Saturday, March 22, 2008

The Cruelty of Crucifixion, The Cruelty of Myth


I have spent quite a bit time lately wondering why I am so suddenly just fed up with religion. I've never been religious. I don't think I have the gene. I tried at one point in my life because I needed help badly but it just didn't work out for me.
And tomorrow is Easter and I have SO many problems with that one. Why we need to worship at the foot of a cross with a corpse hanging from it is just beyond me when we have the holy sweet sap of life rising all around us.
I know that the message of Easter is not supposed to be about Christ's death, but instead about his resurrection but it's not tiny empty tombs that people wear around their necks or have put up in the front of churches- it's the cross- not the symbol of life at all but the symbol of how hideously man can act towards man.
The cross is such an ugly symbol. If Christ had come to earth during modern times and been tortured and executed as per God's will, I suppose that little girls would wear delicate silver electric chairs around their necks or the Pope would wear a huge golden syringe across his robes as Christ would not have been crucified on a cross but killed in a more civilized manner such as via Old Sparky or lethal injection.
And it's not just that all of that. It's not just the fact that we focus on the death of a man but it's all the so-obvious lies and mythology that people take so seriously.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son..." or so says the Bible. And I have always wondered why it was that God only had one begotten son when he is GOD and could, theoretically, have had as many begotten sons as there are stars in the sky so why the emphasis on this only part? Is it that difficult a procedure to impregnate a teen-aged virgin? I suppose it must be.
And why would a loving god determine that the best way to bring mankind salvation would be to send this only begotten son to live among people and then to have him tortured and killed? Why did this god make man so obstinate to begin with? Why didn't he just CHANGE everyone? Why, in fact, did God make such a flawed product to begin with? What was he thinking?
But of course the Bible is filled with such mysteries and it all boils down to faith, which is ridiculous to me. I could have faith in any damn thing in the world but it wouldn't make it true. And tomorrow preachers across the world will be telling this old story about Jesus rising from the grave, the stone being rolled away from the tomb and how he lived and then died to save us all from our sins but for the life of me, I can't figure out how that would work.
"NO GREATER LOVE WAS EVER SHOWN" says a flyer that I found on the ground this morning when I walked to the post office. It shows Jesus, his crown of thorns piercing his delicate forehead, blood running from his wound, tears running from his eyes and I think, nah.
People show their love for their children in lots of ways that are greater than sending them to be killed, every day, every second. They sacrifice themselves (and some would say that in sending Jesus to be sacrificed, God WAS sending himself, but I don't buy that) instead of their children.
I think that the absurdity of the resurrection story is beyond my comprehension. I think that perhaps it is comforting to many who fear death because if you believe in Jesus, you believe that truly, there is no death.
But I don't believe that. I believe there most certainly is death and that's as much a part of life as birth and I think that most truly thinking people would agree.
So why do we hold on to this myth? Why do we continue to cherish the idea that Jesus was sacrificed for our sins and that this proves God's love and our eternal life and why does anyone running for office in this country have to at least convince everyone that he or she believes it too in order to get elected?
I don't know. And I don't know why it offends me so much but dammit, it does.
I'm sick of wars being fought over religion and children being told that if they tell a lie it makes Jesus sad and I'm tired of legislation being made based on myths like this and it makes me want to scream when I am told that when a loved one dies he or she is up in heaven and that somehow this makes it all right.
It doesn't make it all right. And it shouldn't.
And it makes no sense that any sort of loving god would try to fix the ills of mankind by letting them kill his own son.
So thank you, no. No crosses for me. No weeping Jesus, no rolling away of the stone.
I'll stick with what I can see to celebrate and there's plenty of that around me and I'll spend my day tomorrow not in church in front of a statue of a corpse but in praise and celebration of what the Pagans celebrated which is the holy egg, the holy blossom, the holy spirit of love that we sometimes know if we are very, very lucky. I will celebrate the birth and the baby, the amazing capacity of the human heart to hold a loved one even after death, the act of love, the act of charity, the act of dance and the fact that the light is longer as the earth turns in its orbit which it will continue to do after I die, after you die, after we all die.
Even if we are never resurrected. Even if we don't believe.

