Now it strikes close to home.

When someone uses Christianity as an excuse to be hateful or intolerant, it merely lowers my impression of the religion but I don't lash out (unless seriously provoked). When they try to proselytize, I become wary of hearing about the religion, and simply ignore them.

But when the belief in a higher power stunts the future plans of someone close to me, it becomes pretty damn personal.

My brother has been on and off excited and sketchy about his future and who he wants to become. There are times when he talks about us sharing an apartment while he dishes out novels and poetry anthologies and I teach art.

But there are times when he feels he has no future different than what he is now. He's not suicidal, thank goddess, but very despondent. Nothing I haven't seen before occurring in my own life.

Here's the catch, though: He believes all of his misfortunes, all of the bad coincidences, all the opportunities missed due to forces beyond his control, are God's will. Because of this, he believes he shouldn't be defying the will of God by changing his life.

I'm sorry, but that is not good enough. I'm sure God, in all his attributed wisdom, would understand why someone would want to go against his will. Why would God, who is also attributed with omnibenevolence, befate one of his more ardent followers to a life of stasis? Because God works in mysterious ways? Because who are we to question his will? Oh I've heard it all before. Many times... too many in fact.

I'd at this moment like to reach out to those who have some sort of belief in a higher power and question them: Does your supreme being control your life completely? Are you complacent with their will? Are you so willing to let an abstract concept manifested into deity decide your future for you? Please... consider this.

I truly pains me to see this happen, to be the younger brother watching his older brother, an idol of his for as long he can remember, crumble into such a state of despair. It nearly makes me want to cry.