The Ten Commandments are a pretty big deal. The third commandment is interesting. We all know it, “Thou Shalt not take the name of your Lord God in Vain”, but what exactly does it mean?

How does one take Gods name in vain?

God being all powerful, a separate being from us, the source of all that exists, omnipresent and boundless is way beyond our ability to truly comprehend. So how can someone take his name in vain, and what exactly does that mean.

Would it not be far better to not take his name at all than risk taking it in vain, and is this being known as god so concerned about his image amongst mere mortals.

I think not.

A common theme in humanity is to use gods name for personal gain. Throughout most of recorded human history Gods name has been used to further one persons position over another. People who utilize gods name for personal gain is what I believe this commandment is trying to teach us.

Some people who align themselves with god, tend to believe they have some special dispensation to harm others who feel differently than they do. I see no compassion, no consideration for the other. Right now in this country Conservative Republicans are aligning themselves with God. Why not, it’s a proven formula that has worked for millennia. They are eroding away at our democracy and forgetting the virtues of separation of Church and State. The religious right would have all the rest of us believe that their beliefs are superior and because they are in lock step with the almighty, have permission to do whatever they need to do to accomplish their ends regardless of anyone else’s opinions or objections.

This attitude and behavior is what taking Gods name in vain is all about. In the end this all leads to more human catastrophe and suffering.

Using Gods name in vain is what makes us hateful and rotten. Those amongst us who take comfort in religious practices can do so while still having respect and regard for others. No matter how much you may be committed to your beliefs please remember that we all need to get along on this planet. Let’s open our hearts wide enough so that at some level we also realize that as imperfect beings, our personal opinions may not be the only pathway towards truth.

Brother Burt encourages us all to look inward and reject those who are actively taking gods name in vain. As the song goes, “there’s a fear down there we can’t forget, hasn’t got a name just yet.” Please wake up.

I love music. It’s the language of emotions. Try explaining an emotion, you can not.

Absolutely love live music events as well. Guess what, that’s over. We have a leadership that trying to convince Americans to abandon their quality of life, to abandon work, to abandon the security that held it all together. The concept of us all working to make this a better world.

Now we separate. We protect ourselves from everyone. Social distancing is the new catch phrase.

I cannot participate. I will not participate.

I exist to help others, make this world a better place

Let’s stop and resist the greedy few, who require recognition, who need power over others, who care only of their own interests. Awaken my friends, stand up to the cowards who imprison the many.

Are the concerts over, will a note be heard?

Kurt

As a person who was raised and belonged to a faith based community, I personally understand  the power of the religious experience. I now live outside this community and it’s beliefs. Today I am secular and intellectually agnostic towards any faith ideologies. I have a deep understanding   and recall of the faith experience that most of many secular friends can never truly appreciate. Religious faith has a power and vitality that the uninitiated is not aware of and often denies.

When an idea infects a person so completely that it turns into a core belief, that person then looks to align himself with others with a similar disposition. The religious systems today all encourage their followers to express the purity of the idea, and have a set of guidelines to ensure that the person and his beliefs are fed and cultivated. I remember the the power and lure of that time in my life when I followed, worshipped  along with my fellow “Religians”. There was no authentic spiritual experience, nothing really cathartic about the experience, as long as fellow believers came together aligned in their beliefs, assured that our place in the world was far better than any of the non-believers. The more devout we became the more you could feel the power. The power led to a culture, a mindset, and a lifestyle that influenced every experience. Like a drug it takes over your entire being.

Ideologies today can be relatively inconsequential to society at large but should never be ignored. I am fortunate to be living in a time and place where secular thinking has more sway than religious ideologies. Yet even in free societies where people value their freedoms I still see the need to be vigilant that ideologies do not gain traction. Once an ideology has gained control of a persons mind it becomes highly unlikely to reverse the course. Regardless of how illogical or unsubstantiated the belief is, the power of the group, believing and behaving in lock step is intoxicating. Try to tell an anti-vaccine advocates that their belief is not based on any real science. Likewise, people who adopt a conspiracy theory as gospel and band together will fight you to the death regardless how unlikely the theory is.

The power I am talking about gives people a purpose for their lives. The group dynamic brings comfort to the individuals. The beliefs of an ideological group are exclusive in nature. The ideology says more about what not to believe, who to shun and why you are better. Once inside, the people care little to debate the merits of their ideas. The idea becomes untouchable, protected by the group ideology. There in lies the danger. As people accept an ideology the behaviors and even atrocities committed to support the ideology become justifiable. The standards which the rest of us use to evaluate our actions are no longer required. Members of the group serve a “higher purpose” so logic and critical thought now take a back seats to the ethics and moralities put forth by the ideology.

