A lesser man...

Teri Schiavo passed away today. At the same time, Jerry Falwell is on a ventilator and the Pope is being fed through a tube.

Take a moment to think about that. If Michael Schiavo, Judge Grier and a member of the Supreme Court were struck down with serious illnesses religious whack jobs would be jumping for joy and singing hymns. "See! God is punishing these evil men! He is punishing these evil men for disobeying his will".

But none of those people are sick. Instead, the Pope, Jerry Falwell and Teri Schiavo are (or were). A lesser man, a more bitter man, might point and scream "See! God is punishing these people! He is punishing these evil people for disobeying his will!". A lesser man would poke his finger repetitively into the chests of those sign waving, bible quoting, slack-jawed fundies and say "I guess we know who God wants dead now, don't we? You were wrong. There was no miracle. Your wailing and hate-speak did nothing.!!"

But the whole flipping the situation on its head thing doesn't really work here. Although not a Catholic, I generally respect the Pope and much of the work he has done over the years. And Teri was not being punished by God here, she's been released from years of suffering. And Jerry Falwell, well... He's a bloated warthog and I don't feel his passing will really big that big a loss except to those on his payroll.

Maybe the message here is a simple one. Maybe God is speaking to us but like a bad game of 'telephone', the message has gotten horribly garbled. Maybe he's simply reminding us that well all die. That's it. It is inevitable. It's how the system works. No prayers, no medical procedure and no amount of money can change it. We all go sometime. Will these people learn from this farce? Not likely. They'll just keep waving their signs and babbling on about morals and Gods will, which to me is pretty arrogant.

Anyone who says "I think I speak for GOD, when I say that..." is someone who is looking to cause trouble. Stay away from people like this. If God has something really important to say, he can damn well speak for himself using a freakin' pillar of divine fire.

Enjoy your weekend people. Go do something with you wife or husband. Turn off the TV. Go out in the yard and start cleaning out the dead leaves in the garden, there's new flowers just starting to peek out. The cycle starts again, just like its supposed to.