Jesus loves you; everyone else thinks you're an asshole

A couple have come to the Dr. Phil show today because they are having "trouble" in their marriage.  The "trouble" is that the woman is a psycho control freak and the man is persistently abusive physically and emotionally.  She claims to fear him, but gets up into his face and dares him to hurt her while she slings a blue-streak of profane insults at him, so he throws her up against the wall until she loses consciousness.  They look normal; they're middle class, white, seemingly educated, and the best part of it all is the husband claims in one breath that he's "seen the light" and "turned his life over to Jesus," but then will admit to saying that he was going to kill his wife and prostitute his daughter out to spite her.  He prays every day; he goes to the whole bizarre Promise Keepers kind of thing.  Why have these people been allowed to breed?  I'm so disgusted as I watch this show by the histrionics that people undergo to the degree that it lands them on the freakin' Dr. Phil show, and that they don't care one whit for their child.  The third time this man insisted he'd put it into the hands of God, I hoped only that if there is a God, and he has hands, that they would burst forth from the sky and strangle this fool on national television. 

I saw a bumper sticker this afternoon on the highway that read, "Aren't you glad your mother was pro-life?"  AUGH.  Wouldn't you know it was belly-up to a Bush/Cheney sticker.  Why would I wish my mother was pro-life, so she could have me out of guilt or obligation or - whatever?  I wanted to run this idiot off the road and inform him that my mother was in fact pro-choice and I'm much more thankful for that fact because it means she had me because she wanted to.  I was a welcome and wanted addition to her life.  Anyone who has a child under circumstances any less than this out of some bizarre moral obligation only dooms said child to a life of misery; before anyone can retort with my favorite stand-by argument about adoption, it only works if people do it, and it's only a useful solution if the child is healthy.  Typical adoptive parents don't want meth-addicted underweight babies with a life of costly and emotionally draining health issues in front of them.  

Sorry for the rant, but this same person had another bumper sticker praising Jesus or some such thing, and I can't help but respond negatively to this stimulus, particularly given my previous discussions about my jaded view of organized religion.  

I'm agnostic, I suppose, with leanings toward belief in God, but you don't see me wandering about the world enforcing my beliefs or lack thereof on others, do you?  When was the last time I publicly berated someone (or many) with my bumper stickers?  I hate that people get away with this kind of shit, when the case is if I put a sticker on my car that says something like "too bad your mother wasn't pro-choice" - do you think the person driving that car would take kindly to that?  Would that guy have thought, I wonder what Jesus would do?  One of the funniest things in the world to me is the people who wield this question as if it were a weapon against the rest of the heathen world, putting the initials on bracelets, and yet I've never encountered a single person wearing some version of that on a car or a shirt who behaved in any way comparable to what - based on my own reading of the Bible - the character of Jesus would in fact do.  I'm never sure what Bible these folks have read, but the one I read and was force-fed my whole life portrayed a character who was kind and peaceful and non-judgmental.  Would Jesus lecture other people on how to live their lives, or knock on their doors with literature and free Books of Mormon, or put stupid bumper stickers on his car about being pro-life?  

Yesterday afternoon, a kindly looking senior citizen knocked upon my front door, greeted me kindly, and then offered me some religious tract and wanted to know if he could "minister" to me.  The Mormons were last week.  Apparently Easter is a big deal, one of the money-making days for churches; time to get butts in seats.  No one around here seems to care about my immortal soul any other time of the  year.  

Don't misunderstand me; I am across the board pro-choice.  Vote how you see fit; go to church or don't but be honest about it; have premarital sex or don't, but be informed and smart about your decisions; drink or don't; take drugs or don't; wear your seatbelt or don't.  The decisions each of us make create our realities, not words in books, but if that comforts you - if reading the Bible and going to church gives you peace and happiness, then rock on.  Sometimes I wish it did the same for me but it doesn't.  People should believe what they want, do what's best for them, and make choices according to their own consciences.  If it's possible for you to believe that a man named Joseph Smith found gold tablets with the word of God on them sometime in the nineteenth century and God told him to have several wives and live in Utah, then go for it.  If you believe in praying to saints, knock yourself out.  If you dance naked in circles with your wiccan friends and chant and wear crystals, by all means continue to do so.  

Just leave me the hell out of it.