Big BrotherBurt writes because he feels a deep compassion for people and the individual freedoms that are constantly under attack by people immersed in the world of ideologies. Our only hope is that integrity will prevail. Ideas need to be debated on their merits not to be turned into fodder for systems of belief. Integrity demands not just honesty, but the ability to look at our core beliefs and question the validity in a objective manner. This is a relatively new concept for humanity. Historically human belief was based on beliefs that people wanted to believe. It gave them hope, answers and comfort. This is the power, only amplified within a community of faith. Unfortunately the original ideas are unsubstantiated and therefore do not live up to the standards of integrity.

To all my friends and family whose conviction to a religious ideology or faction is minimal and cannot understand why I will not participate in even the lighting of a single candle, this is for you. I am talking now to the Reform among you. You guys have removed almost all vestiges of religious ideology, ritual, and belief from your practices. You welcome with open arms everyone who wishes to participate in your social, cultural celebration of what was once a strict orthodox practice. You are still viewed by Orthodox within your religion as abject heretics.

I was raised within the world of strict Orthodox practice. I am now still recovering from the trauma, and horrors of religious subjugation. In my life I have seen very little and have met very few people engaged in the orthodox lifestyle that would meet any standards of caring, empathetic people who value humanitarian ideals. Possibly those attributes can be found within the confines of their close knitted communities but more often I have found most to be arrogant, judgmental and caring little for those who do not think or worship as they do. My religious family has more relatives that they do not speak with than those that they do.

I regard the religion as the greatest fraud ever propagated on humanity. Very little I have seen in my life as a religious person has contradicted this belief. As a person engages deeper into religious ideology they become less concerned with the humanity around them. They care little about how their religious values affect others around them. The expectation is that every one else will just respect their ways.

In this vain I salute and respect diversity. We as humans all benefit from others cultures and traditions. We should all embrace diversity and the concept that all people are precious and have much to offer. To the haters I say your energies are misdirected. Organized Hate is nothing more than another ideology. Like nazism it will attract people when they are most vulnerable.

The real disease among us is ideologies. The ideology is the enemy of civilization and it does not respect diversity. It harbors an ugly “us versus them” philosophy.  It creates artificial divisions among peoples where no division needs to be. It makes the follower feel as though they are following the dictates of a higher power and gives license to destroy anybody that stands in its way.

There really is no such thing as a jew, a muslim or a christian. There are just those human beings who have made the careless mistake of aligning themselves with an ideology.  These people have given themselves permission to stop thinking and follow orders from a group which wishes to control their thoughts and actions. Many unfortunately, like myself are born into families that are indoctrinated in this way. To leave the fold as I did will mean that your family and friends will have very little to do with you anymore. And if they do, you will always be subjected to their arrogant self pity of your new found condition.

To the reform among you who have not had to live the terror of an orthodox life, understand that I do not reject the cultural basis of you or your organization. Feel lucky and privileged that you have fellow congregants and friends who have no need to judge or disdain you for your personal commitment to your church. So understand when I refuse to light a candle, or participate in the most basic ritual of my previous life it is because to me this is personal.

Big brotherBurt believes that human integrity is the guiding principal that will lead humanity to create a better future. The moral imperative that challenges us today is a need to objectively examine our beliefs and be willing to make changes if found faulty. Religious ideologies were designed by man to disrupt this process.

The United States Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are documents that were drafted by our Founding Fathers in response to centuries of ignorance and religious persecution. The ignorance I am alluding to, is when one person or group believes so strongly that their ideas are so absolutely correct that they disenfranchise anyone who holds a different point of view. The lack of dignity and respect that this behavior demonstrates is appalling in todays world. In a free society as ours we must be vigilant, as Thomas Jefferson warned, that we not lose the freedoms we cherish by tolerating this offensive behavior.

We just passed a very contentious presidential election. While many people have strong opinions on which candidate would have made the better choice, the bottom line is that we never really know until many years after that president has left office and historical perspective provides the clarity to judge. As with all presidential cycles to predict an outcome and to “know” whether Mr. Trump was the better choice, is at this time pure speculation.

