Real Faith Vs. Religious Hypocrisy by Cory Booker

Every day we see and hear lawmakers and people of 'faith' using the word of God to hurt others. These hypocrites spew hatred and pass laws against women, blacks, Muslims, LGBT, Hispanics, the mentally ill, the disadvantaged, and the homeless. Yet, if we look at religions, we find most originate in love. Over time, the positive messages of those religions have been twisted and interpreted to fit the selfish and extremists agendas of those who use religion to hate, bully, abuse, steal from, and kill others.

In his quote, self-proclaimed Christian and Democrat Cory Booker sums up religious hypocrisy in a way that's hard for anyone to deny: "Don’t speak to me about your religion; first show it to me in how you treat other people. Don't tell me how much you love your God; show me in how much you love all His children. Don't preach to me your passion for your faith; teach me through your compassion for your neighbors. In the end, I'm not as interested in what you have to tell or sell as in how you choose to live and give."

John Wojnowski, America's Prophet

We have had in our midst for almost 24 years now, a true Prophet – just like the Biblical ones. There should be another book in the Bible to describe the colossal change in the World’s conscience and consciousness about Pedophilia that John Wojnowski has had such a significant part in bringing about. It is his phenomenally, historically long protest, his unrelenting, his very public and courageous testimony to the evil that was done to him and to so terrifyingly many others, that has forced many of us to face up to this monstrous, pervasive Church evil – an evil abetted by official actions to hide these crimes that stem from the celibacy-requirement (institutionalized largely due to greed) of the Roman Catholic Church.  As with other Prophets, John has had to abandon any kind of normal life and instead must make an extraordinarily difficult, costly, and lonely effort in order to keep reminding the World of an evil that is endemic to and epidemic in the Roman Catholic Church. He has been endlessly insulted and even injured by the not-so-Christian but definitely Roman Catholic prelates at the Vatican Embassy in front of which he has stood. I spent two years protesting torture of the more well-known sort during the last years of the deeply evil Bush-Cheney administration, a year protesting the Obama administration's support for the Tar Sands Oil pipeline, and now Trump and the Republican Party's anti-life, anti-God, and anti-American democracy actions. It is hard work. But I go only once a week, and it takes less than an hour to drive there and back. John now goes only a day or two each week because he lives much further away and is much less physically able. For 18 years he went every working day and stayed longer than me. It now takes him over six hours worth of public transportation in a day. I mention my presence next to John only to describe the reality of his ordeal and to testify to the repeated verbal abuse that the Vatican officials dish out to him as they pass him by (Catholic but not Christian...?). Just as in its inglorious and amazingly foolish past, the Catholic Church has not accepted the blame that is its due. It does not seek to restore John - and thereby themselves - to health. They instead blame him for reminding us of their sin. They will not change their ways, and so John must help the World to see this and to make them change. Had they compensated John for the ruination of his life from his abuse by the Pedophile Priest, he certainly would not have kept up his vigil, but the unwise and demonstrably uncaring, unChristian, and sinful Catholic Church leadership has once again - as so often in its past - NOT been willing to correct itself and so must continue to be exposed. Therefore, on behalf of the World - especially its children - I say thank you to him and pray for God’s abundant blessings upon His uniquely valiant servant, John Wojnowski. And I also pray for forgiveness for the child abusers and their protectors in the Catholic Church since their sin is so extraordinarily grievous given that they - who are supposed to be the caretaker-protectors of God's human family - are actually terribly endangering it.
    A Deeply Admiring Sometime Fellow Protester

On the "Logic" of Disbelief

• How can anyone claim to be an Atheist - claim to know there is not a God while denying the believers' claim to know there is...?

• Why do the disbelievers pretend that the bad responses are the "Call?" Isn't the real question not whether the results were bad, but "is it - the Call - true" (C. S. Lewis)? Hmmm... do they set the same standards for themselves? Do the general responses to life of disbelievers count as reflecting badly on disbelief?

• And why do disbelievers ignore the good responses? ...How does one dismiss what propels people to sacrifice their time, their worldly goods, their comfort, even their lives for others? ...what makes humans able to do seemingly miraculous things (E.G. Mother Teresa)? How can anyone dismiss what has evoked such extraordinary generosity? And what about the art/literature produced by believers - such creativity? Do the disbelievers actually think they understand religious culture if they don't study religion?????

