Offending God

I DARE YOU TO READ THIS!

I keep hearing certain religious types say that if we keep “offending” God, God will punish us, or destroy us, or hurt us in some way. First of all, this is confusing because they tell me that God is love, but if I do not behave in a certain way, that God of love will hurt me. That does not sound like love; that sounds like co-dependence and abuse. Maybe God only loves those who decide to do what He wants and live how He wants, but he hates everyone else. Yet, these people will tell me that "God is not a respecter of persons," which is a funny way of saying that God does not play favorites, so God loves us no matter how we live; yet, if we do not live in a certain way, God will destroy us. Ironically, the people who spout this stuff, always seem to know who God wants to destroy, and the things they say offend God are the same things that offend them.

So I would ask those Christians what would constitute offending God? Here’s what God has to say about it, and if you are acting and talking different than this, you are offending God -- unless you think that all this no longer applies since Jesus, which is fine, but then NONE of the Law applies -- including that anti-gay stuff. So as St. Paul says over and over in his letters, if you want to keep part of the Law, you have to keep the whole Law. Which means if you want to keep the Old Testament provisions against people you don’t like, you also have to do the following (From Exodus 22:20-23:9):

1) You shall not oppress or afflict a resident alien, for you were once aliens residing in the land of Egypt.

You may not have been slaves in Egypt, but unless you are 100% American Indian, you are an alien, and because you were once an alien to these shores, you are required by God to be nice, respect, and treat other aliens well. If you hate illegal immigrants or foreigners or newly-arrived peoples, you are breaking the Law and offending God.

2) You shall not wrong any widow or orphan.

The widow and the orphan are Bible shorthand for those who are powerless and without means of support. A woman in the ancient world only had identity from the man who owned her (I hate to say it that way, but that’s how it was). A woman was somebody’s daughter until she became somebody’s wife, and then hopefully she had sons and became somebody’s mother. If she had no man -- no father, husband, or son -- she had no support, no means of survival. The same was true for those who orphaned -- no family, no parents, meant no survival. THE BIBLE REPEATEDLY DEMANDS THAT PEOPLE LOOK OUT FOR THOSE WHO ARE IN NEED, WHO ARE POWERLESS, WHO ARE POOR, WHO ARE DISENFRANCHISED, AND PROVIDE FOR THEM. The modern term for this is “WELFARE”! If you oppose welfare, you oppose the Law, and you offend God. The Lord Himself says:

If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely listen to their cry. My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword; then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans.

So, let re-examine that last part and treat it as a reality check. God doesn’t say that if you take prayer out of school, I will hurt you; God doesn’t say if you don’t display the Ten Commandments everywhere, I will destroy you; God doesn’t say if you allow gay marriage to happen, I will kill you; GOD SAYS THAT IF YOU DON’T LOOK OUT FOR THE POOR AND POWERLESS, AND IF YOU IGNORE THEIR NEEDS, AND IF YOU TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THEM, THEN I WILL KILL YOU.

If you want to cut social programs that help the poor, especially children, then you are against the Law and offending God.

3) If you lend money to my people, the poor among you, you must not be like a money lender; you must not demand interest from them.

First of all, notice how God refers to the poor as “my people” -- God identifies with the poor, as Christ Himself says in Matthew 25: “Whatever you did to the least of these (poor, powerless) you did to me; whatever you didn’t do for them, you didn’t do for me.” God is against usury -- the practice of loaning money and charging interest. God is especially against loaning money to the poor and charging interest. Yet, we have a system where the richer you are, the less interest you pay, the more you receive; yet, the poorer you are, the more interest you pay, and the less interest you receive. If you believe that lending money at interest is good, you are against the Law and offending God.

4) If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, you shall return it to him before sunset, for this is his only covering; it is the cloak for his body. What will he sleep in? If he cries out to me, I will listen; for I am compassionate.

Collateral is also bad -- especially if the collateral is something the person needs to survive -- like a home. You should loan money because they need it. If you pre-qualify loans, if you don’t loan money out to people with bad credit, if you decide only to loan money to someone so you can take their stuff if they can’t pay, you are offending God.

5) You shall not despise God, nor curse a leader of your people.

If you are repeating lies about the President, if you are insulting the President and calling him names like “Socialist” and “Nazi” and whatever else, if you are saying he wants to destroy America, that he is a foreigner, or any other insult, slander, lie, or curse, then you are offending God. By the way, Liberals, this works both ways. If you bad-mouth Boehner and others, you are offending God. They are leaders, elected by the people, whether you like it or not, you will respect them, and accept it as God’s will, and that God is working His will through the elected leadership of this country. If they destroy it, then celebrate because that means Jesus is coming! Stop offending God by insulting leaders -- it is against God’s Law, and if you do it, you are offending God.

