Blog 1443 – 09.01.2019

How Far Is It Fair Looking Back For Dirt Or Why

A Lot Of Guilt Religions Do Not Believe in Evolution

Wow, that is a long title for probably what will end up being a very short blog. But I hope an important, well thought out, and well written one, always the aim of theencouragingword.co author, little ole me.

There is in the U.S. a law and as well in other countries, a thing called the statute of limitations. The dictionary says the term dates back to 1760-1770. That is a long time ago even for an older guy like me who’s most vivid memories date back barely one decade passed the nineteen sixties. The term comes from two hundred years earlier.

What statute of limitations means is that we put a limit on things for which you can be tried in a court of law. Sadly, this is not true in the court of public opinion. Which is why so many in public life must live in constant fear of youthful indiscretions and just bad judgements and actions being brought to light. Why are we so hard on others and ourselves? I believe a lot of it stems from what I call “guilt religions.”

I have heard these lines several times in books and movies, “Do you know how awful guilt is? Oh, yes we were raised on it.” And the one answering usually names a particular religion. I will not, for they are mostly all the same to me, heavy on judgement, condemnation, guilt, and short on love and forgiveness, no matter how loudly they may profess the last two in their credos. These guilt religions, all if not most of them, do not believe in evolution or change, which is why they point to some mythical time in the past as the golden age and try to hold on to it (Say the 1950(s) but, I lived through them and and they were not so magical especially if you were poor or a person of color – any color other than flush with green) or they envision and focus on a “Sweet by and by” to the exclusion of helping to straighten out the “nasty now and now.”

They say that God is a God of love and at the same time that She/He has an eternal burning lake of fire ready for all His/Her erring and disobedient children (both of whom we are and you do not have to look back that far to find proof) is an oxymoron to beat them all for God is neither a fool nor a schizophrenic. I believe that God is love and so are we when we are in our right minds and on our best behavior. What do you say we give ourselves and others a little break and let the statute of limitations run out at least at seven times seven years plus one to grow on. That is fifty years for you math challenged folk – the golden year of jubilee when hallelujah we are free of debt and guilt too. Now that is a religion that we could all get behind.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White