Rules Change Mid-stream

[R. S. Martin]

At very long last I took to reading a book a prof put on the reading list last year or the year before. I forget which course it was for. I never read it.

 

Well, now I started. The first part was really good. It showed how people are jeolous and want to be like the next person over and have the stuff that person has and how all that works. The way it works is that eventually there will be the crowd against the scapegoat. When the scapegoat finally is disposed of everyone is releived and feels so good. Then, because they get such good feelings, they get the idea that this person had supernatural powers. Presto! We have a god--such as Zeus, maybe. In other words, people just assume that the crowd is right and the victim is wrong. Jesus got killed; therefore he must be wrong.

 

I've always been different so I figured okay, that does not describe me--I don't act or think like that. Maybe it's just the masses who don't think. But it was interesting to think THIS is why I get treated as I do in my family from the day I was born. It also explained why Jesus got killed and then diefied. Title: I See Satan Fall Like Lightening, by Rene Girard.

 

Then I move into the second half of the book. Suddenly the rules change. Suddenly this coveting business doesn't count anymore because it's the New Testament or something. It makes Christians out to be these really good people who call a spade a spade and they call evil evil.

 

I got fed up with all the violence he describes and finally quit reading. Makes me SICK--xians are good because they identify evil for evil--that's SICK. I have seen far too much violence among fundies. I've seen far more violence among fundies than among other people. Humanism does not glory in identifying evil but in bringing peace and happiness to all people. And that is the way it should be.

 

Oh, and the rules don't change mid-stream.