Tim Wise - A God Unworthy Of Praise Or Worship:
Among the most intriguing things about Christian fundamentalists, for me, has always been the way they envision God and then seek to sell that God to others.
On the one hand, they profess to love the Lord “with all their hearts,” and insist that this God so loved the world that he sent his only son to offer everlasting life (though some conditions apply). On the other hand, they’re quick to proclaim how the same God causes natural disasters, violent crime, and other tragedies as a way to punish the U.S. for allowing abortion, or “taking prayer out of schools,” or some other perceived moral slight.
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To believe that God can truly love the world while deliberately sending floods, earthquakes, and other forms of suffering to that world as punishment for supposed bad behavior, is tantamount to believing that the abusive husband loves his wife, even as he pushes her down the stairs for being “a little mouthy.” It would be akin to accepting that the parent who beats their child “for their own good,” and says it was because “the little shit was back-sassing me,” is something other than a sadistic monster deserving not of love but rather, contempt and confinement.
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If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him.
-- James Baldwin
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