a hymn of thanksgiving

I’m thankful this morning we live in a country that can find its own way. I’m thankful we live in a country where the people are smart enough to govern themselves and will eventually do the right thing.

Sometimes I’m a little disappointed that we put the wrong people in power and that the special interests who put them there take it as their authorization to meld everyone into their own mindset. I’m thinking today specifically of Dubya and his many followers in the religious right. They have chosen to re-create us all in their own image, much as God did when he created man in Genesis.

I guess it’s pretty easy to agree with them when they talk about leading their lives according to the good book, and not to kill, to steal or to hate. We could all strive to live by that creed. We’ve all known Christians we could look up to and to whom we could aspire to lead our lives by their example.

Unfortunately, history is a littered with the corpses of the victims of Christians and other monotheists who used the symbol of the cross of Jesus or the Qur’an as their license to hate, steal and kill.

It seems as if Dubya and his followers have gotten more conservative in their emulation of their model, Osama Bin Laden. The truth is that they will never be more focused in the pursuit of their conservative ideals and the worship of their God as Osama is, because we are Americans and our constitution prevents it. Plus that, why would anyone want to be like Osama, anyway? He’s a jerk.

Sure, Osama’s religion puts women in a subservient role just as that of the Christian right. Osama hates gays just as much as they do. Osama is just as opposed to modern thought and new ideas as they are. The difference is that Osama really believes that the life we live is just a temporary detour on the way to the afterlife. We believe we are here for a reason and we plan to make the most of our time on this earth.

If you want to know why I am thankful today, it is because I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I can see the evidence that at least a few people are trying to differentiate us from Osama and are distancing themselves from the religious right. Earlier this month, voters in Dover, Pennsylvania, voted out their school board, which was championing “intelligent design.” It happened on the same day the Kansas Board of Education approved new standards ensuring intelligent design will be taught in Kansas. I guess you could say, win some; lose some. When it came down to it, however, the people of Dover decided that in the final analysis, when we put morality and beliefs on the line, that we are not going to put our children at a disadvantage by not allowing them to be exposed to modern thought. A year of two from now, the voters of Kansas will come to the same conclusion and make the same decision.

Pat Robertson went on record suggesting the people of Dover turned their backs on God and God would do the same to them, if they ever needed him. I think Pat Robertson is as appropriate a spokesman for God as Osama Bin Laden is. If there is a God, I would like to think he would turn his back on Pat Robertson or Osama long before he would desert his people in Dover. But, there I go, putting words in God’s mouth, again.

Anyway, it’s Thanksgiving, 2005, and I hope yours goes well.

Happy Thanksgiving.