God rules . . .

 My earliest memories about God are  from kindergarten, which was in 1953, at Edgar C. Stiles public elementary school on Main Street in West Haven.  It was the year before I went to St. Lawrence.  Edgar C. Stiles was just under a half mile from my house.  Had to cross Elm Street, and the intersection at Wagner Place and Main Street.  But there was a traffic cop, named Mac, at Main, and no one ever got run over.  I used to walk to school, and walk home.  By myself.  At the age of five.  Truly, it was a different world then . . .

My teachers were Miss Skinner and Mrs. Jorgenson.  As part of the curriculum, we were taught the Lord's Prayer-- I know, I know.  Hard to imagine, isn't it? . . . but those were the good old days, before God got kicked out of public school.  In Matthew 6: 13, the King James Version reads: "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen."

And that was what they taught us.  Initially.  After we'd learned it, and had gotten used to saying it in unison each morning, I got a surprise.  One morning, Miss Skinner told me "Bruce, you're Catholic.  You don't say the 'for thine is the kingdom' part.  You stop after 'evil' and come back in at 'Amen,' ok?" 

"But I like that part!" I protested.  "But you're Catholic, and you don't say that part," she answered.  I think I remember asking "why not?"  But I don't remember if the answer ever went beyond "because you're a Catholic, not a protestant."

So, I'm five years old, and they're teaching me to talk to God- the King Of The Universe, but they're telling me that because of what I am, there's a specific way, specific words I have to use, other words I can't use  when I do it.  Might have been the first time I went to hell.

That was the year I learned the pledge of allegiance too.  And again, just when we had it down, they changed it.  This time, they stuck "under God" in the middle, right after "one nation."  Think I could remember that?  Took a week to get it in the right place consistently.

Right off the bat, I learned that God was very complicated.  "You have to say it this way.  You can't say it that way."  Why?  Because you're Catholic! Only the protestants say it that way, not the Catholics. So I wonder . . . does God not like Catholics?  Does He like protestants better? Is that why He won't let us finish the prayer that they get to pray?  And why didn't they just teach us the pledge the right way in the first place?  Was God angry that we'd left Him out?  And how did they know? 

Then I went to St. Lawrence, and as the years went by, God just got more and more baffling.  And the more I tried to find clarity the more confused I became.  Hence my aversion to going to hell on an ongoing basis. 

Why didn't God have the same rules for everyone?

Why, indeed . . .