God rides the 3?

Every day I go to Temple, I ride SEPTA's bus route 3. And nearly every single time I'm on that bus that goes from the Frankford Transportation Center toward Strawberry Mansion, someone is preaching about God. Typically, it's an old black woman talking to another old black woman or maybe a young person who she thinks is especially deserving of her sermons.

The thing is, I really struggle to believe in God. At least in the way that these women view him, as someone you devote your life to. I live according to different beliefs. The overarching belief I live by is that I can do anything I want to. The power, I like to think, is in my hands.

And even if there is a God, I imagine that the optimal relationship with him is more like the relationship between an employee and their employer. The more you put into your 401K, the more the company will have to match.

I think this is exactly how one should think of God's gifts to him or her; God will only match the effort you put into your life. If you do nothing to lead a good life, to achieve the goals you have, then God will not help.

More than this, I believe that the Christian notion of God as this all-mighty being that you must serve all of your life is a farce. What a selfish God he or she would have to be to expect every single human to live their life in service of him. I do believe in being a good person, in being righteous and accepting and forgiving. I just don't believe in serving a master. Honestly, when you think about it, Christianity is a system of slavery to a master that hardly anyone has ever interacted with. And after all the lectures and classes I've taken on the enslavement of Africans in America, I just can't subscribe to such a belief system.

So, old ladies on the 3, the next time you want to lecture about God, I will whip out this sermon of mine.

(The above picture was taken by Lauren Townsend, in the Woodland Cemetery in West Philadelphia.)