I grew up in a giant Irish Catholic family.

I also grew up with a father who would go to sweat lodges and smoke a peace pipe. We had a Christmas tree and Solstice tree. It was…well, confusing sometimes.

But it was also rich. From my earliest beginnings my ideas about God or religion were formed in a way that never claimed an absolute truth. This left me open to ideas and also skeptical of calling anything The Thing.

When I first saw this video I laughed.  When I watched it again, I laughed and I wanted to share. I wanted to, but I didn’t. I could imagine the mine field, and didn’t feel like detonating any kind of Facebook feud.

I have been reading with deep sadness about the conflict in Israel and Palestine and I have been thinking about how different things might be if our identities could be fused with the idea that before any other thing we are human.

We might be different. We may have ideas that are in direct contradiction with someone else, but first we are human. We can practice acceptance and we can even laugh. And we can talk. And we can share.

And honestly if I could, I would have a beer with Jesus. I would have a beer with a lot of people, but Jesus would be amongst them.

As the song says (it is a real song by country star Thomas Rhett), “I would order up a couple tall ones and tell the waitress to put them on my tab.”

 

 

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Editor: Travis May

Images: Funny or Die