shackled

Much of life is occupied with the quest for power. We seek power over pain, fear, and loneliness; over hunger, and the harsh elements, sickness, and death. These of course, are natural and healthy desires. Unfortunately, there has long been those among us that desire a toxic type of power—the power over others. It was this unhealthy desire coupled with the recognition of the power to be gained by speaking for the gods that gave rise to the very first witch doctors, magicians, and soothsayers, eventually becoming known as the priesthood.

Countless supernatural beings have been imagined, feared and worshipped. All these belief systems empowered the god’s spokesmen or Leaders at the expense of the Followers by promising some kind of benefit (health, fertility, victory) in exchange for some kind of sacrifice (blood, praise, obedience). Christianity is no different.

The Christian system demands that Followers submit to believing and obeying certain things. This requires the sacrifice of intellectual freedom in exchange for the promise of extraordinary benefits. These benefits include promises that the King of the Universe will love and protect them, listen to their every word, and even give them anything they ask for (Mt 21:21-22). Of course, the ultimate benefit is the promise of eternal life. And just in case this isn’t compelling enough to inspire submission, Jesus threatens unbelievers with the ultimate punishment— eternal pain. This promise of bliss for those who submit and obey, and misery for those who don’t, is the core of the Christian system of control—a system that creates a fog of fear, obligation and guilt that makes breaking free from the Christian community incredibly difficult.

The New Testament speaks of ‘servants’ and ‘masters’ over 150 times and yet Jesus never once condemns the evil practice of slavery. Jesus speaks of slaves being brutally whipped and even killed and cut to pieces and yet never once encourages the oppressed to seek justice. In fact, dozens of passages send the opposite message, encouraging the persecuted to turn the other cheek, love their cruel masters, pray for them, forgive them, and always remain submissive and obedient to them. Women, oppressed by both the system and men, are promised that their obedience actually makes them beautiful. The apostle Peter tells us, “For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master....” (1 P 3:5-6).

Why didn’t Jesus condemn slavery? Why did he tell the oppressed and persecuted to consider themselves “blessed” to be so? I would argue that it’s because Jesus was a mythological character whom the gospel writers made do and say what fit their agendas. The Christian belief system evolved from the Mystery religions which long predated it. Hijacked by the Roman government it was politicized. Stories originally designed to facilitate a deepening of spiritual meaning became literalized in order to enslave minds so as to control behavior, and empower Leaders at the expense of Followers.

Because so many fear death and fear thinking for themselves even more so, it seems there will always be plenty of people that are happy to play follow the religious leaders; happy to remain shackled to superstitions and sacrifice their time, money, and minds in exchange for the promise that they’ll live forever. But however “happy” individuals may be to accept delusions of the supernatural, religious leaders are in fact contributing to the unhappiness of humanity as a whole, as different religious beliefs breed divisiveness. And divisiveness leads to conflict and suffering.

Futhermore, for religious leaders to speak authoritatively about things which no one knows is dishonest. To make one’s living through dishonesty is morally repugnant. To do so by diverting people’s focus from the one life and world we are sure of, to an afterlife and an otherworld of ghosts, gods, and goblins, that we have no evidence of, is to my mind, a sort of crime against life. As Albert Camus said, if there is a sin against life, it is “in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life.”