For many of us in our community the spectre of religion is fraught with so many complex and deeply felt emotions.
Organised religions and public morality have in the last hundred or so years marginalised gay people and creating pariahs out of us. This has resulted in ostracization from the church, our communities and often our families as well. Social stigma and norms have created alienation for many of us, being excommunicated, shunned and excluded from the family unit.
This feeling of isolation from our society has resulted in so much heartache and as a result feelings of low esteem and even suicide. There are those of us of course that have been incredibly lucky and who have been embraced by our communities and families and even our religions. We have created our own communities, families and religious organisations.
There has also been many of our community who turn to religion as an escape mechanism from the stigma felt by the shunning of their communities. Denying our homosexuality and forcing us deeper into the proverbial closet, or to undergo conversion therapy at the behest of their religious organisation. This results in years of self-loathing and unhappiness and perhaps only allowing our true selves to emerge years later if ever.
Personally, I look at many people in our community with a sense of great pride, when they manage to live their lives to the fullest and contributing members of society and creating wholesome relationships in all spheres of their lives.
Recently I came across the following discussion between Albert Einstein and various groups of university students across the United States. The following recurring question kept coming up and I believe his answer is very relevant to those of us who are struggling to integrate religion with our lifestyle.
The recurring question that students asked him most was: “Do you believe in God?”
And he always answered: “I believe in the God of Spinoza.”
Baruch de Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher considered one of the great rationalists of 17th century philosophy.
Spinoza had the following to say about does God exist. God would say:
“Stop praying. What I want you to do is go out into the world and enjoy your life. I want you to sing, have fun and enjoy everything I’ve made for you.
Stop going into those dark, cold temples that you built yourself and saying they are my house. My house is in the mountains, in the woods, rivers, lakes, beaches. That’s where I live and there I express my love for you.
Stop blaming me for your miserable life; I never told you there was anything wrong with you or that you were a sinner, or that your sexuality was a bad thing. Sex is a gift I have given you and with which you can express your love, your ecstasy, your joy. So don’t blame me for everything they made you believe.
Stop reading alleged sacred scriptures that have nothing to do with me. If you can’t read me in a sunrise, in a landscape, in the look of your friends, in your son’s eyes… you will find me in no book!
Stop asking me “will you tell me how to do my job?” Stop being so scared of me. I do not judge you or criticize you, nor get angry, or bothered. I am pure love.
Stop asking for forgiveness, there’s nothing to forgive. If I made you… I filled you with passions, limitations, pleasures, feelings, needs, inconsistencies… free will. How can I blame you if you respond to something I put in you? How can I punish you for being the way you are, if I’m the one who made you? Do you think I could create a place to burn all my children who behave badly for the rest of eternity? What kind of god would do that?
Respect your peers and don’t do what you don’t want for yourself. All I ask is that you pay attention in your life, that alertness is your guide.
My beloved, this life is not a test, not a step on the way, not a rehearsal, nor a prelude to paradise. This life is the only thing here and now and it is all you need.
I have set you absolutely free, no prizes or punishments, no sins or virtues, no one carries a marker, no one keeps a record.
You are absolutely free to create in your life. Heaven or hell.
I can’t tell you if there’s anything after this life, but I can give you a tip. Live as if there is not. As if this is your only chance to enjoy, to love, to exist.
So, if there’s nothing after, then you will have enjoyed the opportunity I gave you. And if there is, rest assured that I won’t ask if you behaved right or wrong, I’ll ask. Did you like it? Did you have fun? What did you enjoy the most? What did you learn?…
Stop believing in me; believing is assuming, guessing, imagining. I don’t want you to believe in me, I want you to believe in you. I want you to feel me in you when you kiss your beloved, when you tuck in your little girl, when you caress your dog, when you bathe in the sea.
Stop praising me, what kind of egomaniac God do you think I am?
I’m bored being praised. I’m tired of being thanked. Feeling grateful? Prove it by taking care of yourself, your health, your relationships, the world. Express your joy! That’s the way to praise me.
Stop complicating things and repeating as a parakeet what you’ve been taught about me.
What do you need more miracles for? So many explanations?
The only thing for sure is that you are here, that you are alive, that this world is full of wonders.”
Now whilst this may not fit with many of the traditional religious instruction and dogma we have been brought up with. It may resonate with one or two of us who have struggled to find the serenity and peace and indeed comfort. Perhaps the uncertainty and at times self-loathing that our religious backgrounds have brought us in the past, this treatise may provide us with a new path and a new journey of discovery.
The following meme I saw recently sums it all up for me.
Jesus is talking to his followers and he says the following: “Love one another!”
His followers shout out, “what about the sinners, the gays the adulterers, the Muslims, the Jews?”
Jesus responds: “Did I stutter!”
Love one another and above all have fun.
Source: Gay Pages Summer 2023
