like I have given into the corporate evil, you may be correct but at the moment of truth, I am not sure that we have any other options. We can continue to fight a loosing battle or when can perhaps make an effort to change the world for the better. Please offer your thoughts and opinions in the comments below and feel free to share any stories that you know about the technologies that exist that would allow us to live in a better and less petroleum based world.

Poster Boy...Looser!

TSD....update. Ever heard of Mike Gallagher? He is a local hack that has made it on the national conservative stage. This guy is considered to be a conservative all star but let me tell you the rest of the story. Many years ago, Mr. Gallagher was working at WFBC AM in Greenville,SC. He was a talk show host on a tiny scale and his show was typically about local issues such as high school fighting, popular culture and any other minor topic of local interest. I was working with a local church and had arranged for time on his station 1 night per week for 1 hour. I had paid in advance for the time and had lined up sponsors and guest for 2-3 weeks. The show was going to be a religious show aimed at local teenagers and the problems that they face and we were gonna take calls and play some tunes and try to help them cope with life. I made a final visit to the station the day before my 1st show and was called to the office of Mike Gallagher. Turns out, he was the acting station manager. He was very rude and short with me. He wanted to know what my show was about. I told him that is was a Christian based show geared to the youth. He said that he did not want any religious programming on his station and that since he was the manager, that was it and that I was done. I told him that I already had everything lined up and had paid up front. He said he would refund my money and pretty much threw me out. It was not long after this, that he got into trouble and was suspended for some racist remarks that he made on air. I assumed that he was finished and that justice had been served but as it turns out, he has reinvented himself as a conservative...God and Country right wing talker. Let me just say, that if Mike Gallagher is a Christian, conservative and honest person, then George Bush was a Rhode Scholar.

A Brief History Lesson

I continue to hear people from the red state locals all the way to the the mouth of the beast....fox news, speaking about how Obama is turning us into a Soviet style regime. I seem to remember the beginning of the Russian influence being in 2002. Bush created the Dept. of "homeland security"....the homeland? That sounds like mother Russia to me. Of course, we had just suffered a terrorist attack on the watch of Bush and we were told that any questioning of the leaders would mean that we supported the terrorist. The Patriot Act was a Soviet style over reach that basically jerked freedoms rug from under our feet as well. In the history of the United States from 1933-2001, we had 39 "czars" appointed. In the Bush administration, we had 35 "czars" appointed from 2001-2009. As any reasonable person can see, Mr. Bush....a republican, was the new age leader that brought us the art of czar appointments. Now, our leader, Mr. Obama has and will continue this trend because of the precedent set forth after 911 and the anxiety of the US since. We also witnessed our government using illegal wiretapping and eavesdropping on our citizens and the act of invading a sovereign nation that had nothing to do with the attacks of 911. The next time you see a tea party idiot or Palin or Limbaugh lashing out in "Beck" style, you may want to remind them of the facts mentioned here.