If God Were One Of Us

Well, it’s after Easter, and I suppose I must say that I did not attend church on Sunday. There are many a reason for it that I won’t go into today, but I will say that I don’t think it changes my spiritual life. I will say that I had to consider, politically, where I stand on so many things.

I’ve mentioned earlier that I’m an Obama supporter, but I’m not sure that I’ve explained why. I support Obama because I think he’s a new face on America. That he’s a new beginning. That he has the ability to show the world that America isn’t entrenched in far right Christianity. That there are millions, yes millions, of people think and believe differently than millions, yes millions, of other Americans.

That’s the beauty of our country. We can believe different things. We can worship different things. We can be who we are. Different. Intriguing. Solid in our beliefs, which can be so different from one another. But at the same time, we also love one another for our differences.

For the past week, I’ve read what Rev. Wright said. I’ve read what Obama said in response. I’ve also read what Hillary had to say about what Obama said about what Rev. Wright said. The whole time I thought, “Are you kidding?”

Don’t get me wrong. I know that so many of the things Rev. Wright said are inexcusable. But I also know that I've been a part of many a sermon at an Episcopal church and many a time, in fact more times than I could count, I've disagreed throughout the service. I've disagreed with the semantics. I've disagreed with the priest on his thoughts about homosexuality, in the Episcopal Church, yes the Episcopal Church, and yet, I've still taken communion at the end.

Can we hold someone responsible for what their priest, or pastor, says? I can’t count the times I’ve been in church listening to a sermon and thought, “Well, that’s just about the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.” But, did I turn away and walk out the door? No. I didn’t.

I didn’t because I was there for my spirituality, which I have no doubt is different from many of those sitting next to me.

I’m there because I believe in a higher power. A power that sees that we are all human, white, black, male, female, straight, gay. We’re there because we believe in the same thing. The same thing that guides us to do right from wrong, good from bad, treat our neighbors as ourselves.

We’re all human. We all make mistakes. We all live by our own moral standards.

And, really, if we’re going to talk about moral standards, are the Clinton’s setting the moral standard upon which we hold ourselves?