What’s the Difference Between “Good” and “Godly”?
One time I went to a bible study where the minister spoke
for an hour or so about the difference between being “Godly” and being merely “good.”
He was essentially arguing that everyone who was not in “God’s True Church,” their “goodness”
was of “The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,” while ours was “Godliness,”
because as faithful followers, we were all partaking of “The
Tree of Life.” During the course of laying out his argument, he made several
ludicrous statements that left many people other than me also scratching their
heads and asking some pointed followup questions. Now that I look back on it, I realize
that by picking that topic, he was forcing himself into a position in which he
would have to say a few ludicrous things because he was trying to prove something
that wasn’t true.
I was raised in the theory, and believed for so many years,
that because I was raised in WCG by parents who were faithful believers, that
their children are therefore sanctified, as Paul says:
1Cor 7:14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the
wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your
children unclean; but now are they holy.
And then, when I was baptized, so the theory went, I had to
have the holy spirit, if for no other reason than because that is what the
bible said God had promised. I had followed all the rules, just the way HWA and
the bible said.
In time, I had to begin to admit to myself that I had no
empirical evidence to suggest that this theory was true. When I talked to other
people about my inability to confirm this theory with any sort of experience of
power or help that might be associated with the presence of the holy spirit, they
would say things like, "that's everyone's experience."
Finally, I had to admit that it made no sense for me to believe
that I had the holy spirit. The real world told me that I was not who church
leaders told me I was. We were not "God's people." "God's True Church"
was just a social club of people with rich imaginations united by a generous
helping of gullible. (Now, I just hate it whenever I hear people say
"God's" anything, because I know that what I'm hearing is a lie being
repeated by a stupid person who is willing to believe in anything for no
reason.)
It doesn't matter where you put the holes, whether you
attribute them to HWA, Church of God Seventh Day, some other broken link in the
chain, or even the bible itself, it doesn't change the fact that I believed, I
played by the rules, and God did not honor the promises that people, including
Apostle Paul, told me He would. If God isn't delivering on things promised
during this lifetime, then why should He be expected to deliver on things
promised for after I die? Tilt. Train wreck. Full stop. End of story.
There are plenty of good, moral, and ethical people in the
world who don't believe in God. I am just tired of the idea that all those
decent people are “evil,” “lost” or “deceived” simply because they don’t
believe in the social club, the rituals, the afterlife, etc. I am tired of the idea
that I am somehow “better,” “special” or “holy” because I have performed the
rituals and believed that God was working with me (even though He wasn’t). If
there is an afterlife, can’t I just believe when I get there? Why should
believing without any reason to so all-important? Can’t I just be honest about
all of this? Why can’t it be good enough to be merely “good”?
What is the difference between being “Godly” and being merely
“good”? In one case, I am deceived, superstitious, and elitist, in the other I
am just a regular guy trying to do what is right. Either with or without an
iPhone and a Prius (in my case, without). Hmm.
How about, can we just agree that religious people don’t have a monopoly
on being deceived, superstitious, and elitist? And therein lies my point: there
aren’t any real differences. We’re all just people who are trying to do what is
right in our own eyes, even if we have radically different ideas about what is
good and what is right.
The truth is, merely “good” is all I’ve ever been. I have no
room for the baggage, the elitism, and the superstition anymore. All of that
stuff just gets in my way. The idea that I was ever anything more than merely “good”
was an illusion that was pawned off on me from before I was old enough to sort
out the lies from the fiction. Maybe merely “good” without all that other crap
is actually better than with it. It’s certainly more honest.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe that there is plenty of wisdom
in the bible, and in many other religions and philosophies of the world too.
The problem is, I think that because life is as complicated as it is, religion
gets complicated too, perhaps overcomplicated. But maybe it shouldn’t. Maybe
religion ought to be a simplifying force instead. The whole point of religion
is to help us make sense out of life. Making sense out of life implies allowing
us to see it in simpler terms. For thousands of years, the simplifying aspects
of religion has been conveying peaceful wisdom, while the complicating aspects
have been drawing people out into the battlefields. I don’t see why religion
itself is not of “The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.”
So, what is the simple wisdom? Be honest with
yourself. Do unto others as they would have you do unto them. Deal with each
other in good faith. Be optimistic about others. Fall in love with humanity,
warts and all.
Why can’t this be good enough? Can’t we just let all the other baggage go? All it does is complicate
things and makes it more difficult to live up to any of the simple, yet
profound stuff.
