Mocking and Bashing

 SIX YEARS AGO I suggested that we recite the pledge of allegiance every day at the senior center before lunch, right after we pray. It seemed appropriate to me, patriotic. My suggestion was turned down, flat.I waited a couple of years, and brought up the same suggestion for the new director. More open minded and patriotic, she said: "Fine. You lead the pledge and the prayer every day" I agreed, and I started leading the group pledge and prayer every day just before lunch. Fortunately for the senor center, somebody, I, was patriotic enough to initiate the pledge of allegiance. Nobody else was, among the conservatives. I only did the praying myself when nobody else volunteered. I improvised my own prayers, expressing my true feelings about giving thanks to God, and I received compliments for them. I considered a great honor to express my love of God and country with others, leading them. Two directors later I was notified that I was being relieved of my duties. The reason given is that some of the seniors felt uncomfortable with me leading the pledge and prayer because I "bash" conservatives on this website, and I "mock" God"..Poor sensitive little wall snowflakes. How horrible , their discomfort. As if only conservatives are patriotic, fit to lead the pledge. I'm sure none of them ever has anything unpleasant to say about liberalism.. It looked more like hatred than discomfort. Permit me to say that anyone, anywhere, anytime, who accuses me of "mocking God" is a liar,  and owes me an apology, but probably lacks the decency, integrity, and the courage to offer one. I believe in god, I love god, and i admire God, actually. I do not worship; I consider worship an extreme stat of mind, comparable to being madly in love or violently angry, irrational, a form of mental illness. and even if I were an atheist, what of it? religious belief and virtue are not the same thing. to be an atheist is perfectly acceptable in a nation of religious freedom and tolerance. I, however, believe in God. I have never in my life mocked God, nor would I ever, and I deeply resent any suggestion that I "mock" God. My religiosity, to quote Einstein, consists in humble admiration for the infinitely superior spirit which reveals itself in nature. Our conservative christian friends might benefit by being respectfully reminded that their faith has a monopoly on neither the concept of God, nor the believe therein. Concerning my alleged bashing of conservatives, I plead guilty, proudly so. To have been bestowed with the tile "conservative basher" is among the great honors of my life, and I pledge to live up to it. I bash conservatives for supporting Donald Trump,  for supporting him even after he incited an insurrection and attempted to violently overthrow the government, which I consider traitorous. I bash conservatives who refuse to accept the results of a fair and free election, thus undermining our democracy. The proper way to respond to an election is to congratulate the winner in this case Joe Biden. I bash conservatives who refuse to accept the reality of human made climate change, even though the Department of Defense identifies it as Americas greatest national security threat. To pretend that a grave threat to our country does not exist I consider treasonous. More than eighty percent of the evangelical christian community still supports Trump, and claims that the election was stolen from him; to me they are traitors, like Trump. When anyone, including Christians, contends that people of all other religions, and there are thousands or religions in the world, are following a false god and religion, and are doomed to damnation because of it, I believe that is is they who are mocking god, not I. All religions are attempts to seek God, and are true, for their believers. Those who complained about my leading the pledge are petty, and they should feel uncomfortable with their own pettiness, not with my valid objections to conservatism and to people of faith who are intolerant of the beliefs of others. The probably do. I am the patriotic one, and the one who loves God, and I am not the one  who mocks God. Despite their pettiness, I still love these people, and I assume they love me, assuming, of course, that they have read and understand the message of Jesus, and live by it, just like I do.