The Cult of Christianity

I was born into a Christian world. My family is for the most part Northern European, and my genetics are traceable on my mother's side to English royalty. My genealogist buddy Don is certain that King Henry II and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine are one set of my 24th great grandparents. Of course, Don is quick to point out that 100 million or so North Americans are descended from European royalty, which means that those guys were mighty busy back then! (And that Don and I are cousins, as we are to many of you reading this, but that's a subject for another post.)

My mother was raised a Baptist and later became a longtime Congregationalist. She died a Unitarian, after determining that her new local Congregational church was too harsh. My father, I'm not sure about. He didn't seem to like church, and I don't blame him. Unfortunately, my beloved father passed away when I was 26, long before I became the rankest religious philosopher of our era. I know Dad would have enjoyed my rabblerousing, and I would have felt safer on this planet if he'd been around. I didn't get mad at God when Dad died, because I wasn't a fervent believer, but I was pretty po'ed at the medical industry, which at times does not seem particularly competent.

I firmly believe that if my father had been disabused of the culturally engrained notion that we are all "born-in-sin" pieces of dog dung, he would have lived significantly longer. In retrospect, I can see that, despite his overtly agnostic position, Dad was profoundly affected by that negative conditioning, and struggled mightily with a lack of self esteem. At times he was possessed by a self loathing that spilled out beyond self and was directed at others. I know well that Dad was not alone in this perspective or behavior. Perhaps we are all prone to it. I can't conceive of anyone being immune to it, especially in a Christian culture.

One of my biggest beefs with Christianity is precisely this heinous teaching - forced into the innocent minds of countless beautiful children - that we humans are born-in-sin pieces of crap in the face of a glorious God. I find this brainwashing - or brain-dirtying, as the case may be - to be at the heart of much of the world's suffering. Whether or not this derogatory, anti-human perspective is confined to Christianity is immaterial to the present discussion, as it is within the cult of Christianity that it is most widely promulgated.

I am no Polyanna, nor do I wear rose-colored glasses, but I choose to see the beauty in the world in order to survive and thrive. Like practically everyone else, I have at times behaved badly and caused trouble in my life, albeit in a fairly mild manner. I have also been on the receiving end of a tremendous amount of grief and trauma. So, I can relate to many people's experiences. I cannot, however, understand the atrocious abuse heaped on people who do not subscribe to one religion/cult or another. Having studied in depth many of the world's religions - or mythologies, as I mostly see them - I cannot narrow down myself, my knowledge, my spirit, my intellect, my education or my integrity, to pronounce any one of them "the truth," to the exclusion of all the rest. I also perceive many of them to be cults, in both the anthropological and pejorative senses of the term. I do not comport myself by going around and threatening others to join my cult, nor do I expect others to do likewise. But they do. Oh, how they do.

For instance, for several months I have been under assault by a "good and loving" Christian who has obsessively scribbled page after page of calumny, libel and defamatory remarks about me. This disturbed person has relentlessly vilified me, even viciously attacking me and my family over horrible traumas and tragedies we have endured, making despicable commentary on these terrible and heart-breaking events. He portrays me in the most negative light possible in any instance he can find, depicting me as an evil person with sinister motives in everything I do. In fact, he speaks of me in precisely the same terms believers use for Satan, and he appears to believe that I am absolutely evil and that everything I do is evil, an evidently delusional state that insists on reducing living, breathing and feeling human beings into two-dimensional caricatures out of comic books. In reality, this person does not know me at all and is projecting Satan upon me in his delusional state. People who actually know me view me as a generally generous, benevolent, caring and loving person who goes out of her way for others. But this type of projection has happened to countless others over the centuries who have been entirely innocent of such untoward sentiments and violent charges leveled against them. It is the dualistic brainwashing of Christianity and other ideologies that has caused their persecutors to be blinded to their humanity and to fail to respect them as good and decent human beings. The bottom line is that Christianity allows for people to dehumanize and demonize others.

Moreover, in his hatred this person, who holds himself up as being righteous, has threatened to commit crimes against me. When called on his shameful and disgraceful behavior, he merely gets worse, making even more vile commentary about my person and life. He has clearly crossed the line of decency into becoming a deranged stalker who is committing hate crimes against me.

Another "good Christian" who has likewise incited hatred against me states that she would enjoy being a "fly on the wall" when God tortures me in the pits of hell. She is not alone in her hateful and sadistic sentiments, of course, as many people have expressed similar derangement towards others over the centuries. Once at a "New Age" expo, I confronted a Catholic priest who was asserting that bringing back "witch burnings" would make life better!

