God:
The 2005 Man Of The Year

As 2005 draws to a close, it's a time for reporters to crank out wrapup stories, create best-of lists, and give out this and that of the year awards.

In that vein, The Marshall Occasional would like to name its Man of the Year.

God.

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Here's a major difference between Internet media and mainstream media. It's pretty much impossible to write about God in the mainstream media. No matter what you say, you'll anger somebody -- and if you take the objective approach as I do, you'll pretty much anger everybody.

American Christians, especially those who believe the Bible is accurate and inerrant, simply do not want to hear that the story of the Great Flood appears mostly word-for-word in the centuries-earlier Iraqi epic tales of Gilgamesh. They don't want to hear that Confucious articulated the Golden Rule 500 years before the New Testament.

That's why our Man of the Year isn't just the standard Sunday School wise old man up in Heaven.

It's everybody's God.

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In the U.S., the Christian God became a big deal when exit polls from the 2004 election showed one in five voters were values driven -- pollster speak for Christian conservatives. This immediately made them a valuable market segment, particularly to the Republican political-industrial complex.

Overtures ranged from the Terry Schiavo tragedy to a ringing defense against a made-up war on Christmas. The catering to the value voter even showed up in a failed cover for a failed Supreme Court nominee, as Harriet Miers was marketed with a wink and a nod -- we can't say how she stands on abortion, but she belongs to our church, hint-hint.

Overseas, the two versions of the Islamic God -- the one which prohibits the slaughter of innocents and the one which apparently mandates it -- shared the same bloody stage. American soldiers who had hoped for a walk-on part in nation building wound up starring players in a simmering civil war. One wonders what the Prophet, peace be unto him, would make of it all.

To those who see environmentalism as their version of religion/spirituality, there was plenty of proof of an angry Gaia in 2005 -- storms, earthquakes, budding pandemics. There are other environmentalists, of course, who see the destructive hands of man at work here, not God, but that's a column for another day.

In the Buddhist world, in the kingdom of Bhutan -- a peaceful, idyllic country that officially measures its Gross National Happiness -- the king announced he would abdicate in favor of a democracy. Just when that should cheer you up came word in the New York Times that a number of young Tibetan exiles are losing faith in the Dalai Lama, and are advocating violence as a way to regain freedom from China.

And finally, for those who believe God was revealed to Earthlings through alien visitors, it was time to celebrate the union of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.

Even I said "Oh, my God" when I heard that.

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I would be remiss if I didn't include the Catholic Church in any religious overview of 2005, considering the passing of Pope John Paul -- not to mention Pope Benedict the XVI's edict that you can be a priest as long as you're only a little bit gay.

Also, I saw a Time magazine editor make the argument that every year the President of the United States could be the Time Person of the Year, so I guess one could make the argument that God would fall in the same category.

It's been a staple of thundering preachers for years that god was going to destroy the Earth.

Nowadays, one has to wonder if it's not some Supreme Being but the sheer concept of god that's going to do the trick.

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