Sceptic's Creed

Someone sent me this - it originated at Greenbelt, I believe. Thought it was worth sharing with the world at large, and thank you to the anonymous author.

I don’t believe George Bush was elected by God,
I don’t believe the United Nations is an instrument of the devil,
I don’t believe there were weapons of mass destruction,
I don’t believe the invasion was unavoidable,
I don’t believe Iran should be next,
I don’t believe the missile is on the side of good and the Iraqi child on the side of evil,
I don’t believe might is right,
I don’t believe modern western capitalism equates with freedom
I don’t believe Jesus Christ told his disciples to go out and tell the world the good news but carpet bomb those who wouldn’t listen,
I don’t believe lasting democracy can come at gunpoint,
I don’t believe we should be surprised when every dead child, every occupied
street, every suspect held without trial, inspires another young man with
fiery eyes to dream of dying in battle against the great Satan,
I don’t believe the USA is evil,
I don’t believe violence breeds anything but violence,
I don’t believe the USA is the policeman of the world,
I don’t believe we’re living in the end times, necessarily,
I don’t believe the Pope is the anti-christ,
I don’t believe faith is easy,
I don’t believe God made the world in seven days although he might have,
I don’t believe God is a He, at least not only,
I don’t believe the slick pastors and prosperity teachers and supper club proselytisers and soccer mums against angry music and gun owners against gays are the church, only.
And yet, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal saviour,
I believe the people who got Bush elected are my brothers and sisters,
I believe they make me cringe in shame,
I believe I’m called to love them as strongly as some of them hate gays, blacks, Arabs or Catholics.
I believe like them that Christ was the Son of God, who came to reconcile humanity with the divine,
I believe in a God of mercy and compassion and justice and love who commands
us the free the prisoners, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give help to the poor,
I believe that the crying and the dying goes on, even while we watch Big Brother, and eat too much and squabble about penal substitution,
I believe that if we really meant the words we say in church we would stop talking and do something about it instead,
I believe that some do, and they are the hands of God,
I believe that all our lives are compromised and guilt ridden and swing between
selfishness and compassion but that we are loved,
I believe that Tony Blair who spoke of the suffering of Africa as a scar on the conscience of the world, who promised and delivered more money for schools and hospitals, who bows his head in prayer, has fallen a long way,
I believe the war was a betrayal,
I believe that people of faith have allowed hatred and bigotry to become the public voice of the church; have allowed our faith to become equated with a way of life that pursues money, sex and power; have allowed Christianity to mean McDonalds, have allowed the rest of the world to think of us as people who have nothing better to do than stand outside the BBC shouting with nothing more offensive to demonstrate against but a light opera, we bomb, we invade, we exploit, and we protest against the word F***,
I believe it is time the hesitant, doubting, questioning ones of us who believein compassion, inclusiveness and equality, began to say so with as loud a voice as theirs,
I believe I am a Labour voter who is ashamed of my Prime Minister,
I believe I am a Christian who is ashamed of my church,
I believe it is time that people like us declared that we are the church too, because otherwise, to whom Lord should I turn?

Thank you to whoever that was - I feel verbally beaten up again, but prophets are never easy to live with - that seems to be the point of them!