• Why do any disbelievers equate its extreme side with every faith, especially the Muslim? Surely it's not because this sells their books or makes arguing their side easier... either of which would be dishonest if not actually malfeasing ....But wait... what can honesty or honor possibly mean if there is no God...? Where actually is the "bottom line" if everyone decides for themselves about morality? Nietzsche understood this horror, but does this era's crop of disbelievers understand at all?

• Why won’t doubters admit the scientific advances that had their genesis in religion and which now point so strongly to a theistic explanation for life? And how about the "Big Bang" theory which was first described by St. Augustine of Hippo early in the 5th Century, then formally proposed by a 20th Century Jesuit, and which now is the only space which makes life possible. And where did the original ingredients of the Big Bang come from anyway - LET ALONE LIFE (oh... from non-life… clearly...)? Why has there never been a single signal of any sort from outer space if life can just appear? And why are there so many scientist-believers? How can there be any if disbelief is so logical? And where is evolution headed - what/where is its end? I wonder why most historians now teach that the dichotomy between science and religion is: a) A product of the 20th Century, and B) wildly exaggerated...on BOTH sides?

* How is it that disbelievers have such stringent requirements, especially about timing, for faith and for God (...both of which they deny), which requirements are then declared as having been unmet? Why should it not be that real faith is a very long term, joint enterprise of people with God, and that having depicted the timing in one of the creation stories naively by today's standards but which nonetheless resulted in the World history-changing acceptance of a Sabbath, and depicted the timing for the Second Coming obscurely - unless, of course it was the Resurrection, in which case everything said about it in the Bible is correct?? 2nd coming??... HEY... maybe we're ahead? Perhaps the real timing actually is what we are observing? Perhaps we have a long wait ahead still for everyone in this joint enterprise...?

* And speaking of the "Resurrection": How many events in ancient history have a first hand account of them, in this case repeated letters describing an encounter with someone after his crucifixion by the one who had been up to that moment the mortal enemy of his followers (Saul/Paul), and who AFTER THE ENCOUNTER BECAME THE APOSTLE TO THE WHOLE NON-JEWISH WORLD AND WILLINGLY DIED FOR HIS BELIEF? And how do you explain that the followers of Jesus, unlike any of the other sets of followers of the many other prophets/zealots of that period, went from being terrified and in hiding to coming out even in the face of mortal danger to themselves and converted people all over the known World with their story of this Resurrection and the example of their amazingly changed lives?

• How can there not be something "other"… if every person who ever lived has felt the urge to believe? How can such consistency be explained by randomness?

* How do they explain the existence and importance to this day (~4,000 years later) of the Jews, one of the tiniest, most disadvantaged peoples ever to appear on Earth - who had nothing but their God?

* And explain their God-given Sabbath - the first ever proclamation of the absolute equality of every human being - the equal requirement for every living person (…male/female…slave/free) that they - being equally God's creation - observe the Sabbath.

• How is disbelief, just as with belief, not a preference? ...not something cultivated?

• How is belief weakness when belief requires sacrifice and ongoing effort and disbelief nothing at all - least of all consistency?

• If the problem of evil is the greatest one for believers, how is the problem of good not fatal for disbelief?

• How can anyone, especially every doubter, not study religion in depth? How can they not seek to understand deeply that subject on which more thought and effort and creativity have been expended than on any other in the history of the World? ...on that which has had more influence by far? Even if there isn’t a God, isn't finding out all you can about belief nonetheless essential for your educational and cultural credibility, and if there is a God, then isn't finding out about belief of supreme importance?

* For all those who can admit that you have felt something other "out there" and especially those who think of yourselves as spiritual, what you are missing by not being part of a religious practice is exactly this: No one with whom to debate the specifics; no reminder of the bottom line; no call to learn more; no extra consolation; and no Company along The Way.