Why have these people been doing and saying these atrocious things to and about me? Merely because I have written books and articles daring to question whether or not Jesus Christ is as mythical as Hercules. I have studied mythology nearly all my life, and I frankly see little difference between Zeus and Hey-Zeus. Like so many others before me, I see no historical or archeological evidence for the existence of Jesus Christ, and I cannot in all honesty be convinced by the gospel fable any more than I can by The Iliad or by Gulliver's Travels. It would be with gross dishonesty and a betrayal of my hard-earned education to believe in such a tale as "historical fact." Because I try to live in the realm of honesty and integrity - not always succeeding but increasingly so as I get older - and because I feel I have something to offer to the world, I have taken a strong stance and made it known.

For that position, according to "compassionate" Christians I deserve to have endless scorn and derision heaped upon me. Their behavior has, in fact, constituted psychological and emotional abuse of a high order. I have not attacked anyone personally, but they have attacked me personally, over and over again. I have been lampooned in silly and meaningless cartoons - welcome to the Big Time! I have been assailed for not answering or cursorily answering deceptive emails from fanatics trying to trap me into impugning myself or bait me into a flame war, so they could publicize the results on webpages. And I have had the most false and vicious things said about me, as well as threats to post private affairs on the internet, in an attempt to show me in the harshest light possible. None of these obnoxious individuals, of course, knows me at all. None has spent even a minute in my presence, but they nonetheless present themselves as authorities on who I am. You see, because, like you, I am a born-in-sin piece of crap. According to this belief, we have no respectable wisdom or divine spark within us. Hence, we deserve to be abused and pilloried. These folks have no intelligent response to my argument that Christ is as mythical as Hercules, who was, like Jesus, once fervently believed to have been a "real person," so they resort to ad hominems of the lowest level in order to defame me and assassinate my character. If by throwing enough mud they can succeed in destroying a doubter's good reputation, apparently in their irrational minds that somehow proves Christ existed as a human being.

Still another, well-meaning Christian friend decided she was going to make her place in heaven by "converting" me. In the first place, there is nothing to "convert." I have already been a Christian - even briefly a born-again Christian, believe it or not. I know what it means. I choose not to behave in a cultish manner by begging an invisible Jewish man in the sky, but I certainly spend a great deal of time contemplating and studying him! So, what's the difference? A little begging? Not very dignified - or effective. How does the fervent believer know that he or she is not begging the wrong invisible person? Maybe he or she should be talking to Hercules!

One day, my good-hearted Christian friend - who spent much of her life addicted to appalling street drugs, has been in the pokey and rehab, and who barely lives above subsistence level - came to me somewhat tipsy and tried to argue her case. "I love you," she gushed, "but I wish you would think like I do!"

"Why?" I replied, thinking - not unkindly - "Fat lot of good it's done you!" Perhaps she needs to think like I do, but that's not important to me, as I am not interested in "converting" anyone. If they are happy with their lives and are not abusing others, so be it. But often they are not. And frequently, religious fanatics make life miserable for the rest of us.

If a "bona fide" cult - that is, a non-mainstream one - used abusive tactics in order to "convince" or "convert" others, it would be roundly condemned and its members scrutinized for possible criminal charges. In fact, it is considered criminal - and the mark of a conman - for someone to threaten another with harm - whether it be here or in the "afterlife" - if he or she does not subscribe to the aggressor's particular religious beliefs. Yet, this behavior is precisely what "good Christians" engage in on a daily basis, if you are not a member of their cult.

And I do view Christianity as a wacky cult - how not? It teaches that there is a giant being, the omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent God of the cosmos, who came down to Earth as a Jewish man through the womb of a young virgin girl! How much more cultish can you get? And how is this belief system different from so-called Pagan cults, such as that revolving around Hercules of Greece? Or Osiris of Egypt? Or Krishna of India? All of these gods, and so many more, have been believed by millions to have been holy beings who walked the earth - so, what makes the Christian set of beliefs any different? Little to nothing.

We are back at square one. I cannot believe in the cult of Christ any more than I believe in the cult of Hercules. I do not abuse others who do not believe in Hercules, and I expect the same courtesy in return for not believing in the cult of Christ. What you do with your mind is up to you, but do not expect me to do the same thing. And please, do not resort to cult indoctrination tactics in order to make me believe as you do.