14 comments:

  1. Very well said Mama. I can't wait to come color some eggs and take some pictures of my beautiful family and the things we create.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's going to be fun, honey. I love you so much.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have these same problems with this Easter story. I do officially belong to a church, even though there has only been one that had cool enough people that I bothered to attend, but the reason I can belong to it is that it's a Christian church that is progressive and open-minded and "takes the scriptures seriously but not literally." I do see that culturally I am Christian, and appreciate that Christ had a lot of right-on things to say about how we treat each other, but the myths don't work for me, either. I could never, even as a child, figure out how Jesus could have been born in the Middle East as a blond, blue-eyed gentle-faced calendar boy. I like the image of him in the temple giving it to the money-changers much better, and I picture dark eyes flashing.
    I also think that our Native American ancestors had it pretty much figured out all on their own.
    Color an egg for me, will ya?? :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. What color, dear Lo? Or shall it be a rainbow?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Robins egg blue, just for you. We'll get a picture.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hmmm, well said. I am also of your mind, after years of a pretty open minding relgion ( methodist). I believe that the human race would live better, treat each other better and have a higher quality of life if we knew, (some of us do)that this life was it..and no afterlife promise of heaven and reincarnation. I find myself living fuller because I do know I have this life, only this..although I desperately miss the celebration of spring with my children...who live too far away, amonst other excuses. Peace, Sally aka Dona

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sally- peace to you, too. I wish your children could be with you and I am grateful that mine are about to be.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I just started reading your blog, and happenned to come across this post.
    I believe that we are coming from different sides - I was brought up as an atheist in the former communist country, so I'd say that I had "developed" faith over the years. And I'm not trying to prove anything to you, I'm just sharing my thoughts here...
    I can say that I do feel the presence of God when I pray, so I don't question God's existence in my heart. I did have troubles in believing in Bible's story though. But then I thought/read somethere that something must had happenned after Jesus's death, something that made his apostles believe in him again, something that had preoccupied peoples' minds for thousands years. Bible is a wise book, but I don't understand a lot of questions.
    Anyway - Happy Easter.

    Best,
    Nina

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hey Nina- I'm so glad you left your comment. You have a different perspective and I appreciate and respect that.
    I think that some people are just more open to the idea of God in their lives.
    As I said, I just don't think I have the gene for it, but I know that many people do.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hey,

    I'm new, but just had a comment. I think sometimes, to some people, "faith" is a lot like being a kid. Kid's believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Boogey Monster, and even sometimes that they can fly. I think as adults, some people just really want something to believe in, and really, why not God?

    Not that you should, or that believing is right, but maybe that's just a new take. I'm really glad you find things to celebrate in life.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Why not God? Why God? Children let go of their belief in the tooth fairy and Santa Claus after they figure out that the logistics just don't work.
    Same with me and God.
    I believe in lots of things but they are the things I can touch and feel and observe and study and there are plenty of miracles there for me.
    But I'm glad you commented and I understand what you're saying.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I often talk about the "Universe" instead of using the word God because the religious right has confiscated God in my mind. But I do feel there is not a conflict between science and belief in a Higher Power. I suspect that Nina is right about something happening after Christ died to have everyone still talking about it.

    Once when I was teaching transactional analysis, my cool minister and good friend asked me if I wanted to teach a 6 week "Sunday school" class in TA. I used the Bible story of the woman at the well, and we did role-playing. I gave each person an index card describing the role he/she was to play in coming in and announcing to us that she had just met Jesus at the well. It was amazing how viscerally we all felt it when the one with the Natural Child role came in joyfully carrying on about it! We all "believed"!! :) So, yes, Nina, you are probably onto something.

    I just lost both of my lovely parents (in their 90's) within 2 months of each other, and it was so interesting to me to talk to family and friends who believe they are now "in a better place" while I have a hard time not thinking they are just dead. I wish I could find the comfort they feel. I mostly feel bad that Daddy can't enjoy the birds anymore, and Mom was still so involved in life that I wanted her to feel more "ready" first.

    The "grace of God" is something that I keep rolling around in my mind. My sister spoke beautifully of it in our blog, ajaxrock.blogspot.com in an entry this month called "A Journey of Faith."

    I don't know if I don't have a "gene for it" like Ms. Moon says or what, but I do keep trying to figure it out.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I don't know. I think I struggled for many, many years to believe in something. I honestly DO believe there are things in this universe we do not know about and certain theories in physics are starting to address this. It's like when Copernicus said that the earth revolved around the sun and not the other way around- that idea was so startling that the church went apoplectic before it was proven to be true and now- we laugh at how obvious that fact is.
    Of course we all want to believe in a Jesus figure. And I can completely believe that he did live on this earth, but when he did, he never claimed to be god. That claim came after he was born. And a study of the New Testament shows up so many discrepancies and different reportings of the same stories that it's just...silly to me.
    We all want to believe that we are watched like the sparrow. But what about the sparrow who slams into the windshield? Was God's eye on it then? What about the mother who loses her child? Did she not pray properly?
    Oh, how we long for some sort of miraculous protection from the pains and losses and sorrows that this life brings us. Or at least comfort during our grief.
    I think that the ability of the human heart to go on, to survive the direst circumstances, to have hope again- this to me is the miracle. And all I can count on.

    ReplyDelete

Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.