"....God is an Astronaut...."

Allah

The name for God, the Supreme Being, in the Arabic language; the common name for God in Islam.

Jehovah

Another name for God; an approximation of the holiest name of God in Hebrew (the name was held so sacred that it was never written or spoken, and scholars are not sure exactly how it should be pronounced). It means “I am that I am,” or “I am the one who is.” In the incident of the burning bush in the Book of Exodus, God, speaking out of the bush, tells Moses that this is his name.

Yahweh

1869, hypothetical reconstruction of the tetragrammaton YHWH (see Jehovah), based on the assumption that the tetragrammaton is the imperfective of Heb. verb hawah, earlier form of hayah "was," in the sense of "the one who is, the existing.


As I sat in my little corner of the office today, working quietly on my faux wood desk, I saw one of the most frightening things I've seen all week. A woman came into the office. Perfume wafted from her in waves, her hair was cut in the typical "look at me, I'm a good, suburban white woman" style, she had the impossibly long fake nails, the too short, too tight denim shorts...but this isn't what frightened me (although it was terrifying to behold). No, what scared me was the t-shirt she had on. "Mr. President. You're Wrong" it boldy declared on the front. "This is a CHRISTIAN NATION! (One country under GOD...founded in 1776) read the back.

Had I not been at work I would have actually said something to this woman. It seems, that like morality and values the "Christians" (and I use the term loosely) of this country have co-opted the name of God as something they and they alone understand, hold dear and believe in. The audacity is amazing.

At the beginning of this post are just a few of the names used around the word for God. I've spoken before about the demonization of the Muslim religion and other atrocities I see being undertaken in the name of "Christianity".

As I thought about what I wanted to say in this post, the brightest image in my overactive imagination was a picture of this woman standing in front of the gates of heaven. St.Peter looks at her, looks at the list and then says, "Well boys, I guess we have to let her in. She wore the t-shirt." If I could draw I would turn it into a cartoon.

All I know is that the afterlife I'm planning on doesn't look anything like the place this woman is obviously picturing. The God I believe in isn't going to reward people for self-righteous back patting, homophobic paranoia or any of the other nonsense being shoved forward by the "good christians" of this country. My God created everything just the way it is, good and bad alike. My God will welcome everyone. My God doesn't exclude based on a pronunciation, a book, a lifestyle or any other silly criteria. How about your God?