Just Saying...

There is no institution, no organization, no government agency, no brutal dictator that can force you to accept in your heart a false doctrine, an unjust, substandard lifestyle, an unlawful station in life, through bondage or captivity. They can bind your hands; they can chain your ankles, literally or metaphorically, but they cannot confine your spirit. No institution, organization, entity of any form can force you to accept and bow to any religious deity you do not personally know and accept. Here is a simple fact of life: a man is a man. He may call himself an official of some sorts, an authority of some capacity; he may very well be conferred, declared, ordained a cleric, a priest, minister, messenger, ambassador; he may in fact wear any of a myriad of titles available for purchase, through deed, service, or plastic card and internet account. However he presents himself to you, remember first and foremost, this person is, this person will always be, in the end, a simple ignorant, scared, confused, perhaps emotionally insecure, delusional, little man who will not live past the expectant years of any man on this Earth. There is no ‘supernatural’ presence; there is no ‘channeling’ messages from the Creator, there is no one whom has ever, nor will ever, ‘converse’ with the Creator, except by way of some hallucinogenic psychosis. The man can preach from an polished, teak emblemed political podium, or a simple cottonwood pulpit in a quaint country church; he can present himself in glorious robe in a Crystal Cathedral, or in a sharp blue pin stripe suit in a 16 thousand plus seat dome; he can even wave a blessing out of a window in his own city. He can claim to be ever he wishes, but he will always remain a man born of woman; nothing more, nothing less. And when he passes, and only when he passes, which he most definitely will do, his final destiny will be known. Not a minute, not a second before. Not to any of us, only to himself. So ponder this if you will: how can a man who doesn't know his own fate, tell you what your fate will be? How can a man who depends on your charity tell you how to live long and prosper? My advice? Don’t listen to a man ready to condemn you to eternal damnation due to non-belief in any particular deity, religious business, or certain ecclesiastical order, for that man will most certainly precede you to Hell. There are no men of God, only men who trust in God; and sometimes, I wonder just how many of those there really are.