Good Lord!

It gets iffy when mortals attempt to fight or do anything for the Almighty

Zeus. God. Allah. The Intelligent Designer has been called many names. Wimp isn’t one of them. So it is a serious head-scratcher whenever I hear the call to action or arms by some religious zealot to fight for God. I’m wondering why none of their followers have yet to call their bluff. Does the omnipotent need defenders?

We are at a crossroads of human spirituality. On one hand, we have an increasingly secular world with roots that began with Friedrich Nietzsche’s 1882 utterance that “God is dead”. On the other, thanks in part to September 11 and other catastrophes, we are steadily heading into an era of Christian mega-churches and new-found faith. It’s no longer a question about the relevance or existence of God, the fact is, if we’re fighting over and for Him, He’s real enough.

Yet, for every born-again atheist like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, we find increasingly new battle standards for orthodoxy and fundamentalism. Let’s welcome Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) and our very own Thio Li-Ann, self proclaimed feminist and would-be usurper of woman’s group AWARE. But face it, the problem isn’t God. It’s us.

We put our faith in our all-too-fallible and human spiritual leaders. Christian Pastors are getting on YouTube and denouncing other faiths, militant Islamics love their bombs, while Indian “holy” men run profitable sex rackets in temples (go on, blame the Kamasutra). Closer home, stunt performing millionaire media savvy Buddhist monks are getting into all sorts of legal woes for financial fraud. Over in fashion Mecca Italy, it’s coming to light that the current Pope has been massaging the truth and putting a spin on sordid paedophilia to save face for Holy Mother Church.

Intellectuals like Hitchens and Dawkins are tired of the ‘holier than thou’ antics of men like Pastor Rony and the Pope, but I feel that they’ve missed the forest for the trees. It isn’t God ignoring warning memos of boy-loving priests? Neither is Mr Truth-will-set-you-free Almighty casting instructions on whispered wind to the Pope saying “save the church via cover up”.

All fingers point to human hands for the drastic maybe irreparable damage to a 2,000-year-old institution. The Catholic Church is getting crucified for very quantifiable sins and criminal acts unlike its sandal wearing founder. You shouldn’t condemn and judge others (ignore “lest ye be judged” for a moment) without first cleaning your own house of the roaches. It’s not only good sense but immensely logical.

Is God dead? I don’t know but I certainly know rational thought is on heavy life support. Please think for a moment, your relationship/faith with the spiritual is just that, yours.

I don’t think it’s safe to follow one mortal’s prescribed ‘relationship guidelines’ with his maker. From a deist’s standpoint, I proffer a counterpoint to Mr Hitchens, God probably is great. We humans aren’t. And to those who wonder whether I’ve found Jesus, I’ve found him. He was behind my sofa. Thanks for asking.

This first appeared in August Man. Aside from the Editor’s column, Jonathan Ho writes for Augustman.com and covers the watch beat for the print magazine. August Man and Augustman.com is property of CR Media Pte Ltd. You can visit http://www.augustman.com for stylish men’s fashion, luxury brand and high end watch reviews, travel stories, social commentary, trendspotting and motoring.