* And, finally, why don’t the doubter/disbelievers try to find out from people who are walking-the-walk why they do it? The real answer is, actually, that once you’ve truly heard the Call you can’t not do it. But, for the disbelievers, let me include some of my own story in case it might help:
I was raised quite strictly in the Church, got confirmed which I took very seriously, and when I could see an opportunity to serve I did. I worked with the poor and the mentally ill, brought my children to Church, took every chance I could to do Bible study, and gave alms – the more usual stuff. Then I encountered some evangelists and became willing for the first time to talk about my faith and to encourage (not pressure) others to do so too – a big, big step forward for one of “God’s frozen people” (a 50’s Episcopalian). This enlarged my view of what I was meant to do incredibly. Now I continue to study and meet with other believers, but I also pray far more, give away everything I possibly can, and evangelize, and I serve others, especially the poor, and I have never been more sure or contented. I’m not, by the way, doing this for a ticket to Heaven, in which I have very little interest since I cannot know what it is ...only have faith. My walk is not about personal credits for the afterlife but about living the life I was meant to in God’s kingdom here on Earth and about never being alone. To quote St. Teresa of Avila: "the feeling remains that God is on the journey too."

On Homosexuality and The Inerrant Bible

On Homosexuality as “Sin” and something “Unnatural” and on the Bible as Inerrant

The “liberal” churches must according to the Fundamentalists (…Inerrantists??) understand how real and opinionated and demanding Jesus was – accept everything about Him and know that everything about Him requires our belief, and yet they won’t accept that He - Jesus - said nothing anywhere about homosexuality. It didn’t merit His attention, let alone His disapproval. Nor is there a commandment against it – AS DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED TO THE SIN OF ADULTERY about which Jesus had plenty to say. The "conservative" Churches don’t want the “liberal” churches to pick and choose what they heed about Jesus, even as they, the conservatives, pick and choose what they heed about Jesus AND St. Paul AND SIN.

As for why there has always been homosexual behavior given that we are all beings created by God, the Fundamentalist explanation is that Creation is “broken” because of the sin of Adam and Eve. Somehow this brokenness absolves God, the Creator, of responsibility for the existence of homosexual behavior AMONG ALL GENDERED POPULATIONS in almost exactly the same proportion (humans; animals, INSECTS) – populations most of which can’t choose anything about their preferences so we probably ought to assume the same for all creatures, and, as these beings aren’t reproducing, they cannot possibly be visiting their "sins" upon their children. Imagine a loving God endlessly creating beings and then damning them for being true to their created, God-given nature. This doesn’t even begin to cover the subject either – what about masturbation, males learning the sex act with each other, bisexuality (ask King David - the proto-Messiah), bestiality, pedophilia, polygamy, concubinage, and sexual violence - OUT OF WEDLOCK sexual violence - which was AOK in that inerrant Old Testament so long as it was directed at females, even family members.

And as for “broken" Creation, the sin of Adam and Eve was inevitable and therefore is certainly also God’s responsibility. How can one be "disobedient" without knowing the difference between good and evil? They could not possibly have avoided “the fall.” They were perfectly naïve, defenseless creatures – no basis whatsoever for understanding either sin or consequences: NO KNOWLEDGE OF EVIL BEFORE THEY BIT THE APPLE; no possible understanding of what it meant “to die” since there was NO DEATH IN EDEN: and no experience or understanding of untruth …of lying – no protection against a Tempter - who “was more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth which the LORD GOD had made" and who LIED TO THEM ABOUT WHAT WOULD HAPPEN? And how exactly do/did the animals and insects disobey? So, to define this massive being "led into temptation" as disobedience worthy of the breaking of Creation and to have God create beings that God then condemns to living half-lives is arguably evil and sounds nothing like a just, loving, and faithful God. And, finally, if Creation is the defining story, then why wasn't Jesus' atonement more than sufficient to "unbreak" Creation? Hasn't all been made aright?

