Thursday 17 April 2014

Life: Religion; my father was a Jedi Knight. I think I am a Jedi too!

From the age of 7 I used to wonder what happened at "Church"! My Aunty Dora would go to church at the then Wooloowin Methodist Church in Bonney Avenue every Sunday morning. If i was riding my scooter around Clayfield at the time I would see her with her hat, white gloves and bible trotting up Bayview Terrace from number 53 with a happy smile on her face at the thought of planning her entry to heaven.

So one day I asked my Aunt what happened at Church. Her reply was to ... "Stay over on Saturday night and come with me on Sunday morning."

I did.. I was so excited on the Saturday night that I could hardly sleep.

But Sunday... God.. this is so boring. People singing hymns to funeral dirge melodies that basically said how unworthy we all are to even grovel at God's feet.

Yuk.

Won't do that again. Youngsters learn fast!

By the age of 10 my mother thought it would be good for me to go to Sunday School as part of a "full and rounded education." I hated that too as it was the same message but couched in a language that children might understand.

At school meantime I endured under sufferance religious education. Our local Minister Mr Hughes told us that God was merciful. "If he wanted to, he could snap his fingers and make all of the earth's oxygen disappear and kill us all!"

Stupid me at 12 said.. "You don't really believe that do you? Sounds like crap to me!"

Walking back from the headmasters office with my hands still stinging from 2 "cuts" I decided that Christianity was not for me. It was a weird bullshit thing for people who are easily fooled!

Not me.

So life goes on.. I decide I am an atheist.

Around the age of 16 I had a talk with my old dad (well he was 71) about his views on religion and God. His opening statement was.. "There were no atheists on the Western Front!" However he had changed and while he believed in a higher power.. he did have serious questions about Jesus. Like Islam, Christianity has a prophet and he is the only way to God. Why can't we have our own relationship with our God (Whoever we perceive him or she to be!) and cut out the middle man?

And I guess that is what my dad did.

My father didn't dress like Ewan. But he was a Jedi. "May the 4th" birthday!


As for me.. well like a Jedi Knight, I do think there is a "force" out there or a higher power if you like. I don't think it is a particularly benevolent force though and perhaps we need to know how to interact and manage the way the force works in our lives. Debra and I have found that when we contact the "force" we can make things happen. Lots of times.

No in fact every time!

Have we had a failure?

Two come to mind.. one is our attempt to buy a particular new house.. so we have come to the conclusion that perhaps the "force" doesn't want us to have this house for whatever reason.

So.. next time the census comes around, again I will nominate Jedi as my religion and again they will ignore it at the census office. (I guess it is staffed by stiff upper lipped public servants imported from mother England to work in the Colonies for a while. "No Jedi Knights here please, we're British!"

It seems to me if people are continuing to say they are Jedis.. then make it an option please. I mean you let the Scientologists in!

Meanwhile.. as you scurry about in your busy life upon this mortal coil... May the Force be with you!

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