It seems though that a new idea has emerged within the American psyche. Some supporters of Mrs. Clinton have adopted the idea that it is good to lambast and disengage from friends and family members who supported and voted for Mr. Trump. They are waging personal attacks against fellow Americans simply for not sharing their point of view. Big Brother Burt is of the opinion that this is a deplorable behavior as un-American as anything we have ever seen in this country. It is no different than the religious persecution that our very constitution strives to defend us from.

Unfortunately I have been a recent victim of this abuse. A cousin of mine, who is a successful mental health therapist, upstate NY,  and member of the LBGT community called me yesterday morning screaming at me because I did not support the same candidate as she did. When I tried to explain that as a member of a free society, I had a right to support any candidate of my choosing, she told me that my vote was a personal affront to her being and that she will no longer have anything to do with me.

This behavior is affront to my sensibilities as an American. It shows a complete lack of respect and tolerance for my beliefs and my choices. It is especially puzzling to me that someone who comes from a community that preaches tolerance and understanding could be so much the opposite.

The answer to this sort of defamation is not to become intolerant or racist ourselves. We must call out bigotry for what it is regardless of its origin. Let these people know that they have disrespected us and we will now judge them as regards to their character. Big BrotherBurt wishes that the contentious nature of the recent election will quickly pass and that America will begin to heal and move forward. I call on the leadership of all our diverse communities to be voices of conciliation for the betterment of our republic.

Dear Hillary Clinton. You are to many Americans a trusted voice. You need to emerge and be a voice of reason and clarity in that the future and the well being of our country needs to be nourished. You and Mr. Trump had a very contentious battle and now the time has come for reconciliation. Some of your supporters obviously are not going to back down and possibly with your encouragement we can minimize the damage. I implore you Mrs. Clinton to act so other Americans need not experience the abuse that occurred between my cousin and I. No doubt you will benefit politically, being recognized as someone who places the countries needs above her own personal aspirations.

BigBrother Burt

Living in a free society, we have  the rights and responsibility to think for ourselves, to make choices, and are prepared to take ownership of consequences of our actions. Our personal choices, beliefs and the resulting behaviores will greatly influence the quality of life that we experience. To live authentically, we must be willing to constantly examine and re-examine our beliefs which influence us in the choices we make.

This concept of self actualization is scary and intimidating for many people. The unfortunate truth is that many are content living an “auto-pilot” existence, and never challenge themselves to fulfill the greatness that we are all capable of achieving. The question of “what do you truly want out of life” is often replaced by limiting beliefs, ideas that are implanted by others who gain benefit from your subservience.

Religion and political ideologies have been fashioned to do just this. Religion wants you to believe that your existence  on this planet, and then after you die, is related to your relationship with their ideology. Instead of doing the difficult work of thinking, and figuring out who you really are,  you are urged by religious groups to adapt to their way of thinking and behaving. They then certify this by telling you amazing stories of gods grace on earth and beyond.

In the past when the harsh realities of humans living in difficult times, where free societies were extremely rare, the idea of replacing a religious ideology for a political subservient reality was not a bad choice. As Moses said to the Pharaoh in Exodus, Let my people go, from the servitude of Egypt, to serve their god Yaweh, in the desert. This was the foundational time for the first big monotheistic religion, Judaism. if you are to believe the story of Exodus, what was developing here was a religious ideology that was designed to replace the harsh political ideology of Egypt.

In todays world free societies exist and are challenging us to think for ourselves. Science and technologies are constantly showing us proof that contradict the ideas and short-comings of religious beliefs. Our personal sense of integrity, deeply ingrained in our very physiology, is guiding us to disgust when we are confronted with the evil being done by religious extremists in the name of their gods. As sciences dealing with the inner workings of our brains are giving us answers as to how we think, we are learning that superstitions, are not responsible for outcomes in our lives.

Big BrotherBurt is confident and optimistic that within a free society, human integrity can continue to emerge as the guiding force in our world. As people we are all imperfect. Yet we all posses the ability to think, and choose the pathway that we all know is aligned with human integrity. Historically we have overcome tremendous obstacles and have time after time defeated the forces of evil that have threatened our survival. The reason we have survived the challenges and continue to evolve is because it is written into our very genetic code to do so.

Free societies exist today as a testament to the who we are as humans. We created free societies so that the next level of human evolution can occur. 

I often wonder what would happen to organized religion, if all the related tax deductions were removed. How many of these “holy folks” living off the backs of us taxpayers would continue to operate. The amount of tax free living arrangements afforded these people is astounding. The phasing out of these deductions would mean an enormous shift in our economy. The resulting business of religion would then have to compete for dollars the same way the rest of us do.

