My husband's family is Pentecostal, and in true Pentecostal fashion, they are very zealous about their faith. To most of them, I am the Devil because I am Catholic. There's no other reason for it. I just hail from a different branch of Christianity than them, so I'm automatically evil. I'm an idol-worshiping, wine-drinking, ritual-loving Catholic, and that makes me the Devil. This has made for some interesting Thanksgivings, let me tell you...
But, in the interest of playing nice and being diplomatic, which isn't my strong suit, I'll admit, I'm friends with a lot of them on Facebook. And usually, we're cool. When they get off on these zealous tangents, I start to comment to set them straight, then I remind myself a leopard won't change his spots. So I shake my head in perplexed defeat, wondering how people can be so truly naive about the way the world works, and then I get on with my life. I used to comment, like the time my niece insisted Santa Claus wasn't real. I told her that yes, once upon a time he was a real person. I'm going to assume you all know the history of St. Nick, but she didn't, so I tried to inform her and broaden her teenage mind. Yeah, it did no good. So now, I just shake my head and go on with my life.
But tonight, as I was checking it, one of my husband's cousins re-posted this self-righteous rant on her status. And while I didn't have the courage to defy it in that forum (I admit I was afraid all her Bible-beating friends would crucify me) I have to vent about it here. The indignant question was: "Why do people get so offended when you preach the word of God to them?" Then it trailed off into this tangent about how those who get annoyed with it are hellbound because they're defiant of God's will and that the preachers will be embraced by God in Heaven.
I'm going to answer that question right the hell now. You know why we get offended? Because you are assuming we actually want to listen to your self-righteous bellowing. You're assuming we should see the world exactly the way you do. And I'm sorry, but I don't. God and spirituality aren't so black and white. And how could you possibly know what God wants from you anyway? How could you possibly assume to know who is on his naughty and nice list?
St. Thomas Aquinas said, "Beware the man of one book." Well, in these people's cases, that book happens to be the Bible. They use it like a cudgel without knowing anything about it, and it pisses me off. And I can say that because I've read the Bible. But I've also read the Bhagavad Gita, the teachings of Buddha, the Apocrypha, the Torah, the writings of great philosophers, etc. Since I first became interested in angels, I've religiously, pardon the pun, pored over the religious texts so that I might better understand how the entire world, not just Western Civilization, views the afterlife. And it's been a very rewarding journey. But as educated as I am on such things, I'm still no closer to any definite answers about anything.
But in addition to religion and philosophy, I know a boat load about history. And here's the history of the Bible after Christianity came into being. Every little sect of Christians had their own version. They carried around the books they thought best reflected God and Jesus' message. But actual written books didn't even happen until hundreds of years after Jesus' death. In fact, if memory serves, the earliest known ones were published about 300 years later. Anyway, that means for at least 300 years, people passed down the story of Christianity by word of mouth. Have you ever played a game of telephone? Now play it for 300 years and see how distorted the original message is, okay? But now I have to bring in Constantine the Great, who essentially told the warring Christian factions (oh yes, holy war really is NOT a new idea) to come to a consensus about what texts should be included in the Bible, or suffer the punishment of death. So, in the interest of diplomacy, the sects compromised and came to a consensus. But numerous texts got left out, creating gaping holes in the original story. Now fast-forward another thousand years, to King James. He decided to make his own Bible and throw out all the texts that took away from his ultimate goal of glorifying God or from perpetuating his own agenda to control his people. These texts are now what we call the Apocrypha, the Book of Adam and Eve, the Book of Noah, of Tobit, of Enoch, etc. And on top of all of these problems, the Bible has been translated through many languages - Sanskrit, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, etc. - and with each translation, some meanings are lost. Not everything translates from one language to another perfectly. So, knowing how problematic the Bible is, how can anyone take its message as gospel truth?
Not that I don't think the Bible has some good points. I believe in the 10 Commandments for common sense reasons, if not for religious ones. Not committing murder is a good thing. That whole "treat others how you want to be treated" thing that Jesus was always saying is pretty smart too. But I find it awfully convenient that when these zealots are condemning the rest of us to hell, they tend to forget that passage in the New Testament where Jesus said, "Judge not, lest ye be judged." You can't have your cake and eat it too. And if you think for one second you actually hear God telling you to preach to us and to condemn us if we disagree, then it is obvious that your brain is getting bad reception and you really need to crumple some tin foil on your head to get a clearer picture!
~Deep breath in~ Anyway, that is all.
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