If the Bible is inerrant – i.e., is directly God’s word then:
*** Why all those mentions of OTHER GODS??? ...OTHER??? GODS??? - in the Bible???
*** A High Priest King who was perfect and who never died ... Melchizedek??
*** Why the contradictions in the Bible, for example... all those disagreed lists, notably: of Jesus' Disciples and the tribes of Israel??
*** Why would God show Himself changing His mind? Why would he ever need to change His mind?
*** Why does God cause people to sin and then get off on the blame/punishment side? Pharoah's heart? Ordering the slaughter of whole communities (even children...)? Homosexuals? Adam and Eve? Judas' betrayal of Jesus?
*** Why different versions of the same events (e.g., Creation; Noah; the Last Supper)?
*** How could there be seven days of creation when the means to have days didn’t exist until after the fourth “day?” Oh, and didn't it say somewhere that a "day to God is like a thousand years"? So why not a billion, since they didn't know "billions" then?
*** How about biblical love not being between a man and A WOMAN but any number of wives/women for one man? HUH? Didn't that wise guy Solomon have ...oh... 500 wives?
*** How did God not know that the Earth was round and did not have "four corners"?
*** Why did God use different names for Himself?
*** How were some supposedly human beings in the Bible able to live 500 - 900 plus years?
*** As a sign of real faith we can safely, virtuously pick up snakes and drink poison...??? Why is this good?
*** Why opposite heroes/villains for the same events (Moses vs. Aaron)?
*** How two of every animal on Earth on an Ark ... many of whom could never have existed in that part of the World and all of whom wouldn't fit in that region, let alone on any ship ever built??? Or maybe there were fewer animals then, and they have evolved and spread around the World... since Noah's day - (?6,000 years ago)?
*** Why the translation discrepancies? ...the Bible book-order variances?
*** How could any copies ever have been lost if they were God’s?

Do the inerrantists truly mean that though God dictated the original/originals … would that be the whole thing at once or the different books at different times and, if so, why like that?… - and only to humans who could write and had the necessary materials who then NEVER ANYWHERE mentioned that God had done this and instead - IF THEY CLAIMED ANYTHING - claimed apostolic authorship, and who felt the need for councils in order to choose what to include? Was God absent when the originals/copies/copies of copies were lost; being included; being excluded; stored, hidden; found, etc.; when mistakes in copying were made; and was God likewise there or away for all those translations; and does God favor some languages over others? And if God did all this by Himself and never told anyone, then for what did He need scribes anyway? Why would He not have written the perfect Bible completely just once (He knows everything) and in everyone’s heart – EVERYONE? Why are there people who do not have any knowledge of the Bible? Can’t read? And what does “in the fullness of time” mean if we aren’t learning more as we go along? ...Why otherwise have we been given the power of reason and such a long history in which to use it and to increase in our understanding?

But, above all else, doesn't the Bible's being written by humans inspired by the God of history, make it far more miraculous and important than if it really were inerrant, and we had to believe and make sense of all of it all the time? Imagine the faith that was required of those who wrote it down and who preserved it and who kept in the other writings that they didn't understand in their time or with which they didn't agree BECAUSE they believed that everyone who was writing believed themselves to have been inspired by God. Isn't it better to be finding the truth we require and can in our own time understand in the Bible, being inspired by it of our own faith-led accord? Isn't that IN FACT "justification by faith?" We know the truth is there - however humanly produced it was, and we will find the truth we need if we have and practice our faith.

For example, I believe with all of my being that the Creation stories were inspired by God. No humans could possibly have, by themselves so long ago, conceived of things so differently from all other peoples – especially not the waves of creation in the 7 “days” part with its human-history-changing Sabbath and its requirement that all humans are equal in the requirement to observe it, and those "days" whose sequence is so eerily like the scientific understanding we now have from our God-given ability to understand, and which conception changed everything for all of human understanding. So instead of believing as did ALL other peoples back then that life was a cycle and that there were many gods, most of whom were amoral, we now understood that life exists in time; and ours is limited on Earth; we must honor Creation and the Creator and honor our families and all peoples in the Sabbath, and God expects every one of us to love each other and behave according to laws - that we are responsible for our actions and must believe in only one God. Nor was the Adam and Eve story anything but inspired and crucial to our faith. What the story-myth-wisdom of the Adam and Eve tale gives us is the ability to understand and accept our humanness. Even though we are made in God's image, we are not God, and we cannot be human and have free will without falling nor life without suffering and death.

The miracle Truth is that we have been and are always being called, led, nurtured and inspired by God and then in the fullness of time saw God on Earth, suffering far more than any of us ever did, loving us beyond anything anyone had ever before imagined. We can, therefore, love God back, get back to God. God calls us back endlessly, freely, equally - no one is less special, and getting ourselves into relationship with God is the job to which we are all called, which includes ever ongoing Bible study and reflecting theologically on all aspects of our lives, and taking care of each other and of all creation. What we are NOT called to do - NOT ALLOWED TO DO - is to judge each other (to "weed the garden").