Religion

So here we are in America, the Land of the Free. You know America, the country where we can say what we want, be what we want and do what we want. That is the America of today, a place where truth is defined by what the polls say or what one’s personal experience dictates. Absolute Truth consists of NO real ABSOLUTES. Come on, everyone knows there are no absolutes just relative ones. So, whatever is true to you is ok, even if it goes against what I think is true. Everyone can be right, and no one has to be wrong.  However, if you believe in absolute truth, well that makes you a bigot, or a racist, a radical or ignorant. It makes you small minded, uneducated, and worst of all it makes you wrong.  This has led to the New American Prayer. It goes something like this:

“Dear God, or Person, or thing, or Great Spirit or Mother Earth, .. Well Dear something, I would like it of you would take care of me, I would like it if you would bless me, also I would like it if you would help everyone in the world. Please stop the bad people, even though I cannot define who they are, please heal the sick people, but now I think everyone is sick because no one would do anything wrong unless they were. I mean there is really no sin, just sick people making mistakes. Oh yeah and also please help me. I really do not know who you are, and I just know that I am great and so are you. So < God>, Earth, Person, Idea, Government or just all around Good Spirit; Even though I cannot say I know you or understand who you are, or even say what you want, will you please hear my prayer and if someone is offended by my prayer, well then you can ignore it and I will just say I think we are just fine.”

Now that we have our prayer defined and just whom we can pray to, be certain to keep all of this too yourself. No verses, no defining comments and most of all if what you believe might be in disagreement with someone else, just lie and tell them you believe whatever they believe. No personal faith or opinions allowed, unless your faith is defined by a man named Abū al-Qāsim Muhammad. Then you can say what you want.

Is this really the New American Prayer for today? Are we so scared of ourselves that we can’t share what we think? We can’t defend our positions. We can say I think you are wrong and I am right but I still think you are great. Can we not define our enemy as someone who wants to hurt us? Is everyone right and no one is wrong?

I hope that we all learn to share what we believe. To do it in a manner that opens doors, challenges minds, and leads to respect for all people or faith. I can believe in my God, share him and you can believe in yours. We can agree to disagree. I do not have to win you over, but I do need to be able to define who my God is, so that we can have a real conversation about what we all believe.  What is your real American Prayer?  To whom do you pray and why?