Prayers and Wishes

Just a few miles from where I live, there is a small town where the writer, Zora Neale Hurston, began her life and her career. She was a free-thinker, and talked about prayer once. She said, "...prayer seems to me a cry of weakness, and an attempt to avoid, by trickery, the rules of the game as laid down. I do not choose to accept weakness. I accept the challenge of responsibility. Life, as it is, does not frighten me, since I have made my peace with the Universe as it is, and bow to its laws."

Of all the issues facing this benighted nation in the present day, the one that concerns me the most, is the obvious attempt by well-funded christian extremists to erode the very foundation of our Constitution, tear down the wall between church and state, and inflict a theocracy on our country. It's not just me, an anti-theist, that worries about that. I know many believers, more of the moderate variety, who fear the same thing. Right now religion is being used by the ultra- conservative faction to control a large bloc of voters from bible belt states.They have managed, by invoking the name of god, to con a lot of people into voting against their own best interests. It's scary.

The god of love, the one I was taught about when I was indoctrinated into religion as a child, has turned into the god of political power, of hate, of dispassionate disregard for the poor and needy and a nasty bully to boot. Now, to me, after reading the entire bible, that is the god that has always been around in the heads of many believers. The church ladies and deacons who sin in darkness and turn up their noses at what they perceive to be the failings of others have been around a long time. BUT THEY HAVE NO PLACE IN OUR GOVERNMENT!!

I remember a friend from another country who remarked, after riding from one end of my home town to another, that she had never seen so many churches in such a small town. The harder we try to pursue justice that does not include the fearful, hateful, judgmental heritage of our Puritan, patriarchal forebears, the more these Dominionists seek to force it on us. They are working that angle, demonizing everything and everyone who isn't white, male, well-off and fundamentalist christian.

The Dominionists, according to Wikipedia are those who believe that the government should be run by christians and by biblical law as understood by christians. They also call their movement "Christian Reconstructionism" or the "New Apostolic Reformation." These folks are, as cited above, scary as hell. They are well-funded by, among others, the Koch brothers. They want to bring about "the end times" which they take from a literal interpretation of the Revelation. The first time I read that particular book of the bible, I thought that John or whoever it was that supposedly wrote it, had found some 'shrooms on that island and was a bit bonkers. But I have heard so much nonsense come out of church leaders of today that I am sure there was some kind of method in his madness. These good folks want all of us to die, for them to go to some kind of heaven and the rest of us to provide their entertainment as we roast in a mythical hell. They cherry-pick, embroider and have really managed to make a lot of people give up on life for a promise that cannot be delivered. If they really believe that then I have some big bridges to sell them.

I have a friend whose loved one is fighting stage IV lung cancer. It's not good. Everyday, there are prayers offered (and talked about because praying makes them look good) and miracles talked about and I get really frustrated by that. It is good that there are those who also offer practical help, with or without prayer. But if she beats this beast, it won't be a miracle. It will be her inner strength, good medicine and good care. Healthcare in the US is a mish-mash of so much dumb stuff that I can believe, easily, that the Dominionists cadre has been mixing in that area as well.

If I thought that prayer would do the job, I would be on my knees in a heartbeat. But I put prayer in the same place Ms. Hurston put it. It is an excuse to sound caring rather than actually doing a deed. It is a breast-pounding profession of piety and it carries no weight with me. Pray if you must, if you believe, but don't make it a replacement for real action.

One of the things helping our friend is marijuana. She has problems with pain and appetite and weed helps. Our good christian state of Florida, in the mid-terms, rejected a law allowing medical marijuana to be legally sold. They say it was in the way the law was written but I have my doubts that that was the total reason Proposition 1 didn't make it. My friend has to break the law to bring his loved one some relief. If prayers and wishes were money and weed, THAT would help. We can hope for the best, we can work for the best, but save the magic tricks for a Disney movie. Like Ms. Hurston, I am more interested in working with what IS.