This ‘Liberal’ is Not ‘Godless’

By Mary MacElveen

June 15, 2006

I thought I would answer a certain someone back that believes that liberals are ‘Godless’ without mentioning her name since I really do not care at this point what her opinion of liberals is.

For this person to say that of liberals are ‘Godless’ is breaking the ninth commandment which states “Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness” I would not say of a conservative person that they are ‘Godless’ because I know several conservative people that are doing God’s work here on Earth.

Many of us that are liberal wonder where we get the energy day after day to combat the true evil that lives amongst us. In my opinion, it is God Himself.  I think what He is saying to all of us is that someone must do the work here on Earth and do so with free will.

And speaking of free will, God created man with it, and in my opinion free will means dissent pure and simple.  It means having a mind to think and speak out when things do not add up.  It means that we do have the power coming from God to speak out against mortal men if we see that they are not doing God’s work here on Earth.

I bet you anything that this person believes that all should accept the totalitarian power coming from one man named George W. Bush and accept what he says as gospel.  Isn’t that like worshipping a false god?

Also, God did create the human race to live with free will so if someone chooses not to believe in God, we must respect that.  If they are being true to themselves as well as others, I think that God would be pleased with that.

God demands from each and every one of us to reveal the truth when we see a lie being told.  Those that tell lies on a consistent basis, are not true believers in God and by doing so, they have sinned.

God demands of us all to speak out when we see the slaughter of innocent human beings and done in the name of greed.  Greed is yet another sin.

God demands of us all to protect this beautiful planet that He gave to us as a gift.  If you receive a birthday or Christmas present, do you automatically destroy it?  No, you protect it, value it and say thank you for this wonderful gift.  Earth is our gift and as its caretakers, we do the same to God by protecting it, seeing its value and saying thank you to Him for its sheer beauty.

When we see someone in need, do we walk away?  No, we do not and that is what God expects coming from all of us.

Below are some things I want all of you to think of.

God being the all mighty can take on many forms and would we mere humans be able to recognize Him as He walked amongst us?  I really do not think so.

When President Bush received the warnings prior to September 11^th, 2001 and did nothing with them—Could God have been in the Twin Towers, the Pentagon or that field in Pennsylvania?  Were those warnings God’s message to Bush to act on them instead of ignoring them?

There has been much debate on both sides concerning the Iraq war and how President Bush lied to start such an invasion.  I do seem to remember when the late Pope John Paul II stated to him, “You go without God” So, as those bombs of Shock and Awe rained down upon a defenseless Iraqi people—Could God have been amongst one of those innocent victims who were either killed or maimed?  Is God still alive in Iraq and Afghanistan waiting for reason to take hold of this government?  Is God one of our soldiers who have been sent off to their untimely deaths?  Think about this.  Did God approve the slaughter in Haditha?  Was He one of its victims?

Also this war in Iraq goes against these commandments and one is “Do not commit murder” It also states of this commandment “Killing an innocent human being is a capital sin.” As we have seized Iraqi oil another commandment comes to mind “Do not steal” As we hold detainees without due process another part of this commandment comes to mind “do not kidnap" By stating that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction when he did not, yet another commandment was broken which states “Do not testify as a false witness against your neighbor.”

Just imagine if you will God has taken the form of a senior citizen within this country that is dependent upon Social Security in order to survive.  Are we passing the test to help God survive on so little?

God has just come down with a debilitating disease and is prescribed medications that He just cannot afford.  So here we are the wealthiest nation in the world for now who are turning their backs on God. Now He must choose between taking these lifesaving medications and eating.  We have even stopped God from getting low cost medications from a neighboring country known as Canada.

Just suppose you are walking down a street in New York City or any other big city and you see a homeless man or even woman.  I think God could come back as a woman to see how the other half lives.  Are you annoyed at God as He puts His cup out for some spare change?  Do you pass to the other side of the street when you see Him?  You may not recognize Him in this Earthly form, but God works in mysterious ways.

Perhaps you are a brilliant surgeon and one that is renowned in the surgery you practice.  A patient comes to you where you see they will need an expensive surgery but this patient does not have health insurance—do you turn this patient away even though it may be God?

You are an elected official and one of your constituents writes you a pleading letter to help him in some small way and you send him back a form letter saying, “Thank you for contacting me and bringing this situation to my attention” and as you send that letter off you know all too well, you will not do anything about it.  Is God the one who sent you that letter?  Have you just turned your back on God?    Does this sound familiar, President Bush? I decided to single him out since he wears God on his sleeve. Other elected officials in both parties are just as guilty.

God has now taken the form of a child who is thirsty from a full day of activity and goes for a drink of water—is that water safe to drink as the EPA relaxed the restrictions on dumping sewage into our waterways a while back? By doing this, the Bush administration may have just poisoned God.

There are liberal leaders that do walk on the side of the angels in protecting Mother Earth and one of those leaders is Al Gore who produced “An Inconvenient Truth” He did so, because he has always heard God cry out. While Bush wears God on his sleeve yet does nothing to protect this planet, Al Gore is doing God’s work here on Earth.

There was another outstanding liberal leader in the late Senator Paul Wellstone whose sole purpose as an elected official was to make sure that everyone was included and no one excluded.  He did not discriminate, and I know that he is in Heaven today sitting along side God.  That was his reward for his selfless duty to God.

There are other liberal leaders that do believe in promoting peace through non-violence which is called diplomacy.  Promoting peace also means treating our neighbors around the world as human beings and seeing them that way.  I only wish that there were more of them.  Just imagine if you will if they were leading us, how pleased God would be with all of us.

As a liberal, I do believe that God calls upon us all to spend what monies we have in feeding the poor instead of bombing the innocent.  As we see so many dying of starvation in Dafur are we not being selfish and greedy as we spend billions more to defense contractors?

Yes, I am a liberal and proud of it.  I feel at ease in speaking of God since before each and every column I do write, I pray to God for inspiration.  I pray to Him to give me the strength and power to speak out.  I do not think that He has ever let me down.  I may get angry responses from time to time, but I look upon those as tests coming from Him to see if I continue on.

In the past, I have received emails asking for help, while I am not able to help them physically; I do so through writing of their plight.  I received an email from someone that was at the end of his rope due to his Social Security payments being cut and even thought of suicide.  He had a gun and was ready to blow out his brains.  I wrote of his plight and through my words in a previous column said to him to get professional help.  He did not commit suicide.

As a non-paid writer as opposed to this person being paid millions to spread hate, my reward is a clear conscience.  That can also be said of other non-paid writers that have the courage to speak out.

So, to the person that believes that I am ‘Godless’, I want to say that I am not and that is because He was here beside me as I have written this piece.  In fact, He is always with me.

To this person that believes other liberals like me are ‘Godless’ that is not the case as I have witnessed them working selflessly on behalf of the poor and the powerless.