Blog's from the Bush

The first three I took a stab at in the first post... in this one I get onto the fourth question and I must warn you the language ratchets up a notch or two in this post.

What is its standing vs. the Church?
Well I guess its what you would call Anglican Light (I can't compare it to any other Church because I don't have the experience). That is to say, I agree with the Ten Commandments/Statements in the way I was taught as a child but the Anglican Church seems to have embellished them and it doesn't always sit well with me. Maybe I like things simple.

Which is why when I hear respected members of the Church community making up lies and distorting facts to suite the particular religious point of view I nearly go off the deep end and start thinking about being a Buddhist. At least people like the Dalai Lama (a significant leader, incase you weren't sure) can keep his faith and accept new facts even scientific ones. The interesting thing is that even a person who practises a religion of compassion and learning, ie. being prepared to accept a different set of facts and incorporate them - can still be slammed for changing his mind or position of different things. Isn't that what growth is about? Isn't that why we put forward our point of view, to change peoples minds/opinions? Or is it simply to have an argument and disrespect people?

Back to the Church, to top it all off I have big problems with the Church Bureaucracy or to put it bluntly - I have problems with the stupid, lying, philandering, hate mongering, sex-offending bastards that seem to turn up all the time in established religions (no matter how big or small). In some ways the difference between a cult and some of the larger religions is that in a cult everyone knows about the lying, cheating, sex-abusing leadership but live in denial. Whereas, some of the multi-billion dollar religions (yep they are worth that much) will hide their sins (and sinners for that matter) from their flock... and the flock genuinely places their trust in these people. Unfortunately until we have "The Light of Other Days" I don't think the problem will go away - wherever power and wealth accumulate, corruption follows even in the most devout people in our societies. Well I'm assuming they're devout, I mean you wouldn't become a member of the clergy(insert religion specific noun here) to deliberately rip people off or abuse the power entrusted to you? Would you?

Personally I would like the big religions to go the way of modern progressive governments, aim for small government - how you do this in a religion though I'm not sure... Small Government means providing basic services and therefore reducing taxes and letting society get on with it knowing that a safety net is there providing protection, law & order, education, health and protecting human rights. Everything else in a Small Government scenario is user-pays - so you get the heart by-pass but you don't get the you-bewt top-of-the-line new-fangled bionic heart with built-in iPod dock. You get the education to prepare you for University or Technical Education but you don't get a free degree and free accommodation while doing your trade/degree.

How do you do this in a monolithic power centric organisation like a major religion? Solve that one and I suspect the Church and I will have a lot more in common.

Next time we'll explore the question of why I miss church some weekends - although some of you may feel its redundant after reading this post.