I Believe In God

My wife and I have been married for more than 46 years.  We have been blessed with six children, 10 grandchildren and six great grandchildren – more are on the way. 

We have shared our belief in God with our children and have taught them that God is real and He is there for us. My wife and I believe, however, that our children have been old enough to make their own decisions for many years and it is their responsibility to decide what they want to believe and to teach their children according to their own decisions. We do not feel it is our responsibility.

We will respond if asked but we have not tried to dictate what they do or think since they left our home. I, personally, and I believe my wife does also, though I will not speak for her in this comment, believe that God gave us free choice -- including the right not to believe in Him should that be our decision. I really liked a comment by Monica (I think it was she) who said in one of the Touched By An Angel shows: “It doesn't matter if you believe in God -- He believes in you."

I also add this quote from Robert Kennedy: "At the University of Natal in Durban, I (Kennedy) was told the church to which most of the white population belongs teaches apartheid as a moral necessity. A questioner declared that few churches allow Black Africans to pray with the White because the Bible says that is the way it should be, because God created Negroes to serve.

"But suppose God is Black,” I replied. "What if we go to Heaven and we, all our lives, have treated the Negro as an inferior, and God is there, and we look up and He is not White? What then is our response?’ There was no answer. Only silence." South Africa, June 1966.

My personal belief is that it doesn't make any difference what color, sex or even kind of being God might be (who knows, He doesn't even have to be Human.) He (or She) is God and can have whatever image He/She desires. What is important is what He (Jesus) taught and how we live. After all, He gave us free choice -- Adam and Eve chose to eat of the forbidden fruit and damned us all.

According to what I was taught, Jesus was crucified to atone for this "Original Sin." I believe it is stupid to fight and kill to impose one people’s religious beliefs on another, so long as those beliefs harm no one.  My understanding of the Bible is sketchy, at best, but I believe Jesus told his disciples to go forth and preach to all nations – not to kill them if they didn’t convert to Christianity.

I do not believe I will be called to task over what you believe but only if, when asked, I fail to tell you what I believe or fail to practice what I profess.  I am comfortable in my beliefs and wish all the same feeling. I refuse to try to sway anyone else to what I believe, even my own descendents.

One addition: I believe we WILL all be called to task if we fail to follow God's rules -- call them "commandments” or ethics if you wish. I believe all religions have something similar. The thing is, of course, we won't ever know until it is too late to do anything about it.

I’ve done something new – for me.  I am now an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church.  I took this action because I have always felt that I might have a calling but neither had the chance, the time nor the money to follow that calling the “conventional” way. 

One of the things I’m planning to do is exercise my ability to perform weddings; perfectly legal in Florida since among those who may take that action are Notaries Public and County Clerks. 

I’ll keep you posted. 

I also leave you with this – As Morgan Freeman, who played the President of the United States in the excellent movie DEEP IMPACT,  put it: “I believe God answers all prayers – even if the answer is ‘No.”

Irish Blessings on you all.