Chatting to God

My friend A's girlfriend halfway round the world, O, has a chat with God as an introduction to her blog page. A asked me what I thought, and wondered if I'd write to her about it.

So I did. And here's what I wrote:


Hi O! 
A asked me what I thought of your chat with God. It reminds me of my friend in Jakarta, U. She's a devout Muslim, and prays five times a day, and must be one of the most deeply religious people in Indonesia (not superficial shit like a lot of her political-religious leader "friends"). She writes books about Islam, and the Hadj and so on. 
Anyway, I'm an atheist and disagree completely about surface religion - churches, mosques, this god or that god, but she still thinks I'm one of her very best friends. Cos she wrote a lot of poetry - and I was one of the few people who knew what she was talking about. It was real - sex and guilt and duty, temptation and not knowing what to do. 
And I know what she's talking about (most of the time) when she talks about religion. Most times we chat, I ask her to say Hi to Allah from me and she does. 
So, if a personal feeling is deep and heartfelt, no problem in my view, unless it's hateful and intolerant - but I wouldn't call feelings like that (witch-hunting, racism, bigotry) deep or heartfelt. Deep is human - they haven't got that far down in themselves. Heartfelt - well, you need a heart for that.
And for me, a deeply private relationship between someone and their god is no political problem at all - the problems start with the churches and the mosques - the Popes and Vaticans of the world. The born-again Baptist bastards like Bush. 
It's a bit like ice cream - if you pay it's yours to do what you like with, any flavour you like. You pay, you pray ;-)
Which means churches and so on are fine as long as the believers pay for them themselves.
I myself wouldn't have a chat with God or Allah in my page, but I'm not you ;-)
Nice warm hug from chilly Stockholm,


Chops