I’ve been stewing on this topic now for a couple of days or more.
This post goes back to an email I received from an old buddy of mine named Ed. The email relayed the story of a little boy who goes back to his first day of school in a new school year. His puppy follows behind him without the little boy knowing about it all the way to school. The puppy goes so far as to follow him into the classroom. As soon as the puppy is discovered he is unceremoniously escorted out of the school. And now he sits outside the schoolhouse waiting for his master to return. While there a voice from the heavens says to the dog, “Don’t feel bad little dog, they won’t let me in the classrooms either.” The presentation in the email was a little more idyllic but I think you have the picture.
Well there are all kinds of ways to take that story. First, what a cute story and damn those bastards who wont let God into the classroom. I think that is the generally desired response or maybe the expected response. More or less a call for unity to reverse the unbearable oppression the heathens among us have imposed to keep God out of our classrooms.
Man, what a wimpy God this is. Now when I was learning my Catechism and learning about the nature of God I was told that God is all powerful and God is omnipresent. The God of this story must have gotten a Sampson like haircut because He would not be complaining to some dog about His inability to be in a classroom if He really were all powerful and omnipresent.
It is as spirit that He is everywhere, in heaven, earth and hell. Although it surpasses the understanding of creatures such as we are, who are limited and bound to material bodies, God Himself is present everywhere in His majesty and power….
So, by omnipresence we mean that God, in the totality of his essence, without diffusion or expansion, multiplication or division, penetrates and fills the universe and beyond in all its parts.
So what is all this about? Well this little story is code. What we don’t want to do is smack you right between the eyes with what we are talking about you might just reject the whole idea. So instead of making a logical appeal this is an emotional appeal. That way you don’t have to think about it quite so much. Basically, the people who are forwarding this are the same ones who want to have all the people at the football games say a prayer before the game. And if you don’t say a prayer at one of these games you stick out worse than Mitt Romney at a Baptist Convention.
The story insinuates that we are all of one belief or should be and there is no good reason for keeping God out of our classrooms. Again this assumes God has a wimpy nature and needs us mere mortals to bring Him/Her back into the classroom. But a real God, an all powerful God an omnipresent God is already there. So my position is do not support a wimpy God who relies on us to assure His/Her presence in the classroom. And this story is just the tip of the iceberg of what they are really trying to sell.
Next thing you know these same people will tell you this is a Christian nation. I wonder what purpose of theirs doing that serves?
Have you ever noticed that when you have someone approach you wanting to tell you about their religious beliefs, they will seldom have much patience listening to your ideas if you were to reverse the tables?
I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his
creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own — a God, in short, who
is but a reflection of human frailty. -Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel
laureate (1879-1955)
