Being Christian

I'm not a Christian in the sense of believing in a God, but I grew up in a Christian family, and to me, the objectives of a Christan life are almost the only objectives worth aiming for. 

But recently, I read that the murder of John Kennedy was very likely linked to his serious, no nonsense attitude towards the state of Israel.  Remember the book Da Vinci Code?  The religious leaders kept their hands clean, but managed to convey to unscrupulous operatives what they wanted—even up to murder—and the killings were carried out.  In the book (which was presented as fiction, and was probably mostly fiction) the assassins were given religious absolution in advance, so that they could plan their killings without the fear of eternal damnation hanging over their heads.  In the case of Israeli operatives, I doubt that the calculus of sin and punishment was as finely worked out as it was among the catholics, but the brutality of how they torture poor Palestinian children, performing surgery without anesthesia, etc, seems almost too brutal to be true.  But when I was a kid, hearing about the Kennedy assassination, I didn't have the slightest inkling that the state of Israel was even tangentially connected with it. 

I'm reading a book by Caren Werlinger, about a monastic order of nuns, and how their vague interest in (pre-internet) news from the outside world swelled to a flood after the Kennedy assassination.  Of course, the nation as a whole viewed Catholics with dislike and distrust, and some Protestants would have been pleased to remove a catholic president.  But the Israelis had the money (actually, American money) to exert the sort of pressure that works so well in this country.  Just the fact that this order of monastic nuns, who would never hurt or harm any being (other than each other!) would be horrifying themselves listening to the news on the radio, and being shocked at the murders of Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, makes me deeply sorry. 

I forgot where I was going with all this. 

Well.  Having religious beliefs helps to simplify life to a great extent.  But not enough to deal with Trump.  That wasn't the point of my Blog post today, but there it is. 

Kay