Moderator's Note: We thank Ms Manning for her article.
Today Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Pakistan! In a few days we
will begin a new year and continue the hope for peace around the
world. How realistic is that hope? I submit that hope for peace is
absolutely unrealistic as long as our moral values are derived from
books that devalue large segments of the population. For, in devaluing
others we devalue ourselves... and the wheel of life goes round and round.
Please permit me to reprint my column which illustrates the skewed
logic of blind religious beliefs. It was published in the Beacon, a
Transcontinental Newspaper on December 3, 2007.
HEADLINE:
The Road to Glory?
by Audrey Manning
Last week, Cardinal Marc Ouellet the archbishop of Quebec City
issued a widespread apology in which he asked Quebecers to forgive the
Church for past errors. The Cardinal's heart may be in the right place
but the mea culpa is being met by widespread skepticism. Some believe
it is a prelude to a campaign to restore religious instruction in
schools.
Around the same time as pundits were discussing the impact of
Ouellet's apology, two prominent television evangelists were
expounding the virtues of the Old Testament's Kind David. In their
view, David is a role model.
Surprisingly, my first encounter with the less than virtuous side
of King David was in church. A Sunday school teacher and her students
put off a re-enactment of the story of David and Goliath. The teacher
used a huge cardboard cutout figure to represent the Philistine giant,
Goliath. In church, a young child, playing the role of David, kills
Goliath with a slingshot.
True to the Sunday school skit, the Bible says David kills Goliath
with his slingshot, beheads him and carries his head back to
Jerusalem. David is chosen and anointed by Samuel to replace Saul
while Saul is still king. Then David and Saul enter into a competition
to see who can kill the most people for God.
When they return from the slaughter, the women meet them singing and
dancing saying, "Saul has killed thousands and David tens of
thousands." (1 Samuel 18: 6.7). David has won hands down! Thus begins
a running battle for supremacy between David and Saul.
David kills 200 Philistines and takes their foreskins to pay Saul for
his daughter who becomes David's first of eight wives and numerous
concubines. Saul has asked for only one hundred foreskins but was
secretly hoping that the Philistines would kill David in battle. Saul
obviously does not relish the idea of David's replacing him as king (1
Samuel 18: 25-27).
Believing the Lord has told him to go and smite the Philistines,
David smites them with great slaughter (1 Samuel 2-5). Then comes a
strange vow… David vows to kill any that pisseth against the wall (1
Samuel 25: 22, 34). As well, David smote the land and left neither man
nor woman alive (1 Samuel 27: 8-11).
2 Samuel continues in the same vein. Simple killing, as in 2 Samuel1:
15; David's bestowing the curse of venereal disease, leprosy and
starvation on families, as outlined in 2 Samuel 3: 27-29. David has
the assassins of Saul's son killed by chopping off their hands and
feet and hanging up their bodies for the Lord (2 Samuel 4: 6-7). David
has Uriah killed so that he can have Uriah's wife Bathsheba (2 Samuel
12: 14-18).
To appease God and end the famine that was caused by his
predecessor Saul, David agrees to have seven of Saul's sons killed and
hung up "unto the Lord" (2 Samuel 21:6-9) and then there is the
phrase, "He teacheth my hands to war." (2 Samuel 22:35).
There is more violence in the David story but this may be enough to
illustrate that King David's life was composed of war, sex and strife.
He was an example of manhood to which macho men aspire. David was
courageous in battle and a fearless leader but he was also a prolific
womanizer and probably bisexual (2 Samuel 1: 17-27).
People searching for meaning look to the bible for reassurance. They
find it in the form of forgiveness of sins no matter how egregious.
Individuals who, deep in their hearts, believe that they are rotten to
the core, because of original sin, can look to the story of David and
see a man who was favored by God in spite of all the victims that he
left strewn on the road to glory.
In this story, the victims are merely a footnote in history. Being
able to take charge and kill indiscriminately seems to be a necessary
characteristic for a king/leader. When Saul chooses not to kill
indiscriminately, Samuel replaces him with David, who has proven his
mettle.
Church leaders tell us to look to the great killers and philanderers
of the Bible as role models. At the same time, we wonder why the
church doesn't repent, straying clergy don't seem too stressed, humans
devalue sex and youth are confused and violent?
As well as being a man of action, David is credited with writing
the Psalms, in particular the 23rd Psalm. In contemplating David's
life, it's difficult to image that a man who abuses power so
indiscriminately can find the place of deeper well-being, and the joy
of which he writes.
Yet, that's exactly what televangelists say of David. His life
brought him to a place of deep joy, which is taken to mean that if we
act like King David we, too, can find joy. Could they be right? For
David's famous Psalm says, "Surely goodness and mercy will follow me
all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever". The question: where does this leave all the discarded humans
on the glory road?
Thank you and Happy New Year to all my friends on this forum.
Audrey
*****************************************
Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/university_teachers_arrest.htm
*****************************************
Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/news/daily_star/daily_star_MM.pdf
*****************************************
MM site is blocked in Islamic countries such as UAE. Members of those theocratic states, kindly use any proxy (such as http://proxy.org/) to access mukto-mona.
*****************************************
Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/5_yrs_anniv/index.htm
*****************************************
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Earth_day2006/index.htm
*****************************************
Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/kansat2006/members/
*****************************************
MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari
http://www.mukto-mona.com/project/Roumari/freedom_fighters_union300306.htm
*****************************************
German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/german_radio/
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.htm
*****************************************
Some FAQ's about Mukto-Mona:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/new_site/mukto-mona/faq_mm.htm
****************************************************
VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/
****************************************************
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
-Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:mukto-mona-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:mukto-mona-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
mukto-mona-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: