Religion

I took a few minutes yesterday to clean up the inside of my truck.

I returned to the house with a few items, including a Gideon’s bible, which for tens of thousands of miles had ridden between the rear passenger-side headrest and the rear window.

As I walked back inside, I had two thoughts. Wow, it’s been a really long time since I’ve opened a bible. And, During these days of pandemic and upheaval, I wonder what kind of a message might be glimpsed (or divulged) in a randomly selected passage.

And so verily did I open the good book, alighting mine eyes upon the page, whereupon did I readeth:

And Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He captured the city and killed the people who were in it, and he razed the city and sowed it with salt. When all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered the stronghold of the house of El-berith. Abimelech was told that all the leaders of the Tower of Schechem were gathered together. And Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him. And Abimelech took an axe in his hand and cut down a bundle of brushwood and laid it on his shoulder. And he said to the men who were with him, What you have seen me do, hurry and do as I have done. So every one of the people cut down his bundle and following Abimelech put it against the stronghold, and they set it on fire over them, so that all the people of the Tower of Schechem also died, about 1000 men and women.Then Abimelech went to Thebez and encamped against Thebez and captured it. But there was a strong tower within the city, and all the men and women and all the leaders of the city fled to it and shut themselves in, and they went up to the roof of the tower. And Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire. And a certain woman threw a millstone on Abimelech’s head and crushed his skull. Then he called quickly to the young man his armor-bearer and said to him, Draw your sword and kill me, lest they say of me, ‘A woman killed him.’ And his young man thrust him through, and he died. (Judges 9: 45-54)

That’s where I stopped, thinking Ah, well.

I can appreciate the comfort and certitude that adherence to a Religion can promote in a person, and the feelings of love and harmony that can spring within a community of those who regularly gather with their fellow followers.

However, whether or not we adhere to a faith, we are all obliged to acknowledge a truly horrid, morbid reality: That Religion, over centuries, has through persecution and terror smitten who-knows-how-many millions of innocents. In this life, their reward hath becometh retribution ("divine") for being heathens, blasphemers, outsiders. Even their children tormented, the little non-believers.

Much (not all) of this sentiment started percolating in me following barely a fortnight in a community where successive generations of routinely terrorized and defenseless citizens had for decades endured sporadic bombardment and invasion, foremost for reasons that stem from Religion.

No thanks, not for me, not anymore.

Never again.