Last week on July 13, a mural to George Floyd in Toledo, Ohio, was destroyed by a lightning strike. It didn’t take long for Christian leaders, you know the type, to come out and criticize Floyd’s memory and say it was an act of God.
Donald Trump Jr. said it. Tulsa area pastor Jackson Lahmeyer, who is also announced he’s running for U.S. Senate, also commented on it. And they have many followers on social media who agree with them.
It’s funny how Floyd was the spawn of Satan in the eyes of some people even though Christianity is supposed to be the religion for those who are looking to change their wayward ways at anytime in their lives.
They say church is a “hospital for sinners, not a hotel for saints.” Saul was blinded on the road to Damascus and reborn as Paul. On the cross, one of the criminals next to Jesus asked for forgiveness and was granted by J.C., himself, forgiveness and a place in heaven. And in the eyes of the Roman empire, it didn’t take much wrongdoing to find yourself up on the cross.
Floyd’s crime was passing a counterfeit bill that he may or may not know was counterfeit. Toxicology reports indicate he had fetanyl in his system but it wasn’t enough to kill him.
So, here’s Floyd’s sins – taking a painkiller and trying to pass a hybrid piece of paper that only is counterfeit because we say it is. And Floyd was taking painkillers.
Did he kill anyone? No.
Did he ever rape anyone? No.
Saul killed people, yet reborn as Paul, he is the model person of the Bible. He is representative of someone turning their life around when given the chance and opportunity.
It’s not our right to judge Floyd for any mistakes he made have made, but because he isn’t the right skin color, he is the face of evil in the eyes of millions.
And some of those millions spent their mornings earlier this Sunday preaching their hatred to those around them or in the congregation.
I haven’t been to a church service in 15 years. I’ve been to a few funerals, though, where the pastor trying to squeeze it in like a backdoor pilot. You think you’re paying your respects, but some guy (as it’s always a guy) goes off on some sermon that is totally irrelevant to the person lying in the casket.
The sad part is if this is the God these religious leaders are trying to make me and others pray to, they aren’t teaching togetherness but diversity. And I think that’s what they want. They want a race war. They want compliant African-American Christians who will follow their ways.
After the massacre at the church in Charleston, S.C. in 2015, I made a comment online that it was about skin color, not about religion. And wouldn’t you know it, one of the people commenting, who is African-American, was quick to disagree with me, telling me that he feels Dylann Roof target the church because it was about religion.
And every now and again, I’ll see comments from African-Americans on my more conservative friends’ social media that all sound the same. They all boil down to them saying, “Yadda-yadda-yadda, there is one true King.”
Organized “Christianity” has led to a crazy Stockholm Syndrome among non-white people.
What if this was a mural to Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Rush Limbaugh, or even Herman Cain? If lightning struck it, would they still say the same thing?
Of course not. They’re “good Christian people.” But a mural to Floyd is “worshipping false idol.”
It’s 2021 and less than half Americans identify as Christians or any other religion. I consider myself to be a Zen Buddhist pacifist. I was raised in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in a town that had more churches than you could count.
I don’t mind Christians and will defend their rights to worship, but what we’re seeing from some of these leaders is hatred, racism and hypocrisy.
And I turned my back on all religions when I was in college and I saw how the organizations targeted the students like a pedophile sitting at a playground park. I believe it was the First Baptist church in town whose parishioners would “adopt” students but expect them to do work around their homes. I once drove through a residential neighborhood and saw one of the more religious students sweating it in the tropical southern heat mowing someone’s lawn.
I believe people should help out but I know the people who lived there. And they could very easily mow their own lawn. This young man probably thought he was doing something righteous for the homeowners. And I don’t even know if he got a glass of iced lemonade for the effort.
I’m almost certain if the U.S. government took away the tax breaks for many of these religious figures, they’d stopping preaching overnight. “Christians” have become the symbol of everything they preach against – bigotry, hatred, prejudice, greed, and even lust.
And many younger people can see that. Maybe they’ll come a day when “Christian” leaders don’t spew their hatred and racism wanting to dominate every aspect of American life.
It may not happen in my lifetime, but maybe my prayer will be answered.
Zane Says 