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. "Appendicitis," a surgeon in Louisville diagnosed
l The'sick' boy's mother, a member of a sect which
denies the reality of disease, refused to permit the oper
l ation in spite of repeated urging by the surgeon and the
father. -- :
In a few days peritpnitis set in and the boy died.
In distress and anger, the surgeon turned to the mother:
have killed your own child!” '
Was not sectarianism the real killer?
Is kiUing one’s own, religion?
A freshman in my: History of Civilization-.wrote that
voluntary nonattendance ,-ai church on Sunday was the
most deadly sin she could commit. Little wonder that
moral confusion is great and juvenile delinquency wide
spread when religious leadership leads our young people
to class nonattendance at church with- murder, robbery,
other major offenses! - j
' T l -) ' * .
The ?sect to which the student belonged says it is a'
mortal sin for its members to worship at the church
service br'Sunday school of another sect. Does real re
ligion threaten with hell because they meet with a
group of godly pdople in worship?
"We bllieve in the Scriptures of the Old and New
Testament as verbally inspired, by .God and .inerrant in
the original writings and as the final authority in faith
and life.” This doctrinal statement is subscribed to each
year bjr the members of the board of trustees and faculty
Of a college in. Rhode Island.. Some other “institutions of
higher learning” and uncounted millions of people "agree.
What do blind Biblical believers do with—and io—
their consciences when they read such brutal, unethical
statements as:
"Now go and smtte Amalek, and utterly destroy all
■ that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and
woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.”
Those, according to the First Book of Samuel, are the in
' strpetions which God gave to Saul for the invasion of -
the homeland of the Amalekites. Saul “utterly destroyed
** all the people., with the kdge of the sword" and Samuel ‘
* personally "hewed Agag in pieces before tha Lord;”
When Elisha left- Elijah and made his way. toward
Bethel, some little children mocked him and called him
"bald head." He cursed the children in the name of the
Lord and two she-bears. tame Out of the woods and tore
lorty-twp of the children (ll' Kings, 2:23-24).
God, if the Bible is inerrant, brought death to all. in
cluding babies, except the people and animals in Noah's
Afk (Genesis, 7:23), and slew the first-born in jevery
Egyptian family, because' Pharaoh would not let the Is
raelites go (Exodus, 12:29) after God had hardened Pha
raoh's heart so he would not let them go (Exodus, 1,1:10).
Surely the slaughtered children were not to blame!
The brutality in the Revelation of John of “things
which must shortly come td pass” is so unspeakably -brutal
that one shudders to' think of them. * ;
Would a loving, merciful, just God be guilty of such
brutal, unethical behavior as that pictured here and there
from Genesis to Revelation? Is it real religion to dishonor
God 'by believing it?
la |t faith or gullibility which' leads untold numbers
of people to believe: Aaron’s rod 1 became a serpedt and
swallowed up the rods of the Egyptian magicians, after
their rods had.--become serpents. Elijah smote the- Jordan
with his mantle so that the-waters parted and he walked
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It
It ThU Religion?
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THti DAILY COLLEGIAN; UNIVERSITY"PARIt| '
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-ter,
THOUGHTFUL PEOPLE GENERALLY KNOW THEY 1 BELONG TO A
A FAMILY OF THAT FAITH, SO THERE IS NO REASON TO BELIE
THAT OF THE FAMILY NEXT DOOR, ACROSS THE STREET OR A
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over on dry land. Elijah waS'taken io heaven by a chariot
of fire and horses of: fire ina* whirl wind. Jonah, survived
the fish, Daniel the lions, and three: officials the fiery fur;
nace. God gave orders to kill witches. The prayer of Elias
kept -it from ■ raining - for three . years and six months.
Jesus told his disciples they could cast, out devils and
could pick up snakes and drink poison without being
harmed. Jesus fojd_ Peter to go tc the sea, cast a hook,
and he whuld find (in the mouth of the first fish which
caipe upmoney to pay taxes. Jest s said he would return
during the lifetime of some persons then living.
Is not basic Biblical theology and sectarian interpre
tation (which contradict knowledge, offend the moral
sense, and - insult intelligence) evpn more harmful' than
countless isolated brutal; unethical, untrue statements?
Adam nnd Eve, so Biblical theology runs, .sinned in the
Garden of Eden and brought suffering, death, and dam
nation to the' entire* human race.j Human beings, on ac
count of their. corrupt nature inherited from Adam and
Eve, cannot help sinrjing. They are punished for their sin
ful nature (original sin) inherited from Adam and Eve and
for the sins they commit because >of their corrupt nature.
Biblical theology says the suffering and sacrifice of
the innocent are necessary to atone for the sins of the
wicked. Saint Paul put it this way: “As in Adam all died,
so in Christ are all made alive.” | The original sin of our
first parents (which .lias corrupted the nature of all men)
and the sins committed by all other persons are loaded
onto the back of the sinless, so innocent, Son of "God. As
the suffering and sacrifice of the guilty cannot atone,
the sacrifice of the innocent is necessary to purchase re
demption. In' short,-; the innocent must suffer that the
guilty may escape. '
Faith or. Church action, depending on the sect to
which one happens to belong, is the chief way to get the
benefit of the saving!power, purchased by the sacrifice of
the- innocent Jesus. Many zealously quote the Gospel of
biark: “He that beUeveth not shall. be damned.” Some
say they have the keys to the kingdom of heaven—the
power to forgive sin. Some say baptism washes away sin
and "that the unbaptized ;infant is “lost.”
