Is it Time to Rewrite the Holy Books? (1)

The pastor from the Evangelical Church in Hackney, London, was patient but firm. There was definitely life after death, one where we would all be judged by God. But eternal salvation was possible only through strict adherence to the teachings of the Bible, and these were not negotiable.

Though I listened to him with interest, and respected him and his views, my convictions were set in concrete. My only afterlife would exist in someone else's head. I too believe in God but I also believe I was placed on earth for a reason and any judgement would not be reserved just for the future. The full works would be meted out right here and now: in the quality of my life and for treating others in ways which reflected God's teachings of charity, kindness and forgiveness. Not just for following the holy book while bitching my neighbours into the ground with selfishness and greed, being discriminatory towards them or blasting them into oblivion to feed my desire for power.

The pastor wouldn't budge. He spoke slowly and softly, as if to a lost child in need of paternal guidance. Life on earth was insignificant compared to life in heaven or hell and, anyway, my ideas had no foundation because they were not in the Bible. Black people were hardly mentioned in the Bible either, but that did not negate our presence! It seemed that everyone could quote the Bible, or their holy book, to suit their own purpose. And that is the problem with anything written so long ago. The messages get lost down the ages, gathering momentum in their obscurity as the messengers grow bloated with bigotry. Being learned charlatans of each faith, they continually use such books to maintain their power while the meanings and application become more irrelevant to our world and our needs, and the interpretation of each phrase multiply faster than an ant's nest to suit every act and occasion.

The customary straw poll of students within British educational establishments, to assess current levels of faith, might be unscientific but no less indicative of a growing areligious society. The average of people still attending church, or considering themselves religious, is now about 12 out of every 30, and falling. While these students turn their backs on Christianity, yet with nothing else to fill the gap, the Bible marches on in its obscurity and irrelevance, with its singular emphasis on Jews, Gentiles, Hebrews (no Blacks), its strange outdated place names and its virtuous tales of simple minded folk, living equally simple rural life and with not a single computer, mobile or Ipod in sight. Far removed from the technological and social revolution that is our world today. In this narrow, moralistic way, it traps each unsuspecting soul in the antiquated verbiage of a bygone age.

No Women and Gays for High Office
Meanwhile, much is done in the name of God, religion and the Bible. Despite a queen as Supreme Head of the British Church, the ordination and promotion of women is still threatening to split it because arrogant men, apparently enjoying a direct line to God's intentions, have decided that one female is more than enough! This is indicative of some key anomalies within the Church system: like women and gays being welcomed as worshippers, as children of God, but not when it comes to being ordained within God's church. Again, South Africans worship God every day yet kept apartheid alive for many years without the slightest reference to conscience or belief. Obviously their White God would not approve of their Black neighbours either! And once when I needed a priest badly, as a staunch Catholic, this man of the cloth had better things to do than to share some comforting words with me, a devout parishioner. I have not been in a church since that occasion, 35 years ago and what a wonderful difference it has made to my life!

Now the good pastor was telling me that I needed to explore my faith further. My personal beliefs did not match up to his so they couldn't be right. But I had been this way before and how much closer could one explore the teachings of God than as a novice? For three years I dwelt ceaselessly on God's words, rejecting the hypocrisies of religion when my brain reeled with instructions and ideas which promoted nothing but evil. I do not know about other religions, though, if the actions of a few fanatics are anything to go by, the Muslim faith is even worse in its capacity for cruelty, but Catholicism has a lot to answer for and we won't even mention the Inquisition or the abuse of young minds and bodies down the years. Man himself commits vile acts then call on God to condone them!

The Hindu gods also appear to take pleasure from the destruction of other people's temples and keeping their faithful members in an intractable colour system where the fair Brahmins are blessed with the right to kick the hapless, dark-skinned Harijans perpetually trapped at the bottom of the social pile. Being insignificant and, obviously, with no god on their side, these Untouchables are assigned to an immutable life of poverty, meanness and loveless inhumanity while the gods lavish attention on the favoured majority.

The Christian ethos and vocabulary are only marginally better. Each word seems to echo an unmerciful God always waiting to pounce upon us terrible sinners with the worst retribution possible. The fact that God merely reflects the moralistic and narrow ideals of the messengers in His name has been lost upon humanity. Instead, God is portrayed as an all powerful being with nothing better to do each day than to be picking us off in turn to note our numerous sins! The Bible said so, the male priests preach it and we have to live it. So, as a teenager, I had a miserable anxious, guilt-ridden childhood. I was painfully aware that we could not really enjoy ourselves because everything that made us happy appeared to be an abomination to God and He was always ever present watching us. Sex was dirty and definitely out, so were rude jokes, raving parties and boys! No chance of escape as even our very thoughts constituted sin.

Preoccupation With Sex
Yet it was all a natural part of growing up, this preoccupation with things sexual, because the changes within our body were phenomenal and not really understood. The Church's obsession with sex was a revelation in itself. Only attending mass and confessing our sins regularly would save us. But save us from what? Innocent thoughts? Our bodily functions which were a natural part of our growth and evolution? Gradual self-discovery and truth about our faith? What I did not understand then was that the love of God which was so regularly trumpeted by the priests was in chronically short supply because it had been replaced by fear of God, and nothing ruled by fear can ever be positive and uplifting.

If we missed church just once that was a mortal sin. So each Sunday I competed with the lark for the 5 o'clock call, eager to be first in line for confession, compassion and communion, but they were as straw against the merciless wind of sin and shame. I would enter the convent, that would do it, I thought. I could serve God wholeheartedly and be free from all these 'wicked' thoughts. But in between the daily masses, novenas and spiritual rituals all I heard about was sin - huge massive mortal sins; medium sized original sins; tiny fluttery venial sins. Where did it all end, this world full of sin? Did we ever get good on earth? Not on your life. We had to wait until Judgement Day.

Then one day I visited a handicapped neighbour who was a devout Catholic but was never able to attend mass. A saintly cheerful woman who would give her last penny to others, she worried and fretted constantly about committing various sins through missing mass. She had no means to travel to church and her pastor never once visited her either. I often wondered if her soul was riddled with massive black spots for all the services she missed? So many huge mortal sins. How did she cope? She must be damned in hell for good. The realisation of how such cruel brainwashing affected her peace of mind, the way it preyed on her conscience and stopped her from enjoying her life and faith fully, propelled me from the convent faster than a bullet.

Article Source: http://www.content.onlypunjab.com

ELAINE SIHERA (Ms Cyprah - www.myspace.com/elaineone and www.elainesihera.co.uk) is an expert author, public speaker, media contributor and columnist. The first Black graduate of the OU and a post-graduate of Cambridge University. Elaine is a CONFIDENCE guru and a consultant for Diversity Management, Personal Empowerment and Relationships. Author of: 10 Easy Steps to Growing Older Disgracefully; 10 Easy Steps to Finding Your Ideal Soulmate!; Money, Sex & Compromise and Managing the Diversity Maze, among others (available on www.amazon.co.uk as well as her personal website). Also the founder of the British Diversity Awards and the Windrush Men and Women of the Year Achievement Awards. She describes herself as, "Fit, Fabulous, Over-fifty and Ready to Fly!"

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