06 April 1998, 1027 words
G.K. Chesterton once wrote that it wasn't that Christianity had been tried and found wanting; it was that it had been found hard and left untried. This is certainly true for me. Even a cursory look at the Bible has shown me that I would find it impossible to follow theWord of God.
Although I am fairly competent intellectually, I must confess that the Christian perspective tries my brain too high. Even the very beginning confounds me. In Genesis, I read that God made Adam and Eve, who had Cain and Abel, and Cain killed Abel. So far so good. But then I read that Cain "went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, east of Eden" (Gen. 4:16). When was this land and the people who lived there created? The Bible doesn't say.
Another issue which confounds me is that of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Was she or was she not a virgin? The Bible says she was when she bore Jesus. But it also says, "Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: and knew her not until she had brought forth her firstborn son" (Matthew 1:25), which implies that Joseph did get to know Mary (in the Biblical sense, naturally) afterwards. And, years later, when Jesus is preaching in a synagogue, I read, "Behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him." (Matthew 12:46.) Since these brothers are not also Sons of God, presumably Joseph fathered them in the normal way. Yet the Catholic Church insists that Mary was always a virgin. Clearly, there are things about Christianity I can never hope to understand and, unlike most religious persons, what I don't understand I can't practise.
But it is not even these details which confound me the most. What really puzzles me is the story of Noah in the Book of Genesis. Here I read that God decided to destroy every living creature except Noah and his family and some chosen beasts because "the wickedness of man was great on the Earth...And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth and it grieved him at His heart." (Gen. 6: 5-6)
This I get, but why destroy every living creature except those on the Ark? Were the horses, ducks, bumblebees and mango trees evil, too? And, after the flood subsides, God lays down this law for Noah: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed" (Gen.9:6), thus banning the very act He had just committed on a planetary scale, but He later decreees other laws which directly contravene that one: "The adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death." (Leviticus 20:10); and "He that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death" (Lev. 24:15). God even kills Onan for masturbation (or coitus interruptus - Genesis 38:9 is not clear which.) Yet Christians insist that their God is "a loving God." And that is where my brain stops getting it.
I suppose, though, a lack of comprehension is not an insurmountable barrier to being a Christian, or else the Catholic Church wouldn't be one of the world's richest institutions. But Jesus did say, "Ye shall know them by their fruits (Matthew 7:16), which explains Pastor Cuffie's $225,000 van. Me, I doubt I'd be able to follow all the Bible's injunctions. Some commandments would give me trouble - not the ones about killing, stealing or bearing false witness, which are listed last and so presumably not as important as the first seven. No, the commandment that would give me trouble is Number 2: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything", because drawing is one of my hobbies and I'll definitely want to try carving someday.
Still, all these barriers are as fragile as the Muslimeen fence compared to the real thing which stops me from being a Christian - to wit, women. Adam, you would recall, had a similar problem. He ate of the forbidden fruit, blamed Eve, and matters just went downhill from there.
You see, I like women - a lot. So I would simply be unable to treat them the way the Bible recommends. For example, if a man finds out his wife is not a virgin on their wedding night, he is to "bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house,and the men of the city shall stone her with stones that she die." (Deuteronomy 22:21) The thing is, no wife of mine will be a virgin on our wedding night, but I'd like to keep her alive in spite of this.
I also like to think of women as my social and intellectual equals, But the apostle Paul informs me that this is not the Christian view: "Neither was the man created for the woman but the woman for the man. (Corinthians 11:9). And I find that both the Presbyterian and the Anglican churches are disobeying Paul's injunctions too, for he says bluntly, "Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak...if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church." (Cor. 14:34, 35.) In fact, although the Catholic Church doesn't allow women priests, they also defy Paul, for I understand that they allow women to deliver sermons.
So I guess I'll just have to burn in Hell. I can't follow a doctrine which is not consistent and I find that even those evangelists who insist that they follow God's Word to the letter, don't: for Jesus Himself said, "Take heed that ye do not do your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in Heaven." (Matthew 6:1.) I just hope I don't have to share my burning pit with Pastor Cuffie, Sat Maharaj or Abu Bakr.
Copyright ©1998 Kevin Baldeosingh