Morality is not determined by the church you attend nor the faith you embrace. It is determined by the quality of your character and the positive impact you have on those you meet along your journey
To all my IM friends, here is wishing you the all time best Christmas day imaginable.
And in honor of Bishop Shrewsbury, who hates John Lennon, here is your Christmas song of the day.
Let us hope that we all live to see a day when there is no more war, no more hatred, and no more reason not to love everybody on this planet as if they were your brother or your sister.
The Bishop of Shrewsbury has described the John Lennon song Imagine as “heart-chilling” in a Christmas homily.
Reflecting on this year’s Christmas adverts which focus on the First World War, Bishop Mark Davies will say in a homily on Christmas Day: “The events of Christmas 1914 give the lie to the lazily repeated assertion that ‘religion is the cause of wars’. John Lennon would give voice to this ill-founded belief in the lyrics of his song Imagine. This becomes a heart-chilling vision in which Lennon imagines a world with no hope of heaven and no fear of hell. And he adds, ‘no religion too’. Only then, he suggests will ‘all the people’ be ‘living life in peace.’”
The bishop will continue: “Yet the fact is, the wars of the century past, bringing with them atrocities and destruction on a scale never seen before, were largely inspired by secularist and, indeed, openly anti-Christian ideologies. In reality, it is human sin which lies at the root cause of war. Conflicts, writes St James, arise within the human heart wherever ‘bitter jealousy and selfish ambition’ are found (James 3: 14). Tonight we declare that Christ came to ‘save us from our sins’, to enable us to give glory to God and to bring peace amongst men. Christ calls all who would follow Him to have, as we have just heard in St Paul’s words: ‘no ambition except to do good’ (Titus 2:14).”
That last part is complete bullshit. In fact most wars were either inspired by religious differences, ideological differences, or strategic power grabs.
And the word "sin" is a bullshit primitive definition to explain complicated human behaviors that too many people lack the intellect or patience to understand completley.
As for the John Lennon, well I will take his beautiful song about hope and peace over the Catholic church's doctrine of shame, oppression, and misogyny any day of the week.
While the largest faith in Canada remains Christianity, nearly one-quarter of Canada’s population has no religious affiliation, according to the 2011 National Household Survey released Wednesday.
That’s roughly 7.8 million people who don’t identify with a religion, up from 16.5 per cent of the population a decade earlier.
Free health care (Correction, universal health care.), no constant warring with other nations, and now a dramatic increase in freethinkers.
Last night Cee Lo Green took it upon himself to change the lyrics of John Lennon's most famous song, from:
Imagine there’s no countries It isn’t hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too
To:
Imagine there’s no countries It isn’t hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And all religion’s true
(You can hear the change for yourself by forwarding to the 5:01 mark of this video. By the way, not only did he butcher the song, but he sounded terrible doing it.)
Now I don't care where you are concerning your opinion about religion, but I think most of us can agree that changing this iconic song in this manner is an insult to the memory of a great songwriter, and tireless advocate for peace in the world.
Not to mention that it renders the song virtually nonsensical.
How in the hell can ALL religions be true?
This has really fired up a number of people, and Cee Lo has already had to start a little damage control.
Not even close to being an adequate apology in my opinion.
I am NOT a huge fan of Cee Lo by any means, but John Lennon was considered a god during my youth, and NOBODY has the right to take one of his songs, especially THIS one, and change the lyrics to suit their own personal beliefs. If you don't like the song, then DON'T SING IT!
John Lennon had a very passionate desire to see peace flourish all over the world, and he rightly recognized that much of the violence and hatred stemmed from mankind's insistence that their God was the only true God. He wrote and sang this song in an attempt to plead with people to see the world differently, and to hopefully find a common ground to love one another, and to stop the senseless killing of our brothers and sisters around the world.
I really do believe that, in some small way, his song has had that affect. And that is something to be both honored and respected. And NOT something to be altered to suit your own cowardice, or religious point of view!
(It has also been pointed out that during an appearance on "American Idol" that contestant David Archuleta left out this portion of the song altogether. I don't really give him a pass either, but at least he did not CHANGE THE LYRICS!)
Anyhow my rant is over. However I was wondering if you guys think I am being too sensitive about this, if you agree with my irritation, or if you think I am not pissed off enough.
