The Church of the Heavenly KISS was introduced in a novel I wrote in 2017 called The Road King Chronicles: Second Hand Snake. In that book, the idea arose from discussions among three fictional characters: an Army Ranger named Roman Keane, his brother, a Jesuit priest named Virgil Keane, and a Cherokee medicine woman named Maggie Keystone. Those three frequently talked about religion and man’s purpose in life in that book and others in the Road King Chronicles series.
Maggie was raised in the Cherokee religion and she was taught to revere all of nature. All of the Earth; its plants, its animals and its peoples. She believed that these are gifts from an entity known as the Creator, and that it would be wrong to abuse them. When the Christian missionaries came and forced their religious beliefs on the Cherokee, she thought, well... this sounds basically like what we already believe, but with a different cast of characters and names. After she had been a medicine woman for many years, she came to believe that all religions were simply stories invented by people to explain things they did not understand.
Roman and Virgil Keane are twins in the Road King Chronicles series. They were raised as Christians but were separated as teenagers and followed different paths through life as adults. Virgil embraced religion and devoted his life to God. He became a Jesuit, an elite organization among Catholic priests called the Society of Jesus and sometimes referred to as “Soldiers of Christ.” Like many Jesuits, Virgil was a bit unorthodox and frequently drew the ire of his superiors by straying from the standard Catholic teachings. Roman, on the other hand, didn’t think much about religion. Even as a young boy he saw that much of what he was being taught made little sense and he was acutely aware of the hypocrisy and arrogance of many in the church to which his parents belonged.
The question of god was as simple to him as the line from the Allman Brothers song Wasted Words: “Your wasted words already been heard, are you really god, yes or no?” Roman joined the Army, qualified as a Ranger and became the epitome of a modern warrior; tough, practical and a natural leader.
Although Maggie, Virgil and Roman often argued about the virtues and shortcomings of religion, Virgil was the first among them to go beyond talk, printing an updated version of the Ten Commandments for his parishioners that he felt better reflected modern times. But it was Roman who came up with the concept of the Church of the Heavenly KISS. Relying on commonsense and his experiences in the military, Roman pared his beliefs about the purpose of life down to the simplest terms. He replaced the Ten Commandments of Christianity with Ten Commitments that people could make for themselves. Roman’s straightforward, simple non-religion resonated with readers who said that the Church of the Heavenly KISS may have been born in fiction, but it helped them handle the real world. Many of them shared the idea with their friends and some suggested that I write more about it. There was enough pushing and prodding that I finally produced this short book. I have expanded on Roman’s observations about religion and elaborated on his suggestions, but I have not strayed from his original simplicity.
The intent of this book is not to tell anyone what to believe, only to show another point of view. If you are content to follow your religion, obeying its rules and beliefs without question as many people do, then this book is not for you. Congratulations if your religion guides you along a useful life that makes you happy. However, if you are frustrated by your religion and go to church and mouth the words but doubt the truth of them, then this book is for you. If you see, like Roman, Virgil and Maggie, that all religions are basically the same and yet they are nonsensically fighting each other, then read on. If you open your eyes to the world around you and see that religion limits your possibilities and shrinks your horizons, then you may like the Church of the Heavenly KISS.
You’ve only got one life and you’ve got to make the most of it. If your religion keeps you from doing that, then it’s time for a change. But ditching your religion is a huge step. How do you know if it’s right for you? You can start by asking yourself a few questions.
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In the year 2000, if somebody had suggested that I look around for another religion, I would have listened, but probably ignored looking anywhere... Don't get me wrong, I had had questions related to Christianity--not of Jesus Himself and His Words; but, in relation to the Book that was attached to Him. And, the seeming hypocrisy of many in this world.
However, if you are like me, you were really thrown into a period of questioning when the Evangelical Christians moved to support the last president. What were they thinking, I wondered. Today in 2024, I've read a number of different books trying to explain that decision or listened to many videos related to religion... This book is one of them, a short book that gets right to the point of the sub-title... Are you a Person who doesn't like Religion?
