Religion
DemonSpawn
Date:
27/10/2004
Well, I'm back again, with another captivating revelation from the Darker Side of the Demon Spawn. I'm not feeling precisely dark, but there is a certain angst which is related to the whole revelation theme. If you have read my poem, “The right to life”, you will understand why I have a negative fondness for the whole Christian scene, and why our site does do not the religious fanatic thing.
As you may have gathered, I attended a boarding school run along the German version of Christianity, um I recall it was called “Lutheran”, or something like that. Actually I blocked out most of that whole time period. Anyway, what gets me is that the National Party government that ran the country during the apartheid era was much along those lines, but they called it the NG Kerk (Nuwe Gereformeerde Kerk or New Reformed Church, for those of you who can't stomach Afrikaans). Please forgive any spelling errors in the name. Anyway, they based their entire regime of oppression on the Bible. They took this text and acquired whole passages out of it that justified their policies of segregation, the “Bantu Education” policy, that gave black kids the training to become labourers and no more, and other related laws. I won't go into detail. If you want to know more, look it up.
So the question I asked was how can mankind have been created equal in your book, when, your book is clearly used to show that, and you may have heard this joke before, that some folks were created more equal than others. I have many issues with this concept.
And it doesn't only happen here. The Klu Klux Klan (I always get them mixed up with the Woo Tang Klan, hee hee – my mistake) is also a fanatical militant Christian group of the same type of assholes that ran the boarding school I went to. Just exactly how do they get away with it?
I'm sure there are some Christians who will read this and stick their noses up in righteous indignation and say “But we don't believe in that!” But for fuck's sakes guys! You are all from the same religion! Surely there is some body or person or whatever that can tell them, well, actually no, you're wrong? You are guilty of these deeds by your inaction. Isn't that in the Law, in most countries? That if you stand by and watch someone murdering another person without stopping them, isn't that tantamount to aiding and abetting? I mean, if the Bible is such a great way to salvation, then how come salvation includes oppressing, rejecting or outright slaughter of those who are different? And don't give me that political bullshit about freedom of choice. Bush found it very useful to be a Christian when he marched into Iraq and killed thousands of innocents. Not only Iraqi's but those poor idiot kids they lured into combat with stories of, “for the greater good”, “for the freedom of the world”, “for the fight against Terrorism”. I honestly don't think Bush was thinking about the freedom of the world when he decided to start killing people. I think he had other things on his mind, like finishing what his father started in 1990, and oil, and possibly re-election. I don't think he was even considering Terrorism when he and his cronies drummed up those stories about “weapons of mass destruction”. The only weapon of mass destruction involved in that invasion was Bush's Bible. And I don't think your god sounds very loving and benevolent at all. And what is all this “if you are not with me then you are against me” crap? I know quite a few people that are not interested in being anywhere near you at all!
I read a debate on the net the other day about whether homosexual marriages should be legal. Quite interesting if you are religiously inclined – all you no-brains might want to check it out – The Big Question
Anyway, the primary reason most people presented for not legalising same-sex marriages was that it's not allowed in the Bible. Okay, so that includes a fair portion of people out there. What about all the Jews, Muslims, Hindu's, Bhuddists, Pagans, and other religions who may or may not allow same sex marriages? I'm sure there is a clause in the Constitution which protects minorities and freedom of choice? Not that Christianity is a majority, and not counting the fact that this country is supposed to be a secular state... that is...
Other religions aside, I'm sure there is something in the Good Ol' Book about a log in your own eye, and love your neighbour... In my case that's rather difficult – my neighbours are way too noisy, and fulfill all the requirements for being rednecks, but then I'm not Christian, and I don't use my religion to persecute people for being different.
So, to make a point, I ask, why the astonishing amount of hypocrisy? Christians make their religion out to be the be-all and end-all of modern-day civilisation (and I do use the term “civilisation” loosely), but what's actually the big draw? The impression I get from Christians is “We are IT. We are the only people worth saving on the planet because the rest of you, if you don't convert to our way of thinking, are all damned to hell, so you don't really count anyway”. Has humanity grown so anal that we cannot revel in the beauty of diversity?
I can't condemn Christianity for their narrow-mindedness, or ignorant, arrogant worldview. It's part of what makes people different. I can criticise the fact that they use this mindset to justify their actions. It's been happening for centuries. We have progressed in so many ways, and regressed in others. But the power of thought, the power to question, is the most important tool any one of you will ever possess. It makes each individual what we are. Why can we not use it to question the blind hatred of anything that is 'other'?
There is always a choice. To live or to die. To fight or to make peace. To hate or to love. To fear or to tolerate. If I don't do anything else with my life, I want to know that at least some of you out there can make the choice to be tolerant of differences. Because no matter how much you went to church, no matter how much you didn't get affection from your mommy when you were a kid, and no matter how many drugs you took, you still have a choice each and every day.
It comes down to each single person – to be an asshole or to not be an asshole.
That's what I reckon, anyway.
Demonspawn.
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