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Wednesday, July 1. 2009
Deadly Sins
Will wonders never cease! I have something in common with South Carolina governor, Mark Sanford! Yes, we share a favorite deadly sin!A couple months ago on a different forum, the lovely Sharae Spears asked the question: “What is your favorite deadly sin?”
“Who is Sharae Spears,” you ask? Well you can make a general guess, based on previous posts to this occasionally scandalous blog, but Sharae Spears is the current Cyber Girl of the Year for Playboy. She poses nude and reading that question from a woman many, many men admire in a close and personal manner (use your imagination) seems like a no-brainer. If I’m looking at Sharae Spears, nude or otherwise, you can bet lust is my favorite of the “Deadly Sins.” Anyone who’s read this blog over any considerable time could tell you my favorite deadly sin.
Of course there are those who have seen me, or pictures of me, and would swear gluttony is my favorite of the deadly sins, and quite truthfully, when I’m pedaling past an In-n-Out Burgers … lust takes a back seat to gluttony.
You know, replying to Sharae’s post with any answer other than lust would have been a bit of an insult to the woman. Really! You’ve seen her all dressed down to her birthday suit, back, front and both sides and you would claim gluttony or sloth as a favorite deadly sin? Well, maybe a gay man would and that’s totally understandable. I don’t get weak looking at photos of Johnny Depp.
No, I like the woman, she knows how to handle a .357 and if she’s asking me my favorite deadly sin, well by god, it’s lust!
Someone then asked a series of questions about sin, based on a starving man seeing a pie in a bakery window. That’s when I got too serious. I’m not a believer in religion; reject the religious notions about “God” and the edicts of men claiming to speak for “God.” See, they tell me looking at Sharae Spears, nude or otherwise, is a sin. That’s not the extent of my rejection of religion, but it’s certainly the most easily illustrated of all my reasons.
If I’m the starving man walking past the bakery, I’m stealing the pie, and if there are a few loaves of bread close by, them too and I won’t think twice or lose any sleep over it.
So, in this other forum I went into a lengthy soliloquy about religion, the seven deadly sins and my dislike for it all. The religion I grew up with, a sect of Christianity, told us a lot of things about sins, mortal and venial alike. When sitting through Mass during my teenage years, bored silly and looking at some young hottie from the 11th grade and undressing her right there in the pew, I would often wonder if my carnal thoughts about the women and girls in church rose to the occasion of needing to be mentioned during confession. I never mentioned them.
The labeling of sins is just a part of what religious leaders use to control and subjugate their followers. To assuage any guilt you might feel for doing well financially, every religion has a way for you to atone for being “greedy:” give at least 10% of your income to the church.
Poor people, believe it or not, give a larger percentage of their wealth to churches than well-to-do people, mainly because life has shit on them so much the only hope left is that there will be some eternal salvation and reward when this life is over. They accept their lot in life because it’s part of “God’s plan.”
They want us to believe stories first generated in the Stone Age are in fact true because it’s “God’s word,” as dictated to prophets and scribes eight to ten thousand years ago.
That always begs the question: is it still a holy book, considering it’s been rewritten and edited in major ways many times since first appearing in print centuries before Christ? Even the New Testament has been rewritten twice already.
The holier-than-thou crowd has been telling us for years they and their political party (the Republican Party) were the morally superior of our political entities. When Bill Clinton was caught cheating on his wife with Monica Lewinsky, nearly every Republican called for his resignation, including then Congressman Mark Sanford.
Now, the equivocating, obfuscation and hypocrisy have begun. In the wake of the Mark Sanford and John Ensign sex scandals, party and religious leaders have been on television telling us they never said the Republicans were morally superior to Democrats, that lust and infidelity can be found in both parties and in all walks of American life. Apparently they don’t understand the power of the recording equipment networks use to remember every little thing politicians say and do.All condemn Governor Sanford’s sinful ways, but few, if any, call for his resignation. He’s a sinner, looking for salvation. The governor took it to a new level though yesterday when he admitted having cheated on his wife with several other women over the years. The governor tried equivocating on that by claiming he never crossed the threshold of sexual relationships. Well, you cheated on your wife governor. Are you using Bill Clinton’s tactic of trying to redefine the word “is?”
If he’s admitting he’s cheated on his wife with several other women, then he’s had some kind of sexual and/or romantic contact with them. You can’t, in one breath, tell us you cheated and then in the next tell us you really didn’t.
Where I a Christian leader, Sanford’s use of Biblical quotes to justify his actions since coming forward with his affair would be completely offensive. Sanford compared himself to King David of the Old Testament. Really? We should give him a pass without any penance — consequences — for his sins? Well, not “us” literally, but the South Carolinians who sent him to the State House.
Which is another reason religion is so appalling, or at least many of the religious and political leaders who claim the Bible to be sacred and infallible: when in trouble they start a-quoting, hoping to gain a little sympathy and maybe the trust of the people who follow them and elected them to public office.
Who he sleeps with and whether he cheats on his wife or not is of no great concern to me. That’s between Mr. and Mrs. Sanford. The problem arises though with his hypocrisy — he demanded Bill Clinton resign — and the fact he abandoned his job for five days. He still thinks he can govern and most likely believes he could be a good candidate for president. Isn’t that ego — pride — in its worst form?
Mark Sanford, like John Ensign, wants to hang on to the power of his office and jealously covets the power of the Oval Office. Maybe lust isn’t Mark Sanford’s favorite deadly sin; maybe it’s pride and greed.One last item: it is my sister Cheryl’s [age omitted] birthday! She’s the matriarch of the family so I hope her day is going well! Cheryl has religion, but she’s far from a holier-than-thou type and in fact is one of the most open-minded and tolerant people I know. We could learn a lot from her.
Happy Birthday My Dear Sister!
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