Having grown up in the Baptist Church, and being fully active for most of my life, that seems to be a trick question, doesn't it? Because, suddenly, a group of conservative christians were supporting a man who incited hate, division, and, lately violence as part of his role in life... I have NO question that this man is NOT chosen by God to lead America as many are trying to claim. So where does that leave many of us who have become confused and, perhaps, cynical as we watch what is going on...
Harry Harrigan had used the phrase of the Heavenly KISS in a previous novel. After having people ask about this concept, he decided to proceed and write this book. This book has two parts: First the author suggests that you ask some basic questions about your own feelings about religion. I'm providing my thoughts--this is the more important part, don't you think? Perhaps my thoughts will expedite your thinking as well...
Why Am I In This Church Anyway?
I had long ago realized that I was Baptist because it was one of the two churches in my small community growing up. Since then, I've attended a Methodist Church and also visited prayer sessions with Catholic leaders. I liked that John the Baptist was the man who Jesus asked to Baptize Him and found most of the sermons relevant and beneficial... Church selection was thereafter a matter of my location and what churches were within the vicinity.
If I don’t really believe my parents’ religion, what’s keeping me in it?
Although we were all active in church, there was little actual religious ceremony within our family. Perhaps that was because my father had been killed before I was born and my Mother saw her role as getting her children into Church. Later, she ensured our involvement by having two of us taught piano so that we could share that new skill there.
Wasn’t this country founded on Christianity?
Frankly, the correlation between our country with our church was never a consideration within our family. As changes were made in my life; e.g., removal of saying The Lord's Prayer in school along with the Pledge to the Flag, it made me think about this. It didn't take long for me to realize that there were many in America who were not Christian. In fact, there were atheists or others who didn't participate in any church. A number of those individuals began looking at and seeking a separation of church and state. I considered and ultimately decided that this was appropriate. After all, a relationship with Jesus was a personal interaction that, on the surface, surely, had nothing to do with living in America or any place else.
Don’t I need religion to be a good person?
I had met many people after I started to work that were good people. Or people of another religion... Usually we worked together without any awareness of whether we were faithful to a certain religion. I remember my own analysis of being saved and going to Heaven... I was young enough, but smart enough to think logically that I'd prefer to have Jesus with me without waiting until after I died. My Mother had taught us a work ethic through her own almost 24/7 work schedule... All of her children followed this model of dedication to our jobs.
Doesn’t the Bible tell me how to live my life?
Having sat through at least 50 years of sermons based upon the Bible, it would seem that an answer would be, "Of Course..." But advancing in age often resulted in my reading parts of the Bible which, to me, were simply illogical for living right now. One I quickly picked up on was that women were not allowed to speak in church. Yet, women in today's world were teaching, sometimes becoming pastors, and participating in the management of the church--I was often a member of the Board of a church... Logically, I then realized that this book contained history which was no longer applicable to daily life during my lifetime.
If I don’t have religion, what will happen when I die?
Bottom Line for Me? I knew I already had Jesus living in my heart... I knew Him as being Alive and with me. So, do I think about after death? Rarely, if Ever. I would sing the songs, contemplate Heaven from those words... and, think, "That would be nice..." But what actually happens was not a concern knowing Jesus would be There, no matter what...
The second part of this book then asks you to think about what you should do after exploring these initial questions... I'm going to share the book's response:
So, what should I do? Lift your head. Look at the world around you. Take responsibility for your own life. Let go of your fear. Use your brain to think for yourself instead of believing what others tell you. You decide. What rules are you going to follow to make the most of your only life? One of the first things you can do is look up the rationale for all the rules and traditions of your religion. The Catholic Church kept the Mass in Latin for hundreds of years, partly by tradition, but also because that kept the commoners ignorant and dependent on the clergy. Reading and interpreting the Bible was likewise reserved for the church leaders for many years, to keep the rest of us in the dark.
But now we have the Internet, and it is a source of instant history lessons, if you’re willing to make the effort. Many of the concepts and traditions of religions, especially the one true god religions, are so painfully convoluted that they pass into the realm of ridiculous.
