In the recent decade, there is no hiding that the so-called Conservatives in the Western World had been gearing up their cultural war against all those who do not share the same values with them.
I personally found it extremely disturbing with this current generation of Conservatives, who are basically about persecuting people through wit and organised, sometimes criminal, manner to ‘conserve’ their so called good old days lifestyle. For me, this is selfish and anti-social. But for those self-proclaimed God loving oppressors, this is their right.
I am not against faith. Far from it. I have one, and I don’t believe in I have to explain to others why I have one. But if someone else is interested, and if someone is in a situation that I think my faith would help him or her, then I will talk about it. But this is my faith. I believe in it, it helps me, and I see that at the right time it can help others. However, I never impose my faith on others. What I believe in has no relevance to other people if they are hell bent on not believing in it. And that is not a problem for me. For that’s the ultimate form of religious freedom – you are free to believe and you are free to not believe. Religious freedom in a society should never be the freedom of only believing in what you believe in, and imposing it on others. Some people, fellow faith bearers or not, may think that my way in practicing my faith is very isolated and unhealthy, but I am fine with it. It is my relationship with God, if I have inner peace through it, then who is it to question my relationship with God from a worldly manner? I called this my personal faith.
That said I am not against sharing your faith or experience in your faith with other people sharing your own faith. Peer support, when available is always great. And a lot of people found their soul mates through their peer support circle, which I think is also great. But for me, it has to be no pressure. It is not about fitting in. It is not about judging other people based on your system of belief in your faith. It is about truthful support without an agenda because you shared a set of belief system. It should be enriching, caring and comfortable. I called this a form of faith collective faith.
However, during my years in my faith, organised faith is the form that is most subject to eating inside out and corruption. Not that I have witnessed any corruption at my church, which I think is a great church, but I did witnessed politics for the sake of politics, and sometimes in the disguise of devotion to God. I tried not to get myself into the core administration or management of the church. I had witnessed things that I did not like. So, I am glad that I moved overseas when I got gradually travelated to that part of the organisation. Since then, I had been careful to involve but not get too involved. Some people think that this is selfish, I saw that as self-preservation for my faith without disrespecting the church that I want to keep my respect for.
However, nowadays, we have seen waves of politicians destroying democracy under the disguise of faith, while claiming to be the protector of democracy. The Republican Party in the US, in my opinion, is now nothing but an ugly shell filled by corruption and self-interests, no matter how much they talked up about God in their lives. If they truly believe in God, why would they not care about lives of kids who were born, but foetuses that were not even considered as life yet scientifically? When it comes to abortion rights, God and Christianity is the beacon they lit. When it comes to gun control, it becomes their right to own arms over God and Christianity. If they are truly Christians, do they remember Jesus had said, ‘No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other, Ye cannot serve God and mammon.’ (Matthew 6:24) The National Rifle Association (NRA) holds a huge sum of donations to these politicians, so these politicians want to have the donation keep coming by protecting the NRA and forfeiting gun controls, while at the same time they openly proclaimed they are God loving when kids got gunned down at school? Am I the only one seeing this stinking hypocrisy here?
In Australia, I considered the last decade of government a dark age for the Australian society because of the over zealous invasion of Fake Christianity in our government ranks. Their insistence to use tax payer money to finance church schools that do not pay tax, and forcing their ‘Christian values’ on the public, while committing repeated acts of corruption that they regarded as their God bestowed rights, are some of the worst things I have seen in this so-called organised faith onslaught of our country. I respect the outcome of the election but I do not respect this so-called government, that tried to do bad things to the society in the name of God. These politicians probably believe in their sins will be cleansed as they enter the church every Sunday, treating the church as their weekly Sin-Wash like their cars going through the car washing machine, and that really made me feel sick to the stomach.
I am glad that it is for the time being over. But we cannot be complacent. For organised faith in the form of Fake Christianity are like cockroaches. They will never die and will always seek a comeback.
Personal faith is great for me, especially for my mental and social health. Collective faith is good when it is selfless support. However, organised faith must always be treated with care. For you never knew who has the dark agenda, and who wants to be the dictator of such faith that killed off all opposite voices. Organised faith is great in its purest form, but how often could it stay pure when it involves so many people?
