What we forget

It's so easy to get distracted by what religion one follows, where one is headed after death, who they will encounter, whose lost souls people pray for, what the religious books say etc.

It doesn't matter which God you pray to. Or if you even pray to one. It doesn't matter to me where you end up after you die. What matters is what you do HERE and how you are with those around you...what you do with your lives.

There are a ton of people from different religions or no religion who do so much for you all every single day. They don't need your pity or prayers or concern. They'd appreciate your thank you or smiles or friendship.

I don't think many of you realize that when you are having heart attacks or spinning intensely from vertigo or can't breathe on account of asthma...the EMT workers who show up, the nurses in hospitals, the doctors who take care of you, operate on you, give you hope etc could be people from other religions or no religion. Yet they treat you well. They care for you. They see you as a human being first.

Teachers who have educated your children, a neighbor who may have gone the extra mile for you, a drug/rehab counselor who sat in group therapy and listened to you spew insults at him, lash out at him, hate him even yet sat through it to help YOU may have been someone who worshiped the moon and stars and sun as sources of his energy yet treated you with respect because he saw you as being human first.

I work with teaching assistants in my job who help teenagers most of you would never work with. These teens not only have serious mental retardation but are incapacitated. This means you clean them, change them, wash them, feed them, wipe their behinds, change tampons, clean their noses because they can't. You don't have to be Christian to do this. You have to be compassionate and see them as PEOPLE. I do this every day. I work with people who are not all Christians or even religious. But you know...if this were your teenager, he/she couldn't be in better, more loving hands.

Folks in nursing homes, cooks, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, oh gosh there are so many people in this world who do what they do to make your life easier in some way, to take care of you or your aging parents or special needs children not out of Christianity or what the Bible says or the Koran says or what anything says...not with the promised land in mind or fear of hell in their minds. They do this, we do this because ultimately, there is goodness in everyone..even in those who according to your Gods will burn in hell.

It hurts me to see that some of you have lost your humanity in your pursuit of God.

 

I am nice to everyone I meet unless they give me a reason not to be, and that's without knowing or asking their religion or background.

 

It's not about being nice. It's much more than that.

 

Aren't we glad you go that one off your mind. Yes, for any of us to know how we should treat others, especially if we are Christian, we should not look to Jesus Christ, we should look to Sarita. So now, if any of us feel certain need of instruction in the finer points of being human, we can always look back and find Sarita's own Sermon on the Mount. Thank you, Sarita.


Sarita's Sermon on the Mount

It's so easy to get distracted by what religion one follows, where one is headed after death, who they will encounter, whose lost souls people pray for, what the religious books say etc.

It doesn't matter which God you pray to. Or if you even pray to one. It doesn't matter to me where you end up after you die. What matters is what you do HERE and how you are with those around you...what you do with your lives.

There are a ton of people from different religions or no religion who do so much for you all every single day. They don't need your pity or prayers or concern. They'd appreciate your thank you or smiles or friendship.

I don't think many of you realize that when you are having heart attacks or spinning intensely from vertigo or can't breathe on account of asthma...the EMT workers who show up, the nurses in hospitals, the doctors who take care of you, operate on you, give you hope etc could be people from other religions or no religion. Yet they treat you well. They care for you. They see you as a human being first.

Teachers who have educated your children, a neighbor who may have gone the extra mile for you, a drug/rehab counselor who sat in group therapy and listened to you spew insults at him, lash out at him, hate him even yet sat through it to help YOU may have been someone who worshiped the moon and stars and sun as sources of his energy yet treated you with respect because he saw you as being human first.

I work with teaching assistants in my job who help teenagers most of you would never work with. These teens not only have serious mental retardation but are incapacitated. This means you clean them, change them, wash them, feed them, wipe their behinds, change tampons, clean their noses because they can't. You don't have to be Christian to do this. You have to be compassionate and see them as PEOPLE. I do this every day. I work with people who are not all Christians or even religious. But you know...if this were your teenager, he/she couldn't be in better, more loving hands.

Folks in nursing homes, cooks, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, oh gosh there are so many people in this world who do what they do to make your life easier in some way, to take care of you or your aging parents or special needs children not out of Christianity or what the Bible says or the Koran says or what anything says...not with the promised land in mind or fear of hell in their minds. They do this, we do this because ultimately, there is goodness in everyone..even in those who according to your Gods will burn in hell.

It hurts me to see that some of you have lost your humanity in your pursuit of God.

 

Well I generally like people and not in a fake way either, and those that I don't like either find out the hard way or I simply avoid them all together.