For instance: Original Sin: Supposedly, we are all born tainted by the urge to sin, inherited by all humanity after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Does it make any kind of sense that every innocent child is born with a propensity to sin?
Christmas Day: The date of December 25th as Christ’s birthday was “borrowed” by the church about four centuries after his life because the birthday of Mithras, the Roman sun god, was celebrated on that date. The Romans celebrated winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, on December 25th. Although winter solstice now occurs on December 21 or 22, back then the 25th was the important date for sun worshippers. Hundreds of years before Christ, quite a few gods were believed to have been born on December 25th, among them Hercules, Dionysus, Hermes and Adonis. The church thought pagans would be more willing to accept a god born on the same day.
The Holy Ghost: The so-called “pagans” were into trinities, so the Christians needed a trinity of their own in order to appeal to them. The Holy Ghost was hastily invented to fill out the father-son duo. Occupying the third spot in the Christian trinity, the Holy Ghost is not a person-type god, or even a god that anyone can explain with a straight face.
Resurrection: If someone came back from the dead today, nobody would believe it. The resurrection of Christ supposedly happened over two thousand years ago, with no witnesses and no video, so we should be more skeptical, not less. Mithras rode a chariot into heaven after his time on earth, so perhaps this was another event “borrowed” by the church to make the story of Jesus more palatable to pagans. The notion that Christ died for our sins comes from the Gospel of John, which says “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” If that is true, doesn’t Christ’s resurrection make this commitment somewhat insincere? Jesus was dead for a couple of days, but then he was alive and well again, so apparently death was only a brief inconvenience for him and not much of a sacrifice.
Heaven: Maybe you’ve wondered about the practical logistics of heaven. For instance, where is it? And we’re supposed to get our bodies restored to us at some point, but what happens then? What age will we be? Will any infirmities we suffered be cured? Will we live in houses, wear clothes, eat, play and sleep, or will we simply exist and be happy forever? What would be the point of that?
Hell: How are people going to burn in hell for all eternity? Wouldn’t they simply burn to a crisp in a matter of minutes? Why punish someone with agonizing pain forever for transgressions they made during their very short lives? What happened to forgiveness? Priesthood for Men Only: The Catholic Church, and many of the other religions, only allow men to be ordained as priests and ministers. The official reason for this policy is that Jesus selected only men as his apostles, but in practice it is used to keep women from any real power in the church. There are at least as many qualified women as men for the priesthood, but religions in general and the Catholic Church in particular have always excluded women from positions of decision-making and power.
Intelligent Design: Six thousand years ago, according to people who believe in a strict interpretation of the Bible, God roused Himself after eons of apparently doing nothing and created the entire universe in the next six days, including such creatures as humans, the very odd red-lipped batfish and parasitoid wasps that lay their eggs in other insects. He was reported to have rested on the seventh day, without addressing problems such as cancer and birth defects. Even if you accept that explanation of the creation of the universe, how do you fit hundreds of millions of years’ worth of fossilized animals and plants into six thousand years? Did the dinosaurs we see in museums never exist?
Moses and the Ten Commandments: Moses supposedly climbed a mountain where God reached down from a convenient cloud and gave him a couple of stone tablets engraved with ten commandments. People all over the world still claim to live by them, which is admirable. But have you read them closely? The first four are devoted to how you should worship God instead of how you should conduct your life. The remaining six are common sense: honor your parents, no murdering, no adultery, no stealing, no lying about your neighbor and no coveting other people’s stuff. Nine out of ten tell you what you shouldn’t do rather than what you should. Don’t do this and don’t do that.
Personally, I think the author went overboard in sarcasm. However, after that statement, there certainly have always been questions about these issues... One of the issues that has bothered me, for instance, is the fact that there are soooo many different types of "Christianity," apparently because people got into arguments about doctrine, or whatever, and it got so bad that the church split and became two different bodies of people "choosing" to believe one thing versus another... More and more I've been led to believe that only the Words of Jesus are guiding us in this period. Truth and Love are the basis of His Words... Remember from History the very first split?
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