I stood at the edge of the northernmost point of Mission Peninsula, a finger reaching out into Lake Michigan. The day was bright and a cool breeze tossed refreshed the moment and the small waves at the shoreline beckoned me to get my feet wet. The distant laughter and chatter of tourists at the lighthouse made me realize that the world spins and life goes on even when one person’s day has just gone all wrong and human aberrations still dominate religion. The breeze moved the trees and the water and the sky in it’s iridescent blue framed the day. But I knew something was wrong. After all this was Yom Kippur and my husband and I had just left the local synagogue group to find a place to relax for a couple of hours and decide if we would return or if we would write off the whole mess. We still were shaking inwardly at the thought that the rabbi and his “partner” were homosexuals. And this rabbi (though I feel he does not deserve the title) had invited his “father in law,” an Anglican minister to give the sermon on the holiest day of the year. A day when congregants seek forgiveness of sin and assurance of a good new year. What absurdity! And all the preparation of the month before in examining our souls for repentance and cleansing on this great day, now seemed about as important as the laughing crowd down the beach. A willow tree swung its weeping branches across my vision and I realized that the Creator might just express things better in nature than in these hunks of twisted humanity that fit nowhere and yet assume the position of a pulpit to lead G-d’s people!

The black sand got all over my shoes but I didn’t care. I stood there wishing I could plunge beneath the gentle waves and cleanse my soul, and in a way it was a better service than the one we just left. Let nature speak to me, for what do the lies of mankind matter? Dressed in white and wishing for something that would help us enjoy the day, we felt nauseous after what we had gone through in the morning. We had said nothing about our thoughts to anyone at the synagogue. We actually did not realize the significance of the scene before us until after the sermon, when the minister remarked in his parting words. “Yes, G-d sees things differently than we do! My son married a rabbi, who wanted a hog roast for his wedding reception!” And that is when we knew. As we walked out of the foyer one of the chatty older women asked us how we liked it. We asked her if the rabbi was really a homosexual, and she replied; “oh yes, and isn’t he wonderful?” and I wanted to vomit and to scream. But we quietly left to drive up to the beach and get away from it all. Driving is something we do not usually do on Holy Days, yet at this moment, it was a better choice of mitzvah. And now we were at the beach, but the light and meaningless chatter behind us reminded us that we share a world with the careless and that even there, we would not find the needed consolation.

Who decides what is right and what is wrong when there are few fundamental principles that are engraved, as it were in stone, set up as a basis for eternal judgment? Has mankind progressed to such an extent that he no longer needs a guide as archaic as the ten commandments? When the ancient wisdom handed down from a loving Creator is no longer deemed viable for a world that bases its truth on relativity and adaptation, where, I ask will we end up? Religious fundamentalists infer that the world’s horrific natural events stem from its defiance of the laws established by the Creator are mocked and derided and they go into their closets and end up keeping their mouths shut.

Society’s liberal laws protect from judgment those who debase themselves and foster unnatural affection, burning in lust for that which mankind was never created. And those who show a disregard for this society run the risk of lawsuits and jail time and the hatred of the mob for inferring that what they do is not right.

Religions, to show their progressive acceptance of society’s abrogations of the fundamental rules of the Bible, hire clergy who are anything but examples of truth and piety. Instead of helping these abnormal souls, lost in a world of disobedience and sin and defiance of the G-d of Heaven, it is as if, society and its misplaced compassion for those that practice evil, find an excuse to spit in the face of the Almighty. These mixed-up creatures need someone to lead them to repent and return to the ONE who made them, but instead, churches embrace them not only as normal but as special people who are fit to lead others in the observance of that which once was about G-d and his desires for mankind. They are esteemed as examples of that which can lead the masses to follow more closely the divine plan. And the congregants love them and boast: “Look how we have progressed!” And all heaven shudders as G-d positions himself to raise up off his holy throne and declare war on a world gone mad.

Who among the sons of man will stand in awe of the holiness of G-d’s name and declare the separation of the children of light from the children of darkness? Who will draw the line in the sand and ask “who is on the LORD’s side?” Who will insist that those of clear and untainted conscience step over into the safety of the few who attach themselves to the eternal precepts of G-d’s word?

The world of religion, where not fully aligned with the agenda of evil, is weak. Fear of loss of worldly comfort keeps many from speaking out and they go along to get along and the world tolerates and reels to and fro as the drunken orgy of wickedness leads those who once dedicated themselves to the truth to follow weakly along, embracing that which G-d hates. There is little faith and little hope in mankind and the world cries under Heaven’s hand as hurricane after hurricane hits the vulnerable planet and fires burn as if added fuel has been added to devastate great parts of the earth. And this will happen until somebody gets the idea that the evil must be stopped. Who will stop this nonsense and return us to a humble religion of piety and regard for the Creator who made us? Or has society gone so far that there is no return? Can a kingdom of peace be established when war is not made with sin? Light was the first thing created by G-d at the beginning. The very next thing that G-d did was to separate the Light from the darkness. But man continues to say that his ways are better and that light can exist within darkness. It is only the mind of rebellion that tries to mix darkness and light. There is NO middle ground no place for mixture. Until light stands alone to reveal the darkness for what it is, there will be no change and the world careens towards an abyss that buries the light in indifference and unwillingness to stand. The end of all things may well be just around the corner UNLESS…