 

Well said, Corona.

 

About that predictability....spot on.

 

Jim was right. You really are an asshole.

 

^^ We know from other threads that he uses his religion to be divisive so there is no credibility. He created a void around him with crazy talk on Israel, the god of the Incas and Satan cursing everyone out. People who share his religion tend to back off from his posts so that pretty much says it all. I don't take anything this individual says seriously or personally. As one of my favorite professors says...extremism in any form is dangerous.

 

WOW!

 

Good post Corona

Those of you that are religious, I tend to look beyond that. Religion is just a tool, that people use to placate, mediate, etc in my opinion.

It only becomes an issue for me, when it is preach and shoved down my throat. And as a child, I had a lot of that.

My daughter is getting all this feed into her at school. Even after school stuff has a lot of God on it..from making paper models with God loves you imprinted on every single model they make.

So, naturally my daughter is getting fed so much of this hype. It is cringe worthy and that is where I draw the line.

 

^^ This isn't what I'm saying.

 

We were raised the same way Bluesky because my parents are both devout and dedicated christians, and we were required to go to church and Sunday school until we were about 14-15 years old. So then when I was given the choice I quit all together - start rebelling - and then stayed away from church and the Bible for about 10 years. But I will tell you that I am glad I was given that foundation because it made my landing alot softer when my whole life came crashing down(and I then was back in church for a few years during recovery).

 

Now Chris, you and I both know that is NOT what Jesus taught. Didn't he say to turn the other cheek? As a devout Christian, shouldn't you know, and practice, this?

 

Let's just say that I have my own way of dealing with things and dance to my own beat sometimes.

 

That is a very honest answer. I appreciate that. I, too, am the same way! LOL!

 

gosh, I know Jesus taught to turn the other cheek but sometimes it is so darn hard and I make mistakes and plenty of them - I am not Jesus and I try so very hard to follow His teachings but man I make lots of mistakes and well it is so very hard to turn the cheek constantly....

To me I appreciate people of all shapes, color, sizes, religions, sexual orientation - etc. Just because someone is different does not make a difference to me. Jesus says in the New Commandments that we are to treat foreigners and others, widows, orphans, etc - as we treat ourselves and loved ones - to cause them harm or undo pain or prejudice against them is wrong. We are to embrace them. This does not mean however, that if they believe in another God that we are to turn our back on Him and worhsip with them and follow their God/and or Prophet or non-prophets or gods...

I have friendship (most very meaningful) with people of different religion than I am myself. Our focus is not on religion; we have religous difference and we have both stated what our religion means to us and the consequences (if there are any) about afterlife. We chose to embrace each other in spite of our differences; and 90 percent of the time religion is never spoken of. We chose to focus on each others positiveness and what we have in common rather than what we don't.

 

well put Corona and Aladdin.


Amen.

 

My point is that every day we put our trust in people who are not from our religion, our socio-economic background, our skin color, our country. We trust that they will take care of us, our children, our parents, our friends, our communities because they see us as people...because we have that in common - this being human.

To that effect and extent, I do the best I can everyday whether it is in my job, my school, my apartment complex or at the grocery store REGARDLESS of my belief system or theirs. We are all connected and mutually interdependent, like it or not. To make a change or a difference in any way - even the smallest, we have to recognize and accept this.

We all need one another in some way. It is part of this journey. So frankly, I don't bother with whom you pray to or where you end up after you die or if I will see you again. That's between you and whoever you believe is your maker. What impacts me is how you are with me and to me while you are here and vice versa. When I say YOU, I mean a collective you, a universal you...not you on this forum or room.

If you can't treat people of other religions with acceptance, rejoice in the fact that they also will go back to their maker someday, be happy for those who are content to become worm food after they die or be completely OK with those who sit on the fence...I can't imagine a heavenly reward for this.

What I'm trying to get to is that some can get so wrapped up in what's the right thing that they forget to do the best or next best thing which could actually end up being the "right" thing.

 

What seems to be happening by some of the responses to your message, corona, is people's defences go up immediately to protect their beliefs without actually "listening" to what you said.


Godless, heathen that I am, it never occurs to me what another person's religion is as I interact with them throughout my day. it simply isn't relevant.

I do not understand the need to impose one's religious beliefs ( or lack of them) on another. I wonder why they can't just be happy in the knowledge that the path they have chosen works for them and leave the rest of us to the path that works for us?

Even Cat Stevens who wrote a very interesting account of how he came to be Muslim can't be taken at face value.