Products and services offered by these groups would have to appeal to buyers like any other business. Without the incentive of tax deductible contributions, would the faithful be as quick to part with their hard earned cash? Would the promise of everlasting life and the grace of god be enough to entice folks to empty their wallets. For some who are easily swayed I suspect not much will change. For others whose buying decisions are based on a more critical approach the “smoke and mirrors” that were so enticing in times past might fall to a more discerning audience.

My personal business as a health care provider resolves around providing a service that my clientele need and desire. The benefits of my services are readily apparent to my customers and result in a direct enhancement of life quality. Health or lack of it is a tangible entity for us humans.

Religion also fills a need. People want to believe in something. They want desperately for someone or something to give them answers to things that humans do not currently understand. Religion takes a story about the revelation of god and gives it legitimacy. By dressing it up in scholarship, rituals and hints of supernatural phenomenon, religion becomes believable to many, and demands an absolute belief of its followers. The resulting theology appeals to millions who convince themselves, their friends and families that they are in possession of the true nature of what we as humans cannot comprehend.

So where does this fall short?. If a Devine being really did reveal himself to humanity there would be one faith and we would all know it. Instead we have countless faiths with millions of believers who have convinced themselves that they are the true faith of god.

It is the opinion of BigBrother Burt that organized religion is nothing more than a human fabrication in attempt to satisfy a basic human need. Devine revelation as the basis of every religion is variable and exists as an unprovable assumption. The sooner humanity comes to term with reality, the human suffering and division that comes along with religion will cease. The United States Government as a next step to the constitutional mandate of separation of Church and State, has an obligation to evaluate it’s tax code and start treating religious entities for what they truly are, businesses.

Organized religion has a right to exist. Like any business that influences people to buy into their products and services, they should be subject to taxes when profits are realized. Clergy and theologians do not provide any additional benefits over any hard working Americans and have no reason to  be privy to special treatment under our tax code. The faithful who make donations to their churches and synagogues should not be granted an automatic deduction unless the money is truly earmarked to provide for charitable causes.

The politician that will solve our economic crisis is he or she that is not afraid to challenge the status quo of organized religion.  In doing so religion will have to adapt itself and find compelling reasons to survive. The religious organizations that do survive will have to prove itself to the consumer like any business, to be worthy of their products and services.

I write these words not to offend. I will present the argument.

According to our three great religious traditions, God insists that we believe in him. “I am the lord thy God” is the first six words of the ten commandments. In these three great religious ideologies the lord god revealed himself to humanity long before verifiable means of recording the events were possible. The revelation event in each case was experienced by a small group of “worthy individuals”.  The written accounts of these revelations were codified generations and even centuries after the momentous event took place.

The earliest revelation of the monotheistic traditions, the revelation at Sinai, occurred roughly 3500 years ago. Having an understanding of humanity at that time period is daunting to even the most astute historian alive today. We are talking about a period in human history which is as remote to us as it would have been to the Roman’s living at the time of Christ. The humans alive at the time of Sinai would seem prehistoric and barbaric to us. Written records from that time were sketchy and unavailable. Historians today patch together a narrative from that period based on archeology and early forms of written language. At best we can only guess at the lives of these early humans.  Interesting how God would choose that time period to reveal himself to humanity.

Revelation is a cornerstone of religious ideology. Failure to believe in revelation as a fact, is  incompatible with following a religious lifestyle. Integrity demands that we not deceive ourselves or others in what we believe in. Religion demands that we “believe” in something unknowable. The demand of religious belief, is incompatible with someone wanting to live a life based on integrity.

For us to live lives based on integrity our beliefs must be grounded in reality. “Reality” is that which is either observable, understandable, comprehensible and compatible to human intelligence. Religious belief is none of these things. Religious belief is a license for people to behave in ways that are illogical and potentially harmful to humanity. Big Brother Burt is fortunate to live in a time and place on this planet where religious believers are subjected to rules and laws that limit their power and influence. Other places on this planet today are not as fortunate.

Religion by OUR definition constitutes a deception. Any belief that is humanly unknowable, that a person subscribes to, is a deception. INTEGRITY implies that our beliefs are knowable and understandable to us all. Integrity is more than honesty. Any creature alive must be true to it’s nature. Frogs cannot start acting like bats. In the same way we must be true to our nature, and rely on our intelligence as a basis for the beliefs which guide our thoughts and actions.

