Michael Writes

I still believe that people are good at heart.  Despite what the news media would have us believe - it is no coincidence that the standard motto is ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ - people want good things for others just as much as they want good things for themselves.

My recent skin cancer scare led several well-meaning people to ask if I minded if they prayed for me.  While this is a standard practice for most, it made me smile because I am not a Christian and it is taken for granted these days that everyone is.  The fact of the matter is that I don’t subscribe to any belief system over another but I find my own ideals more fostered within the Buddhist faith.  When I was in the Air Force where a religious declaration is required on your dog tags, Buddhism was my choice.

Still I don’t find it the least bit offensive when someone tells me that they’d like to pray for me, so long as their intentions are pure.  It is those who discover my sexual identity and tell me they’re going to pray that their God shows me the depths of my sinful ways that I find offensive.  Anyone who wants to say a little prayer for me is most welcome to do so; I know I don’t have all the answers and it’s far too self-involved for me to think otherwise.

Before I close my eyes at night I say my own little prayer of sorts, though it is more often called a chant.

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

It brings about a real sense of peace and centers me when the world around me becomes uneven and chaotic.  I don’t generally go around offering to chant for people who are ill or going through rough times, mainly because here in Alabama that sort of talk would result in my being labeled a gay terrorist.  Southern Baptists, after all, don’t chant.

The frightening thing to me is that in this day and age of the Internet and the vast amounts of information it contains, people are so willing to take the word of religious zealots and political bigots, the current in-thing is to label anything that isn’t ‘American as apple pie’ as terrorist in nature.

I’m not a terrorist, just a guy who doesn’t share your blind faith.

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