Have a Blessed Day

Originally published on Feb. 25, 2017

“Have a blessed day.”

This may raise some eyebrows and may seem counter-intuitive, but when I hear those words I reach for my wallet to be sure it’s still there.

I’ve come to this point based on repeated experiences with people who regularly take their departure with those words. I’ve been defrauded out of significant funds, been abandoned by people who purported to be partners, been deceived and disappointed more times than I care to think about, by people who wished me a blessed day.

My answer is, thanks, but no thanks.

Okay, it’s true, I’m not a religious person, and have not been since my mid-teens. And I think my abandonment of religion has caused me to be a more honest and authentic person. It’s not always easy, but I’m forced to deal with reality on its own terms.

I don’t mean to generalize about all religious people, since I am sure there are many who are sincere and honest and don’t use their beliefs to justify what can only be classified as truly shoddy behavior. But as far as I am concerned, someone who claims to be religious needs to prove the truthfulness of their statements and intentions to me, more than someone who does not make such a claim.

I recall one time, decades ago, when I was posted as vice consul to Suva, Fiji, getting really tired, frustrated, and angry when one church and religious group after another lied to get visas, and then disappeared into the woodwork once they arrived in the U.S. During that period a young man and his uncle appeared for an interview, and the uncle looked at me earnestly and said, “Sir, I want you to know that this is a very religious boy.” To which I equally earnestly responded, “Sir, I will do my best not to hold that against him.”

My suspicion of people using their religiosity to shield their true intents continued to build throughout that time, and later, in another posting in another country, a fruitless conversation with a religious American security officer, rocking in self-satisfaction on his heels, finally led me to the theory why I believe religious people can be so deceptive and so worthy of distrust. It has been my theory ever since, and I have yet to see evidence disproving it. Simply stated, it is:

Religious people see themselves as saved, and everyone else can go to Hell.

To the point, and I think it explains a lot.

I mean, if you already view yourself as someone who can read God’s mind and intents – I capitalize “God” simply to mimic what religious people do and believe – such arrogance can serve to justify almost anything in God’s name. And if you further assert that God has accepted you and you’re already pre-approved for entry into Heaven, what does it matter what offenses you commit in the meanwhile? Especially against non-believers, common heathen who certainly, in your mind, have earned scorn and discord as they await the thin envelope with God’s letter dispatching them to Hell.

This is the same reasoning, perhaps on a different scale but no different in outlook, that the religious terrorist uses to dispatch innocent people with a bomb or a gun or a truck or an airliner. Whether it’s the Islamic extremist, the Catholic extremist, the Protestant extremist, the Jewish extremist, the Hindu extremist, the animist extremist, or any other color of extremist who acts on behalf of some sort of constructed vision of “God,” it’s the same arrogance behind the acts of violence, intolerance, or simple deception in which that person engages.

It’s said, I think with some accuracy, that when you have God on your side, anything becomes possible, no matter how dastardly or horrible. Historically, probably more people have been killed in the name of God than for any other cause or justification. It’s also said that man creates God to his own image and likeness. So the damaged, the fanatical, the arrogant, and the simply misguided creates his own God, in his own image. And then with that God on his side, all bets are off.

This may seem like a biased view, and if you think it is, you’re right. I am biased. Against people who think they can read God’s mind or speak for God – who or whatever that God is to them – and who construct some fantastic vision based purely on their own belief that they then seek to impose on the rest of us.

So if you wish me a blessed day, don’t be surprised when I reach for my wallet and politely decline. I’d just as soon have an unblessed day, thank you very much.

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