While a religious person may be honest to the tenants of his faith, he is not compatible with human integrity. The Islamic Jihadist that murders for the sake of his faith, the Orthodox Jew who mourns for his son who marries a non-jew, or the Christian that attacks a homosexual are all being “honest” to their faiths. This honesty is not compatible with human integrity because the faith is based on believing that which is humanly unknowable. Human integrity for it to be meaningful to us all, must be based on beliefs and experiences that we all share and can understand. That is why the morality of religion often runs counter to the sensibilities and morality of the secular world. When the faithful commit atrocities in the name of their god they are honestly following their “beliefs”. The rest of us grounded in human integrity see the behavior for what it is.

In conclusion, God if you exist make yourself known to humanity. How about doing it in a way which is evidentiary to even the most ardent non-believers. Also when you do let us know whose version of you if any, is the accurate one. Then take those fanatics who have misinterpreted your intentions, causing horrendous ruin and destruction in their wake and make them see the error of their ways.

Until such time I will err on the side of human integrity. I will subscribe to beliefs and behaviors that are knowable to me and beneficial to us as humans. The very notion that Gods faithful on earth have to engage in a devine game of hide and seek,  where the act of believing is enough to  gain you entrance to heaven is preposterous.  The idea that all Jews, Muslims, Buddhists , and countless other humans who do not believe that Jesus was their savior, are all going to hell, has made many Christian groups rethink their position. The glaring flaw is that each of these groups with their own version of God and his rules, believes deeply that all the others are wrong. Since no one can bring a proof, or even a practical theory to prove their case, at it’s heart it is a deception.

Human integrity is the course that guides us forward. Speculation on beliefs that deviate from the path of integrity has always taken us away from our mission of human evolution. Big Brother Burt believes that as we continue to evolve more people will wake up to the fact that beliefs in that which is unknowable is counter-productive to human prosperity. Eventually the deception that is religion will exist only in museums in the same regard as we can now examine the Gods and superstitions that our ancestors once held dear to themselves in their own time.

“To believe” is a tool that we all use to inspire progress. Believing is a powerful motivator. During difficult and trying tasks “belief in success ” can be the difference in fulfilling our dreams. As American’s we respect human perseverance when the odd’s of success are not in our favor.

How then does this belief differ from that of religious belief. At what point does belief become nothing more than speculation.

When seated at the roulette table, odds of success are one out of thirty eight.  Our hypothetical gambler will wager one dollar per spin of the wheel believing that he he will collect the reward of $36, before having to spend that amount. No matter how deep his “belief” of success is, the outcome is not affected, as the odds remain 1/38 every time the wheel spins. We call this believing, speculation.

When religious people take the leap of faith within a particular religious ideology, they too are merely speculating. The bet is that if you believe in the “deity” and play by his rules, you will get the big payoff. The belief here is pure speculation, because as humans we do not possess the ability to analyze or even understand the true nature of the deity. The bet however is better than that of a the gambler, because if the gambler is wrong he looses his money. The faith believer has nothing to loose. If he is wrong and his deity isn’t real, then he ends up no worse off than the average atheist.

The truth is that in taking the “bet” of the faithful, we all ultimately lose. Society as a whole is degraded and constantly molested by those who believe and choose to take the leap of faith. Belief in speculation is the same as lying. The believer is lying to himself and to others. Priest’s, Rabbi’s, and all religious leaders who profess a knowledge of god are and have been lying to us for millennium. The lie is so complete and has gone on for so long that they themselves have no idea that they are lying. Selling a bill of goods that they actually know  nothing about is the business of religion.

What they are selling seems very attractive because it answers questions that we would all want to have answers for. Given all our technological advances we still do not have any insight to the afterlife. Religions provide answers and rituals in regard to the dead. Unfortunately these answers are based on pure speculation. Any theories about the nature of the afterlife are complete fabrications as no human has ever died and returned with a report.

The great religions of our day justify their existence based on revelation of God. So at some obscure moment in time, long ago, the lord God decided to reveal himself to a particular group of people. It seems that god is incapable of one revelation to all humans. And in doing so codifying of the events should happen hundreds of years and multiple generations later. In this way god reveals himself to select few and continues playing hide and seek with the rest of us. As in most fabrication verification is elusive and simply nonexistent.

