MADNESS DOESN´T ATTRACT PEOPLE: ¨I often wonder if many of these religious types really think about the message they are sending out...¨

What goes on in the minds of the overly religious?

¨Sometimes I wonder what goes on in the minds of some overly religious people. Do their minds function like regular people or having been addled by the constant bombardment of religious drivel, it functions like that of a person flirting with insanity?

I don't say this to be unkind, it's what I honestly feel because I find that the greater the religious indoctrination, the lesser the ability to reason rationally. Take for example, that Pat Robertson guy on television. The things that come of out his mind sometimes make me wonder if he should be locked away in a padded cell somewhere.

Closer to home there are columnists and men of the cloth who believe that legislation currently before Parliament - the anti-buggery law, legislation of abortion and the seven-day flexi-week - are signs of an all-out attack against the Church. For an organisation that is rapidly losing relevance in today's society, who really needs to attack the Church?

The Church gets all riled up over issues that don't concern them - what happens in the bedrooms of consenting adults and what a woman chooses to do with her body. And what exactly does giving someone the option of working longer hours over a longer period of time have to do with Church?

And why has the Church been silent on those pastors who want to have their way with the women in their congregations?

The Church has become irrelevant primarily because of its inability to make an impact on a society where people are fed up of the rhetoric; the fire and brimstone and the ever-returning Kingdom of the Lord, not to mention its constant thirst for money and its frightening silence on serious issues that affect people in the communities in which they operate.

For example, people are being beheaded left, right and centre in Jamaica. The economic situation has many Jamaicans terrified of what the future holds as the dollar continues to slide and jobs are hard to come by. But the Church gets all riled up over gay issues and casinos. You want to see the Church excited, mention homosexuality or gambling and what happens next is like watching piranhas in a feeding frenzy.

Part of the problem is that the Church has become as polarising a force when they should be a force for understanding and healing. The recent gay marches are an example of that. I don't pretend to be knowledgeable of anything biblical but I am sure that if Jesus was alive today to see how churches are against gays he would go nuts.

The Church should be teaching us how to get along even though we disagree on these social issues, teaching us tolerance, teaching us how to care for our neighbours, but it chooses to teach hatred and segregation and encourages this society to discriminate against people who are different, just because they are different.

That to me is counter to what anything that Jesus would have taught back when he was here on earth more than 2000 years ago. If anyone is on the attack, it's the Church that is.

The flexi-week thing is just ridiculous. What, are people only allowed to worship on a specific day? What is the Church saying that if you are a Christian and get on your knees each night to pray and worship, that doesn't count? What if you choose to do your worshipping at night, now that you have more time as you don't have to work eight hours a day five days a week? Doesn't that count?

I mean, I often wonder if many of these religious types really think about the message they are sending to people out there. Madness doesn't attract people, it scares people and that is why the Church struggles to get people...¨ read it all: 

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