God Was On His Side… Really?

The headline read: ‘GOD WAS ON HIS SIDE’  Plane crashes into house; man sleeping on sofa, his dog survive

SALINA, Pa (AP) – A twin-engine plane slammed into a house in western Pennsylvania minutes after takeoff of Saturday killing two people, and narrowly missing a man sleeping on his couch with his dog…

This article appeared in the Aberdeen American News (Aberdeen, South Dakota) on August 8, 2010. The writer of the article credited divine favor for the man and his dog that seemingly miraculously survived this deadly plane crash. So in the writer’s mind God protected the sleeping man and his dog, while dismissing the lives of the two people in the plane.

Imagine how the family of those two people would feel reading that headline. Not that they would believe it, but the fact that such an idea is bandied about in our largely Christian influenced society, is a shame. When the dominate religion in a culture is filled with ideas that God is with some people and not with others, I guess you just have to expect such nonsense.

If we could, and I do mean “IF”…

ALL OF THE WRITINGS IN THIS BLOG have been my attempt to explain, as well as succinctly articulate, some aspect of my views in relation to, first of all, my exit from church and then from Christianity altogether.

Not surprisingly, many of my past church friends have gone to these writings to find out what the heck happened to Abraham. Some have commented, in more or less kind hearted ways, hoping to help me regain my obviously lost relationship with God. These comments have generated, in my opinion, some very stimulating and healthy give and take. This, of course, was my desire all along.

All of this has helped to further deepen my own personal conviction that human society as a whole would be much better served if we could come to a place of releasing our religious exclusiveness.

It is a growing concept in my mind that the “we have the truth” mentality is actually holding mankind back from the recognition that our greatest oneness is in the simple universality of our common existence.

The Christian, for example, cannot easily do this. And the reason has to do with the belief system itself. Although many Christians recognize their common heritage with other fellow human beings, they nonetheless hold to the belief that the true “brotherhood” is formed by their faith in Christ. Those who do not share their faith are by Biblical definition outsiders who need to repent. Therefore, “superiority of belief” is built into the very structure of the religion.

From what I know of Islam the same is true and maybe more so, depending on what particular sect of that religion you focus upon.

So… if we could, and I do mean “IF”… if we could manage to let go of our seemingly narcissistic need to “be right” or “to be on the right side” we might have a greater opportunity to develop an objective openness to the views of others. I happen to think that would be a good thing for us all.