•. . | ' I
It helps a lot to have the Son of God, <hs Mother of
God, or .the saints to ask the Great Judge to go easy on you.-
The human race, ] evolved from lower forms in groups
SO tjfat the Garden of Eden on which Biblical theology
rests never existed.. Nevertheless, religious leadership
(even when it is no longer crude enough to cling to the
Garden of Eden story) clings jto the 'Biblical theology
which: grew.out ofand is meaningless apart, from that
story.
Would a just God .punish a person for original sin
or any other sin' that he cbuldjnot help committing? Or
substitute.the sacrifice of an innocent person for the sins
of the .wicked any more than amhonest'judge in our courts
would knowingly execute an innocent'person and let the
guilty go free? ,
Would a just heavenly Judge be influenced by his
Son- or : Mother to the guilty off easy (any more than
an honest judge in our courts would go easy on the guilty
because of pressure .from his son or mother) whether, the
pressure were giver/Treely or originated in prayers pur
chased singly or by ilie hundreds at wholesale on Mother’s
Day or Father’ j r -
. Does' thg brutal,, tSse unethical, the-Amtrue or .the ex
ploitive become religion when 'believed.or practiced 1 by a
sect? Must our religious life be weighted down and the
high objectives of all religions jbe defeated by these .evils?
If these evils are not a part of real religion, is it not pos
sible to organize a religion vfhichis free from the ob
viously brutal, obviously unethical, obviously untrue,' and
obviously exploitive? Brotherhood Religion trie* to do
this... • ; r • -
Engn. flB:
. TUESOAY. OtTOBER 30.1962 "
Why The Sectarian EtII-Persists j
The school physician; in Bridgewater,
. advised that a boy’s tonsils be removed on account of tKei
diseafsStecondition. The youngster said-his tonsils wouli
be all right- without an operation, for his pastor had toll
his -parents tp,.have his throat ’blessed in a neighborin
city where there was a bone from the arm of Saint Ann<
The pastor readily admitted to the school nurse tha
he had advised the visit He said the educated member
of his Church did not btelieve in such miraculous cure
but encouraged the uneducated to do so in order to hoi
them. -
j “The- end justifies the means” is- tha excuse wit
which informed sectarian 1 leadership salves its conscieru
when it. puts things over on the uninformed ■“lot . the
own good." As membership in'a sect js a main; “good" i
the eyes of its - leaders, -there is a great temptation t<
sectarian leaders to hold uninformed members by ui
wholesome means. ! i
The ,01 sectarianism is shown by the fa
- that sectarian preference! is due to a blind acceptance
tradition rather than io a search for truth; The Christia
.•' ) •
Jew, Moslem, or other sectarian did not. choose his se<
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it was stamped into him by indoctrination in; childhoi
much as a calf' is branded on a Western ranch.;- The gre
and inexcusable, tragedy is that men and women of. t!
highest intelligence in non-religious fields and of t
greatest good will remain divided an 4 in conflict becau
they refuse to evaluate' or to listen to others evalua
that which they accepted in immature and inexperienc
childhood. , - * '<
Most of us would now be members of. a different s<
if we had happened to be bom into it. Knowing this, t
intelligently religious person ceases to believe blindly tl
his sect is the one, true (or even the superior) religii
’ He is. ready to merge his sect with other* into an ir.c
sive religion.-If his Sect {refuses to merge, he individua
-joins,'the inclusive., religion. The inclusive religion is ft
to. select the best features of=all sects. It is. free to or
the evils of each. In this way the inclusive religion is :
better than Christianity, Judaism, Islam, or. other exc
siye sect which requires the acceptance of its | traditioi
good and bad. Brotherhood Religion is such; an Indus
high-class religion, free : from the sectarian evil.
Five factors play -a; major role in the persistence
the sectarian evil:
1. Immature, impressionable childhood enables a s
to get acceptance of beliefs and practices far ibelow ai
thing a mature mind would accept. Indoctrination dr
points of view, into the, impressionable minds :of child
and gets blind acceptance.. Habit takes over.■
* ;
2v Sectarians are reluctant to Examine and evalu
their beliefs and practices. Emotion .and sentiment si
in the way. Loyalty to family pr reluctance to hurt j
ents causes many people to cling blindly to tjheir.fan
religion. Fear that God will punish or that fellow :
tarians will criticize, bars the way to discarding :he
'or seeking a better way (The greater the Ignorance
greater the fear). Inertia maker it .easier to cling to
‘old way than to look -for a' better one. Mend sertari
*• •• i • • ! i
seem to doubt that they ire able to evaluate relig on
recognize new religious truth and a better - religion.