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Wherein the Penny Priestess demonstrates that the penny religion is compatible (well, more or less) with all those other religions.
Unlike some other, rather better known religions, the penny faith is anti-dogmatic and all-accepting. We do not force a rigid, intricate system of rules, rituals and orthodoxies upon others. Every penny worshiper may do reverence to the Penny God after his or her own inspiration. You may keep your lucky pennies in a junk drawer or a shrine. You can even give them away (although this is a dark and lamentable superstition), so long as you acknowledge the central tenet of our penny faith: that you are not superior to others with less, merely luckier.
The Lord our Penny God is not a jealous god—indeed, far from it. He considers Ganesha, Fu-Xing, Hotei, Gad, Tyche and Fortuna to be colleagues, not rivals. All those who humbly realize how much they owe to luck are accepted as brethren in our penny faith, even if they have never heard of our Penny God nor ever bent a knee in reverence to take up a forsaken penny.
Should you choose to believe in still other gods—in those who claim or are claimed to rule the universe, to possess infinite powers and wisdom, to grant eternal rewards and punishments—well, as far as the penny religion is concerned, that is your prerogative—so long as you do not ascribe your personal good fortune to the direct intervention of such an omnipotent being. What all-powerful and all-merciful god would personally intervene to ensure that you win a game or get a job, while forgetting all about thousands of dying children in Darfur, who really could have used some surplus loaves and fishes?
In contrast, the true followers of the Penny God are the happy-go-lucky few: those who are content with what they have in the here-and-now; those who obey, or at least try reasonably hard to obey, his two commandments.
Recognizing the role of luck in human affairs avoids the obscene vulgarity of praising one’s god when the apocalyptic horseman (in the guise of earthquake, fire, flood, pestilence, multi-vehicle pile-ups or other large-scale nastiness) gallops right past you and runs his sword through your neighbor (less lucky but no less lovable) instead. We penny worshipers know that our god would distribute his blessings more equally if he were only so powerful. In no case do we consider ourselves divinely favored, chosen or anointed—only lucky.
The Penny Priestess freely acknowledges that there may well be other gods, as there are certainly other religions, with possibly greater buying power and more membership benefits. But all you really need is luck—along with the rare spiritual capability of appreciating it.
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