It should come as no surprise that in countries where education and peoples are less exposed to science and technologies harbor the greatest amount of religious fanatics ready to die and be killed to further the dictates of their faith. The horrors associated with religious fanaticism are alive and well in populations that technology which today has provided many answers and improved quality of life and health, is not readily available. In this regard the lie of religious faith has come to roost and we are all in danger of loosing everything to fanatics who would stop at nothing to destroy our world.

Big Brother Burt urges that the next time you hear a religious leader speak of god and what god wants from us, ask him how he knows so much about God. Ask him when he last visited with God and if he doesn’t mind if you came along to one of those meetings. Integrity demands of us all to represent the world in ways that conform to the scope of what is observable or can be rationalized through human intellect. We must be willing to admit an agnostic view to ideas and concepts that our outside our experiences that we cannot see any evidence for. To do otherwise is to perpetuate deception in a universe of speculation.

Megan Phelps is the daughter of Fred Phelps the spiritual leader of the Westboro Baptist Church. The Church is best known for its openly anti-gay stance and protest rallies at the funerals of US soldiers who lost their lives defending our nation. The Church claims that the death of these soldiers is gods retribution for the sins of our nation and by picketing and protesting they hope to bring consciousness and sympathy to their cause.

In 2012 she left the Church citing inconsistencies with Church’s internal dogma. A recent podcast with Sam Harris, Megan explained that the Church has “answers” for any challenge brought against it’s theology. These answers seem completely logical and consistent with their literal reading and interpretation of the textual bible. Regardless of the style of biblical interpretation all religious traditions have formulated “answers” to defend its position against challenges to the faith internal or external.

The members of the Westboro Baptist Church consider themselves instruments of gods true will on earth. I am sure the Islamist fundamentalists would scoff at that notion, and consider the Westboro folks as just another infidel. What all these religious groups have in common is that they all have the “answers” that prove their case. When children and vulnerable adults are indoctrinated into any faith the sad truth is that much thought has been given to keeping the faithful in line and answers are prepared to rebuff those who will question.

Megan Phelps was a person who questioned the “logic” of her faith. To her parents and as defined clearly in the old testament, she is a “rebellious child”. She left the faith and as a consequence her parents and her committed family members no longer speak with her. If Megan lived in ancient Judea there is a good chance she would be stoned as a punishment for her rebelliousness.

Megan’s faith based family can feel good with  their abandonment of their daughter. After all they are doing gods will on earth. As an example to other children who would entertain a rebellion against god, Megan’s loss was to them a well won sacrifice. The notion that an individual can sacrifice a child based on an unsubstantiated system of belief is horrifying, and yet it is being done all over the world in all religious faiths.

Rebellious children in my opinion should be viewed by parents as a gift. The fact that a child does not ascribe to the parents ideology is nothing more than an opportunity for the parent to experience personal growth and development through introspection and soul searching. A child who disagrees with a parents world view is a child who is seeing the world differently by using their intelect. Religious parents who threaten with ultimatums do irreparable harm to themselves and their children. The opportunity for the parent of the rebellious child is to carefully consider the other point of view and create a framework where families can continue to function and live with each other.  Respect and loving relationships are possible when the feelings are genuine and authentic. Any god who would tolerate anything else is not worthy of  any consideration.

The conditional love championed by the god of the old testament has found a home in the Westboro Baptist Church and in the hearts and minds of those parents who use religion to subjugate and control their children. These people, like the god they serve offer rewards to those who follow and punish those who rebel.  Religion in this regard is susceptible to abuses that cause suffering that is much more wide spread than many realize.  Victims of this abuse are often captive to ideologies they would otherwise disavow.

Big Brother Burt feels that religious organizations that encourage the faithful to threaten and bully their subordinates are abhorrent. No actual creator of the universe would need to rely on such strategies to further his agenda. Humans who see an opportunity to subjugate others are all too willing to use the power within religion to further their objectives. The Westboro Baptists, Isis and groups of all faiths who use fear to keep faithful in line are a source of evil in our world. They are not godly, and regardless of their claims they are only interested in improving their lot at the expense of others. THESE FOLKS NEED NO REAL PROOF OF A DEITY.  If real proof were capable, I suspect they would find a way to deny it.

Megan I have nothing but respect for you and the many others who have suffered at the hands of these self righteous, self serving maniacs. For those of us whose formative years were robbed by these narcissistic parents and family members, we have persevered overcome great odds and reversed cycle of abuses that will greatly benefit future generations. May we all see a day when this hatred and cycle of violence is defeated once and for all. Big Brother Burt.