Senseless Sayings

To me, there are some commonly used sayings that sound good at first but make no sense once you think deeply about them.

For example, I recently heard someone (a fundamentalist) speak about the gay community. I always cringe and bristle when somebody says, “I love the sinner but hate the sin.”

That’s terribly judgmental. Whoever said that just being who you are, especially sexually, was a sin? Only homophobes that flock to homophobic “religions” to justify their prejudices, that’s who. What this trite platitude really means is that until you “convert” to heterosexuality, you’re lower than dirt.

I often think that sexual orientation would be a nonissue if religions practiced agape and accepted everyone unconditionally. As a Follower of Jesus, that is the foundation stone of my faith.

Another horrific piece of double talk is “God will never give you more than you can handle.” Huh?

What about all the folks who committed suicide or took drugs because their “god” gave them more than they could handle?

God doesn’t give us anything. Due to free will, some folks take on more than they can handle and eventually can’t take any more.

I also dislike the saying “Jesus died for me.” That is silly, and it makes his so-called Father a monster and child abuser. Sane people don’t have their son murdered because I sinned. Paul pushed that nonsense ad nauseam.

Jesus died because he threatened the hierarchy. I can relate—I’ve been fired twice because I threatened insecure clergymen. Fortunately, crucifixion wasn’t in vogue in 1988, or one of those clergymen probably would have put me on a cross.

I keep hearing that God has a divine plan for me. I think it’s the institutional church that has a “divine” plan—to control me. I believe that grown people should make their own plans about how to live life to the fullest.

The only book I have threw away after perusing was Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life. The book was really saying that your life would only be purposeful if you did what Rick said.

I can’t find a verse anywhere in the Bible that suggests that institutions should dominate my life, even though most want to.

I don’t understand the saying “God bless you.” The hairs on my neck stand up when I hear that silly platitude. Whose god is supposed to bless me, and why? I don’t want Vice President Pence’s god to bless me. I despise his god.

My favorite unfavorite saying came from the Reverend Fred Phelps, who was infamous for showing up at pro-LGBTQUI events and military funerals (his god supposedly had soldiers killed because our laws respect gays) with big signs saying “God hates fags.” No, Fred hated gays, so he invented a god who agreed. I think that maybe Fred hated the LGBTQUI community so intensely because he was gay, and the only way he could hide his true sexual orientation was to lash out at other gay people.

Do you know any senseless sayings?

Image courtesy of Burstein! (CC BY 2.0)

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