Gimme That Old Time Religion

Posted byjimmcgarrahPosted inLiterary

I was watching an old movie made from an older novel last night called The Last Temptation of Christ. The last temptation, of course, had to be sex with Mary Magdeline. In movies and books written within the Judeo/Christian tradition sex is always a temptation, never a pleasure or a lucky break, but rather a tortured excursion into Satanville with the engine misfiring due to the corrosive wear and tear of guilt. But I digress. During the course of the movie, I realized, or maybe was triggered, into reflecting on my own my strong objection to organized religion. The problem, not exclusively with the Christian religion, is not the original teachings. It’s the application of what was taught after the demise of its originator by the mysterious members of an esoteric priesthood created to dispense the sacred knowledge who have their own agendas. For most, those agendas directly correspond with their own perpetuation in some type of exclusive lifestyle. Beyond that, a matter of priorities takes over.

I’m considering the Christian religion primarily because I was raised and baptized into several groups over my lifetime and therefore most familiar with the teachings and basic doctrines. Most denominations of the Christian religion fixate on certain doctrines and dogmas parsed from a perfunctory study of the Bible that are peculiar to the beliefs of specific creators within the congregations. Then, they claim that the particular emphasis for those concepts came from their original leader who was Christ by using a statement, or interpretation of a statement, from Jesus or one of his Apostles to support their claim. For example, there are sects that claim alcohol is forbidden, dancing is forbidden, blood transfusions are forbidden. Others claim homosexuals are going to hell along with Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists, as well as any Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, or Pentecostal that doesn’t accept the slant on the scriptures that generated the organization that does the condemning. It’s like a bridge club of Karens harping about the new neighbors who moved in from the wrong side of town.  

The need for material growth and expansion within each of these organizations adds competition to the mix and causes the establishment of doctrines and dogmas that encourage material expansion. This, in turn, instigates the most fundamental and important and universal of Jesus’ teachings to be pushed aside or forgotten entirely, namely LOVE. He wasn’t kidding when he said the most important commandment from any god is to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, and he didn’t place any restrictions on the definition of neighbors. The word was all-inclusive. Beyond that, The Golden Rule that Jesus taught had been in existence hundreds of years before Jesus was even born. It is not unique to Christianity being offered by both Confucius and the Buddha as a way to live in harmony with others.

Till we arrive at the point that we can understand and apply this most simple, yet most profound, of all human teachings in any and all organized worship, we don’t have much chance for a peaceful and morally productive world. Unfortunately for us, the application doesn’t seem to reside anywhere in our instinctive brains, either individually or collectively. Unlike the autonomic nervous system that allows us to breathe even when we have lost consciousness, we have no autonomic system that allows us to love strangers. We are geared for self-service and survival like most animal species on the planet. Love must be consciously willed and disciplined, and in the 21st century we apparently lack the one quality that might give us the will—empathy—and the one quality that might allow us to share empathy—self-discipline. Both of these should be ingrained in the deepest, most sacred doctrines of any Christian denomination. Yet, many churches reject them in favor of other more personally placating and less arduous concepts, and that can be said even after the modern “buying of indulgences” that encourages us to donate big and give a nudge and a wink to our human imperfections.

I’m not trying to make an argument here that there are no good people who are church members. People all over the world exhibit kindness and compassion in and out of a religious context. I’m speaking about the hierarchy of concerns for a lot of organized Christian congregations, especially ones with demagogic leaders. Organized religion, at least in America, is just one more network of capitalist corporations with a product to sell, only they don’t need tax loopholes and a team of lawyers to find ways through those loopholes. The government excuses them from taxation. This is not to say they don’t engage in charitable works, but like Exxon Oil and Walmart, charitable works are a by-product not a raison d’etre. And, like Exxon and Walmart, big pharma, Cargill, DuPont, Monsanto, to name a few, for many of the bigger ministries those good works are overwhelmed by the perks of upper-level management. If you doubt me, check out Joe Osteen’s net worth of 40 million dollars plus. He is poor compared to Kenneth Copeland, Pat Roberston, and Thomas Dexter Jakes.

Once the capitalist, or nationalist, or theocratic motivation takes over the organization, the primary idea of benevolent spirituality and self-service get downplayed for ordinary members and sometimes even replaced by these concepts of material growth and tangible service that aids in that growth. Consider one of the primitive organizations in Christendom, one that relies on a staff of unpaid volunteers to operate its world-wide ministry. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society listed the book value of its assets as $1,451,217,000 on its 2015 IRS Form 990-T. This did not include all of its land holdings or buildings in other countries, which place its monetary assets closer to one trillion dollars. Consider the Catholic Church. At one point, the Vatican itself was listed as the third wealthiest nation on the planet.

Once any organization reaches these levels of assets, a bureaucracy assumes control and that includes branding and marketing. Obviously, this has nothing to do with the movie I was watching when this rant came to my mind, except for maybe one small trigger, and that was the word temptation. While sex may have been the Messiah’s last one if you believe the premise of the movie, it appears that greed provides a much greater lure than a prostitute for his ministers, at least to me.

Published by jimmcgarrah

Every single person on this planet is unique in many ways and yet, most people consider themselves normal (i.e. conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected). This dichotomy is how good writing works. It contains uniqueness in the characters or narrator and a normal progression of ideas in themes. Thus, a story will be appealing if it has unique specificity in a normalized world of some kind and that creates a universal connection between writer and reader. This symbiotic connection as an oxymoron, normal uniqueness, has always fascinated me, not only on the page but more importantly, in life. Over the past twenty years I have written a dozen books. None have made me famous or rich, but I am proud of the work. It has been published by respectable literary and university presses. My editors have been talented and conscientious and brought the best of what I do to the page. But publishing is not all of my writing life. I have long wanted a private space where I could more fully express this exploration between individuality and society normalcy without regard to the business of writing, the correction of images, the political implication of phrases, and while considering there might be an audience to some of what is written, not worrying about whether it would sell. Therefore, I give you my very first and likely last, public blog. It will explore whatever I feel like exploring at a given time in whatever form I choose—maybe a poem, maybe an essay, maybe a story, or possibly a simple “fuck you” to the world. Read at your own peril and comment whenever you want. I encourage dialogue as a learning tool for writer and reader alike. I do not expect agreement with all my ideas. That would eliminate the entire uniqueness side of my inquiry. This is a free space for us all.

Leave a comment