A Huge Fan Of God

To the Editor:

I am a huge fan of God

I believe reference to Him should stay in the pledge. I hope they keep Her on our money.

Mostly I hope He stays in our lives as the inspiration for love, for peace, for truth, and equality for all peoples.

Recently, I received an email featuring a “Crying Eagle” — with one eye covered with a graphic of the American flat — dripping a tear onto text which says, in effect, “If 86 percent of Americans believe in God, why is there an issue about keeping reference to ‘One nation under God’ in our pledge and ‘In God We Trust’ on our currency?”

Beats me. But it sure sounds political, like almost everything else nowadays. In 1960, JFK declared emphatically that neither the Pope nor the Catholic Church would inform his decisions as president — and that was the end of that discussion. Separation of church and state and all that constitutional stuff. I, for one, long for the good old days when these lines were not blurry; when Americans felt empowered to pray to God, in their own way, and feel the personal and private pleasure of their communion with the Lord. People throughout the world did likewise — in their own language in cathedrals, churches, and chapels; temples or synagogues; mosques, mandirs, stupas, wats, or pagodas; on beaches or mountaintops and in forests.

Wherever that worship took place and by whatever name used to refer to God, She is the same throughout the universe. He does not favor Bush over Osama or Bishop Tutu over me or you. Mother Teresa, my mom, John Lennon and, yes, Hitler — I believe all that souls wind up at the table of the Lord. So will Arafat when he dies and Mattie Stepanek, that miraculous child-poet-13-year old mouthpiece for courage and commitment who died a few months ago.

(The only one I’m not sure about is Cheney?)

God is God, just like the sun is the sun, the moon is the moon, and oceans are oceans. They are just there and we choose how to use or regard them. One can be warmed and soothed by the sun — or burn to death on the desert; be reassured by the sound of the surf and the predictability of the tides — or drown miserably while thrashing in vain in a sea storm.

But God is pure love. Not hate, nor revenge, and certainly not fear…and there is a certain logic to the universe.

Fear is where we are now. Terror is an extreme form of fear. Fear is the opposite of love. God is pure love; therefore fear is the opposite of God. We are now in the position opposite to what God seems to have intended for us…

This president may claim God is speaking through him — but God is speaking through everybody! Bush — and many others — just aren’t listening, or are hearing only what they want to hear…saying they trust God, but telling us to embrace fear; saying they believe in God, but denying that God is on everybody’s side, not just certain privileged or chosen Americans…

In my eyes, God is like an ideal parent who has given us everything we need to make choices in life; but She is uninvolved in the choices much in the same way a parent is unconcerned when a child goes to play in the yard about whether the child is playing tag or hide ‘n’ seek. If the child scrapes a knee or bumps his head, parents are there to minister to him. Same with God. If we lose our way or make an unfortunate choice (for instance the one we just made in this election), then we have to live with the ramifications of that choice; but He always leaves the door open for change. And we are advised always to keep our door (hearts?) open to let love in…

But we are scurrying like roaches in a sudden light; judging, despite God’s own warning about not judging (“Judge not lest ye be judged”) — and playing Orwell’s game from Animal Farm, where “everyone’s equal, but some are more equal than others…”

Why do we have wars? Because we haven’t learned lessons from previous wars. Why do we run into the same problems in our lives over and over again? Because we fail to act as if we believe that God has endowed us with the tools to correct our mistakes; to learn from them and move on, empowered with knowledge and experience to balance our faith in the Almighty.

For a “just” God, there’s no “us” and “them” … there’s just “us” … and like most “glorious” civilizations, which are no longer around, we, too, will self-destruct from the inside because we end up worshipping bogus power and embracing prepackaged fear. A pity … but not God’s problem.

We can thank God any time — because I truly believe God recognizes gratitude. But to blame God? To try to align oneself with God against an enemy — or against a friend with a different opinion or approach? That would be like trying to grab the moon’s reflection in a quiet pond. All one’s efforts would merely distort the image and disturb the natural beauty and stillness of the water but, once it settled, the reflection would still be there exactly the same — and we would still be coming up empty.

Michael Luzzi

173 Boggs Hill Road, Newtown                            November 10, 2004