I am fascinated with bad religion. As a minister I see people trying to make sense of their lives with duct tape and a prayer. Most have the sense not to say it out loud, but when life isn’t working out, religion can become a kind of self-induced insanity. I would guess George Zimmerman didn’t mean to say that God wanted Treyvon dead. What he was probably trying to say is that nothing happens without a reason, and that he would accept what is happening to him. But such religion assumes a self centered narrative that gives us an ungodly arrogance in the name of God. It makes the believer the center of the story, and the rest of us become props. It also assumes a passivity that amounts to renouncing responsibility for our acts. It is a great gift to the world to purge such bad religion from our hearts and heads. If we do not do purge our thinking in good times, the insanity of bad religion will take hold of our minds when times get bad.
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