
Christians will band together and claim persecution. Many will believe the “rapture” is real and they will be plucked off the rooftops while God, enraged, will wipe out the human population, making life safe for dinosaurs again.
Rome – Italians reacted with outrage on Tuesday after a European court ruled that displaying crucifixes in the country’s schools violated the principle of secular education.
Italy’s education minister condemned the judgment by the European Court of Human Rights, saying that the Christian cross was a symbol of the country’s Roman Catholic religion and cultural identity….source yahoo.com.
I wonder what the Italians would say if the symbols of Buddha, Islam or any other major religion were to appear in their schools. They wouldn’t like it I am sure.
The European judgment was correct, not only to secular law, but to the law as laid out in the Christian Bible.
One of the Commandments that Moses brought down said this, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: “
Is the cross and the man hanging from it not a graven image?
Aside from the regular arguments we all hear, what about young children having to observe a man in agony dying on a cross. Not the stuff we should be teaching our kids is acceptable, in the way of doing unto others or being a victim of. It would be like showing the film “The Exorcist” in schools claiming it is culture or heritage, wouldn’t it?
I received sleepyeagle’s comment to this post which reinforces the fact that the law made the correct decision:
When I was young, my grandparents would take me every year to some big ass church in Winston Salem for an Easter play. This church had an enormous budget for the wretched thing, so they always went for grandeur.
At the age of 8, I watched what seemed to be a very real crucification, complete with whips, blood, and screams. There was even a part when they dimmed the lights and little demons ran around trying to scare everyone.
It was at that time that I knew religion was nothing more than a show. All the symbols, rules, and stories were just props.
That scene with the man on the cross bleeding all over himself and screaming in agony remains the most horrifying thing I’ve ever seen, on film or in person.
Their infatuation with the cross is what led me away from Christianity.
writerdood had an experience which needs to be told. The atrocities in the name of God which people who claim to be doing God’s work is criminal in my mind.
I had something similar happen to me, although a bit less dramatic. It was at church camp when I was fourteen. We sang songs around a camp fire every night. This night, the councilors said there would be something special. We all gathered around the circle – probably about forty of fifty of us, and all around the same age. Tonight, the camp fire was dark, for some reason. One of the councilors got up and started talking to us.
He gave us a big speech about how there was a war going on RIGHT NOW, and that there would be winners and losers. He talked about how some of us would be lost forever, and that even our parents might be gone. (At first I thought he was about to tell us that we’d gone to war with the USSR). Fortunately, it wasn’t that dire. He was talking about our immortal souls, and how Angels were battling Demons at this very MOMENT! (Very dramatic). He then started talking about God, and how great God was, and how God created the universe from nothing. A lengthy description of that empty nothingness was finally followed by his loud declaration, “and then God said, LET THERE BE LIGHT!”
At this point, someone in a tree outside the camp fire circle light a ball of paper soaked in gasoline on fire, and let it slide down a string. It “wooshed” down out of the trees like a fire sent from heaven. It hit the extinguished camp fire, which had also been sprinkled with gas, and burst into flames, causing the entire area to be illuminated very brightly.
In that moment, I saw the faces of the people around me. I saw how they looked awestruck by this event, as if they were witnessing a miracle. And I realized that the mentality behind the philosophy was corrupt. This, to me, was a blasphemy. These people were “playing” God. They were attempting trickery in order to further their own ends. This was a drama to them. It was a game to be played. Never mind that they might actually believe that they were “saving some souls” through the drama and subterfuge, the heresy of it made it inherently despicable.
I was angry. I mean REALLY pissed. How stupid did they think we were? They must know that we knew, so then why do it? Why the drama? Why “play” God? I got up and walked out of the circle and went back to my cabin. I refused to talk with them about it. And when I left camp, I never went back. It was the beginning of my cynical and cold analysis of my own religion. An analysis that drove me into science and evolution and a complete rejection of Biblical literalism. Not that I ever forgot what I had been raised to know.
As you sow, so shall you reap. I remember that well enough. So should they.
miss bliss has a story which needs to be passed on as well.
amazing post. Religious people will never cease to amaze me. You already know my run in with my preacher at age ten. Funny, around the same age, maybe at eleven, I went to church camp. Good Lord. We weren’t even a churchy family, so to this day I really can’t remember what in the world I was doing there. I rememeber some fun. And I remember it being dramatic and crying a lot about Jesus. Lord. But the thing I remember most was a song we were made to memorize. And here I am, thirty-f-in-years later with the wretched thing still etched in my brain:
life was filled with guns and wars
and everyone was trapled on the floor
i wish we’d all been ready
children died the days were cold
a piece of bread would buy a bag of gold
i wish we’d all been ready
there’s no time to change your mind
the son has come and you’ve been left behind
two men walking up a hill
one disappears the other’s left standing still
i wish we’d all been ready
man and wife asleep in bed
she hears a noise and turns her head he’s gone
i wish we’d all been ready
there’s no time to change your mind
how could you have been so blind
the father spoke the demon lied
the sun has come and you’ve been left behind
you’ve been left behind
WTF???!!! It just occurred to me why I probably cried a good bit there. I was horribly frightened of being abandoned as my father had skipped out when I was two and never wanted to know me. So you take an eleven year old girl who already feels something must be horribly wrong with her, and teach her that God will abandon her and she’ll be left to the hounds of hell if she messes up.
Somebody…please ship these people to another planet. Sigh.
Many forget the words of the one they claim they follow, “for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves”.