You keep your religion and I'll keep my freedom

You keep your religion and I'll keep my freedom
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
November 12, 2013

I get a lot of stupid emails. One of the top ones I hit delete on are political from both sides. The other one is when I get emails about how the government is trying to take away someone's religious freedom because they allow others the same right to make their own choices. That is what freedom means. Isn't it?

Why should one group claim the absolute right to dictate to others? Christians against gays? Yes some are but other groups of Christians have no problem with them at all. Christians dictating morality to anyone because they go to church is a prideful sin. Christ didn't dictate to anyone. It was all about choices. But why should religious choices of some give them the right to try to control everything for everyone?

I am so tried of hearing others talk about what is wrong with other people instead of asking what they can do for other people. So here's a piece of advice. If you want to send me an email about your rights being threatened by anyone, don't bother. I'll delete it without reading it. You're giving other Christians a bad name when we try to follow how Christ told us to live OUR lives. The truth is, you are trying to remove the rights of others to make their own choices.

Oh, by the way, freedom is not a gift from God. It is a gift from those willing to risk their lives for it. Freewill is a gift from God and that gives us the right to decide for ourselves what to believe on our own terms. Basically if they are not taking away anyone else's right by forcing them to do something they don't want to do, it isn't any of your business so stop trying to do it to them.

Faith isn't a deli. You can't decide to leave things out just because they are too hard to swallow or leave a bad taste in your mouth.

Christ talked about taking care of the poor and needy and oh by the way, He did. People love to forget He came as a poor man, basically homeless depending on the kindness of strangers to feed and shelter Him. Do you hear any of that coming out of Congress? No, you hear them saying they need to cut food stamps and programs to feed the poor and needy.

Christ was a healer. He went around making people well again. Do you hear any of that coming out of the so called "Christians" in Congress? No, they fight over trying to go back to a time when too many couldn't go to a doctor because they couldn't afford it. Is there problems with the Affordable Healthcare Act? Sure there are plenty but Congress had three years to fix it instead of trying to kill it.

Everything Christ said is in Red Letters of the New Testament and it was all about how to live your life the way you choose to and about how to treat others. It wasn't about making anyone conform to your will or your idea of how they should live. Stop quoting from others in the Bible because if you do not know the rest of their story and how they messed up, you'll never get the fact that God even used them to do good. Maybe it is a good time to stop quoting the Bible and actually read it for a change.

My faith is something I try hard to live by everyday. Struggle? Yes because it is hard to even try to live up to how I know I should live. I get hot headed, like now. I judge others like the people sending me emails. It gets harder and harder to pray for others when I know they are preying on others.

So give me a break! No one is trying to take away anything from you. You're doing a good enough job of that all by yourself.