‘Me and the whip and that day at the temple’

God it’s sad how church has stuffed up and shut down the minds of so many people who wanted to change the world.

They still could.

Really?? You’re joking, right?

Not at all, but carry on, we’ll get to that later.

Well I used to think that Marx, or whoever said that ‘Religion is the opiate of the masses’ was somehow evil, but it’s getting harder and harder to hide from the truth of what he said. So many amazing human minds shut down by what organised Christianity has taught them are your thoughts, and yet are clearly not.

Mmmm. Dangerous.

Talking with you is.

Yes it is, but are you sure you’re up for that?

Today yes. Every now and then I’ve had enough, you know?

I do know. Remember the story about me and the whip and the temple.

Bad day at church?

Bad day.

Well for me, somedays, I want to roar and shake loose from the concepts and rules that tell me you won’t talk to me unless I’m good. Concepts that come from the Accuser and not the Defender.

A whole lot of shaking going on in that mind of yours, Mark.

Hah! Well, what got it shaking this morning was I was on the Exercycle and watching the Elon Musk doco about ‘Return to Space’.

Inspiring?

Very, and at the end of the doco David Bowie’s song, ‘Star Man’ was playing.

Great song.

I wish you wouldn’t comment like that so quickly, so humanly about stuff you’re not supposed to say — it makes you sound so accessible, too much so.

What’s wrong with that?

Christianity spent a whole generation worshiping people who told us rock music was satanic.

Hey, everyone makes mistakes.

Ok, true, but about David Bowie’s song, ‘Star Man'.

Great song.

Yes, you said. :)

Good then, we’re agreed :)

What I wanted to say was that when it was playing this morning I got to thinking that I love it when incredible musos and poets like Bowie, people who organised Christianity insists on calling ‘Non-Christians’, write songs that give such an accurate insight to you. It’s kind of refreshing.

Why refreshing?

It’s nice to be reminded that truth isn’t the property of the Church, thank God!

Why, ‘Thank God’?

Well, imagine if it was, we’d probably all feel compelled to do what they told us.

Not such a nice thought I agree, but like I said, everyone makes mistakes.

Ok, but just like you were comfortable in the world, you weren’t prissy, and you were hated by the church of your day, well… I was thinking that truth is often like that today — not prissy and often hated by the religious and churchified. Hope you don’t mind me saying.

Sad but true. Talk more about the song.

Well it made me think that us blimmen Christians dismiss some of the greatest talents of our age because they don’t go to church or are part of the rock culture or some other such bigoted nonsense.

And to express such a thought invites all kinds of anger and insult. There are so many who think just like I do, and yet the ruckus you get from the churchified is such a pain.

Go on, express some of those thoughts.

Here?

Why not.

Ok, well, another song which is such an amazing introduction to what the dark one is up to, is the Rolling Stone’s ‘Sympathy for the Devil’. Us Christians are such wimps that because the title of the song scares us and the Stones are meant to be evil (they’re just people for goodness sakes) we scream horror at the song but never listen to the lyrics, never hunt for any truth that might be lurking between the lines.

Truth often lies hidden between the lines. Generations of pastors and leaders have taken scripture at face value and never asked me to explain the real truth in what is written.

When I was in my teens Larry Norman had a whole album dedicated to songs by ‘worldly’ artists like Randy Newman, Leon Russell, The Stones, Jackson Brown and so many other great talents… Larry acknowledged they were all more masters of their craft, more genius than he and the other lauded Christian musicians.

Larry was also given to dangerous comment.

Dangerous as in wrong??

Judge for yourself, but remember, John the Baptist, Peter, Paul and so many others were dangerous.

Ok, well, the thing I always loved about Larry’s album was how he braved the opinions of the anti-rock church and put together an album of those ‘non-christian’ ‘worldly’ greats who spoke of you in a raw and honest way. Larry argued their songs were streams of white light into darkened corners, and I have always thought he was right.

Yes, you Christians think you have a mandate on truth but you don’t. You’ve read where it says, ‘I am the way, the truth…

Everyone has.

But you’ve missed something.

Missed what?

It’s talking about me, not you. I am the truth, not you, and not your organised Christianity, some of what you tell people is very true of course, but not by any means all of it.

Now it’s you who’s being dangerous.

Nothing’s changed. Remember when you went to that service in the Mormon church?

Yes, my mormon friends invited me, they were nice people, but I hid my car in case my Christian friends saw it outside :(

Understandable, you Christians are more judgemental than almost any other group. You’ve been killing each other over doctrinal disagreements for thousands of years — but what did you suddenly understand when you walked into the Mormon church.

You were there, I could feel you.

But you didn’t want to feel it, go on admit it.

You’re right, i’d been taught you didn’t go to their church.

People in every church think I don’t go to the others, it’s true of every single one of them because it’s true of human nature. Humans have always been suspicious of people who aren’t like them. Christians have just turned that silly thought into what they pretend is righteousness.

But I was there at that Mormon church, just like you thought I was. Those people are just like everyone else, trying to find me. You people, all of you, need to stop trying to run the world and control everyone’s behaviour and just start enjoying a conversation with me. Let me worry about the world, it would be a lot better for your health. Or do you think you know better than me?