"Beware" by John Chuchman

Beware!

Beware!

Religion will swallow us whole!

It's easy to be swallowed whole and drowned by religion.

It is a kind of a narcotic.

Let’s grow Spiritually

even though being Spiritual is oft counter-religious.

In many ways,

religion gives us the message,

Don't rock the boat.

Don't challenge the system.

That message,

 promoted by the vast majority of Religion’s powerful

 is continually transmitted

through a myriad of ways

to numb us into submission.

Religion encourages us to accept its teachings,

doctrines, dogmas, rites, and rituals

to be quiet,

to leave things the way they are.

But if we are genuine followers

of the Prince of Peace,

the God of life,

we cannot be quiet,

cannot leave evil the way it is.

We must cry out against

 religious abuse, intolerance, and discrimination

because by our silence,

we consent to it.

Filled with a fresh Christmas rebirth of Jesus

within our hearts,

let’s take his loving, peaceful and joyful presence

out into our hurting world this New Year,

and courageously challenge

the entrenched hierarchy.

 

Let us imagine during 2016 a better world

where ALL God's people,

and ALL of God's creation,

(not just the worthy, the acquiescent, the believers)

are respected, protected and cherished.