Listening to religious people talk sometimes is flabbergasting. I know that I’m in this group too, just a different edge of the crazy…still there though. Sometimes when discussing what is right and good, Christians say “Jesus would want us to…”, this is weird, and creepy. I’ve said it before, and I’ve definitely implied it multiple times, but when you think about it, it is a useless sentiment that suggests that Jesus had and still has an over-arching motive.
I’ve learned to embrace Christianity with some grace, but sometimes I don’t understand why we can’t just claim our own motives without pinning them on the Spirit, Jesus, the Devil, or God. Doing good is beneficial, and yes, as a Christian with a fairly evolved theology, I think doing good is the path set out by Jesus’ life, but he’s certainly not the only one. And I don’t go around questioning whether my motives and actions would be Gandhi approved, even though I value his life and example. (Although, perhaps I would if I were Buddhist?) I get bogged down sometimes with Christianity being so demanding: our dogmas are demanding, our traditions are demanding, and we often portray our deities as demanding…”God doesn’t want you to…” etc.
As a preschool teacher, I’ve learned how to tell a good story, it’s in the infliction and tone of your voice matched with the passion of your eyes; whenever I hear someone putting words in God or Jesus’ actions, I like to imagine them being said with the voice that I use when telling big bad wolf part of ‘The Three Little Pigs’. Because in reality, ascribing and attributing your own thoughts and traditions to the divine is no more truthful than a popular folk tale.
Becca Kello 