Tag: Jesus

Hymns and Hell

Sweet hymn fills my soul
clear voices lifted in praise
on this rock I stand.


Heed the song’s message
Jesus loves all the children
not just those like us.


And on Judgement Day
when the trumpets sound their call
He will know your truth.

I’ve been doing a great deal of thinking lately about faith, religion, and politics. You see, one day this week a “Christian” woman informed me in a tone seething with hatred that I was bound for hell if I voted for Hillary. I smiled and promised that I’d be sure to save her a seat.

Christians come in basically two types of wrappings: those who are of the hellfire and damnation persuasion and those who follow Christ’s teachings. I’m pretty happy being in the second camp. 

I have many non-Christian friends, among them Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, agnostics, and atheists, and I learned a long time ago that goodness and decency aren’t the sole property of Christians. And those same virtues are sorely lacking in some who claim Christianity as their religion.

Heaven and Hell? Well, they might exist, but I know that how I treat others in this life is more important than any promise or threat of an afterlife. One other thing I know is that my teacher, Jesus, wouldn’t turn His back on refugees. 

Peace, people

Judgement Day

Today is judgement day, as was yesterday, and the day before. Tomorrow will hold 

The same status. For those who claim a day of reckoning to be lurking around the 

Corner, I cry, Indeed! Both the corner facing us and the one ’round which we’ve strolled

Already. We face our God each sunrise and answer for our sins. We are sorted by our

Love or lack thereof, by our compassion and generosity. That book of life I reckon

Lists not the rolls of church membership, but the names of those who stand with the

Downtrodden, the marginalized, those who are shunned by the establishment.

Tell me to get right with Jesus, and I’ll ask who you’ve fed today. Tell me I’m bound

For hell, and I’ll plan a party for us both. I hear marshmallows toast well down there.

Paradise, the last panel of Fra Angelico’s tryptic, “Judgement”

Jesus Take the Wheel

A friend called for an Uber ride, and just his luck…  
I always figured he’d drive a minivan. More room for the disciples.

Peace, people.

What Would Jesus Do?

Bumper sticker found on a car in Tallahassee. 

Peace, people!

Easter

   I won’t pretend to be a religious scholar. Plenty of folks do that with mixed results and dubious credibility.

But I do know that love and forgiveness are at the heart of the teachings of Jesus, and that even in his torment on the cross He called for His Father to forgive those who were crucifying His son.

Wow. 

Peace, love, and forgiveness, People!

Sunday School Song

I was raised listening to and singing this song. Sometimes I wonder if anyone ever really heard the message of love and acceptance. 

 Jesus loves the little children,

All the children of the world.

Red and yellow, black and white,

They are precious in his sight,

Jesus loves the little children of the world.

IMG_1047 Are these songs still sung by innocent little children? Did those who sang them perhaps think that Jesus only loved those little children of different colors when they were actually children? Should the line “all the children of the world” be amended to read, “all the children who look like MY children?” 

Or maybe the songwriter got the color part wrong. Maybe he meant, “white and white and white and white.” 

Peace, People.