My friend, Kate Wilker at her blog Cozy Seaside Homstead, wrote a column last Thursday called Prejudice.  In her column, Kate quotes Gladys Taber.  In Ms. Tabor’s book, The Stillmeadow Road, Tabor writes:
I suppose prejudice is the worst sin of mankind.  Why do we feel we are superior to anyone . . . This is a mystery to me . . . Most religions preach the brotherhood of man, few people practice it.

I suppose if you were searching my blog for a theme, something my blog reflects on regularly, it would be this:
That *I* (emphasis on I) think religion has become about exclusion.  I’ll even back up my theory with facts:
–The Catholic religion excludes women.
–Many religions exclude gay men and women.

Is this what Jesus taught?  Exclusion?  I don’t believe that and I sincerely think that if MOST people looked within their hearts, within their souls, they would agree.  The challenge IS that religion today has been taught to the masses for so long that it becomes difficult to remove the chaff from the grain, to see the forest for the trees.  Essentially, (and here’s where I could get into some trouble;) we’ve been brainwashed.  We’ve heard for so long certain people are not worthy.  Isn’t that the whole gist of religion today?

That ONLY a few select people will be allowed into Grace?  Rob Bell, wrote a book called:
Love Wins about this very topic.  Bell disputes the fact that God would create all of humanity in a loving gesture and then save only a select number.  I ask the same question.
Why?

I choose to believe God is NOT prejudiced.
I choose to believe God will eventually set the scales in balance.  Notice I used the word choose.  Everything is a choice.

You can choose to be good.
You can choose to be bad.

You can choose to exclude.
You can choose to include.

You can choose to be positive.
You can choose to be negative.

What do you choose?

Thanks to Kate Wilker for the inspiration for this column.

I’ll leave you with one more thought:
Some; in religious circles, call what I’m talking about here Universalism.  They use that word in a negative connotation.  What’s negative about:

loving everybody?
Including everybody?

That’s what religion SHOULD be about, shouldn’t it?

Be Happy!  Be Well!  Be Positive!
Blessings to you.
—
Chris