6)You shall not delay the offering of your harvest and your press. You shall give me the firstborn of your sons. You must do the same with your oxen and your sheep; for seven days the firstling may stay with its mother, but on the eighth day you must give it to me.

Sacrifice is a part of our faith. If you are unwilling to give what you have to God, especially because you know God will just give it to some poor person, then you are offending God. Everything you have is a gift from God and if you won’t give any back, then you are ungrateful, spoiled, and God will then have to spank you. “I worked for this myself, God didn’t give it to me!” Fool! You can only work because God gave you the health, the body, the mind, the wits, and the job in the first place. Keep your prideful attitude and see how many of those things you lose, and how quickly you lose them. Help the poor before you become poor yourself. Give so that it may be given to you.

7) You shall be a people sacred to me. Flesh torn to pieces in the field you shall not eat; you must throw it to the dogs.

Don’t eat dead things like road kill. Hopefully that one is a no-brainer.

8) You shall not repeat a false report. Do not join your hand with the wicked to be a witness supporting violence. You shall not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When testifying in a lawsuit, you shall not follow the crowd in perverting justice. You shall not favor the poor in a lawsuit.

Don’t repeat it just because you saw it on Fox News or MSNBC. Don’t repeat something against the President or other elected officials just because you want to believe what the rumor or report is. Don’t like something because Conservatives like something, or don’t hate something because Conservatives hate something (or Liberals). Your support or lack of it should be based on whether it is right or wrong, and your right or wrong should only be based on what God has said about it. If Conservatives say that we need harsh measures against illegal aliens, but God says that we are to treat them well, you should decide that Conservatives are wrong on this issue (even though you are a Conservative) and help create policy that treats aliens with respect. If you don’t, then you are just going along with the crowd. Either way, if you are repeating what is false because you want to believe it, and if you just go along with the crowd in doing what opposes God’s Law, you are offending God.

This goes for lawsuits and court cases too. Don’t decide someone is innocent or guilty because one party is for it and another is against it (Trevon Martin case being a prime example in how both sides responded). That perverts justice. Don’t decide that just because someone is black, they are victims; don’t decide that just because they are black they are criminals. Treat all people as people and give them the same laws, and the same ability to defend themselves. And this also extends to not giving special treatment to the poor -- in that you give them the benefit of the doubt just because they’re poor. Yet, this does not mean they should be less likely to defend themselves because they can’t afford a lawyer. The court should be equal, and the poor should have equal representation as the rich, not some overworked public defender, but a high-priced lawyer if that’s what the opponent has; or the opponent should have a public defender too if that is all the poor can have.

9) When you come upon your enemy’s ox or donkey going astray, you must see to it that it is returned. When you notice the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you should not desert him; you must help him with it.

You do not ever ignore your enemy or someone you hate if they are in need. You don’t say “sucks to be you” and move on. Stop and help them! If you ignore even the needs of your enemy, then you are offending God. Besides, maybe if you give him a hand, you'll end up having one less enemy.

10) You shall not pervert justice for the needy among you in a lawsuit. You shall keep away from anything dishonest. The innocent and the just you shall not put to death, for I will not acquit the guilty.

Poor people don’t get special treatment for being poor. But rich should not get special treatment for being rich. It may seem compassionate to help the poor and bend justice in their favor, but it is just as dishonest and corrupt as bending justice for the wealthy (which happens all the time). Ensure that ALL are the same in legal matters regardless of class or wealth, or lack thereof. If you show favoritism in court cases, you are breaking the Law and offending God.

11)Never take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and distorts the words of the just.

That includes lobbyists, and PACs and SuperPACs. If you are trying to use money to influence others to your opinion, or to side with you in decisions, you are breaking the Law and offending God.

12) You shall not oppress a resident alien; you well know how it feels to be an alien, since you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.

And just in case you forgot, you are supposed to respect and treat aliens well.

Now, if taking prayer out of school (something God NEVER says) is an offense to God, or if you think that taking down The Ten Commandments from courthouses (something God NEVER said) is an offense to God, or if Gay marriage is an offense to God, then doing any of the above is also an offense to God. If you do, or favor, any of the above, you are no better than the people you hate (gays, Liberals, Conservatives, atheists, etc.). If you decide that none of this counts any more, then you have to give up the parts of the Law you want to count -- like keeping women as second-class citizens and bashing homosexuals.

It either all applies, or none of it applies. Don't get angry at me for saying that. Saint Paul said it, I'm just taking it seriously and passing it along. If you want to live by the Law, you have to live by the ENTIRE Law. Good luck, God is watching...