Good Friday Conversation
by Rachel Creager Ireland
I never intended for this blog to be about Christian theology; there are tenets of Christianity that I can’t get comfortable with, especially this time of year. I find a magnanimous, rabbit-consorting Goddess far more appealing than an old guy in the sky who favors human (or animal) sacrifice.
I got this image from the atheist guy, who couldn’t be bothered to credit the artist. In the middle of the night I remembered where I’d seen it before: on the Earth Magic Oracle cards, by Stephen Farmer. The artist is Helena Nelson-Reed.
(Though this guy says there never was any such rabbit-consorting Goddess, for what that’s worth.)
But, things happen. I don’t want to go into details right now. Suffice to say that I spend a lot of time in the company of Christians of various brands. On Good Friday I had a conversation with a sweet, devout fundamentalist Christian lady. As our conversation ended, I said, “Happy Easter,” to which she replied,
“He is risen!—almost.”
I said, “Yeah, he’s still up on the cross right now. We can’t celebrate quite yet.”
And she said, “Yeah.” And she looked downcast for a moment, then said, “I feel bad. Do you feel bad?”
“Yeah, I do, but I also feel bad about the thousands of children who starve every day, and—” I thought about mentioning families separated at the US-Mexican border, but decided not to go there. So I just finished with “—there are a lot of things in the world to feel bad about.”
As I said that last part, it suddenly came to me, that when we are willing to let ourselves feel the suffering of the guy on the cross, we open ourselves as well to compassion for all who suffer. Being present with Jesus and the atrocity of crucifixion means that we are more present and aware of atrocities and tragedies everywhere, and that awareness can, and should, inform our actions and choices in this world. Patti Smith was right all along.
So after “There are a lot of things in the world to feel bad about,” I added, “That’s the point, isn’t it?”
And sweet fundamentalist Christian lady said, a bit uncertainly, “Yes . . ” and then, with confidence, “and fellowship with God! Eternal life!”
And before I could ask, “Why would I want to hang out with that guy?” or, “Who wants eternal life when 15,000 children starve every day?” she was on her way.
Happy Easter, friends.
Veronica's Garden 
Good morning, dear friend! Glad to see you back in print in both places. Since I won’t see you till Fall, my whole connection with you is through social media, weird.
I notice when I’m having a conversation about anything, it revolves on my experiences with the topic as it relates to the others experience with the topic. When I go to an AA meeting, a anywhere, and give my “story” (of my life. What it was like, what happened and what it’s like now) the focus changes depending what the group is like. There are many facets or angle to the same experience. So when talking to someone of perhaps non-similar viewpoints, I find the common denominator, love, compassion, fear, etc…and go from there. I find there are a couple of things everyone deals with, how ever skewed it might have become.
Hope to receive more contact from you, the momentum of Spring has arrived!
Yes, the common denominators. You are good at that.
There are some differences I notice, however. I notice it in parenting styles. For example, certain fundamentalists believe that people are essentially bad and need too be trained to be good, while I believe we are mostly essentially good, and need to be allowed the freedom to discover that in ourselves.
But yes, in general it’s much more useful to focus on the commonalities.
It seems your move to Austin is well timed. I think you’ll enjoy a less-fundamentalist environment.
I admire your courage posting those thoughts. Reminds me of the undesirability of labeling oneself with the name of an organized religion – Christianity for example. Where do you draw the line between people who are Christians and people who are not? I’ve heard that Mormons don’t believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. The other day, I read that MLK Jr. didn’t believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus. And Jesus’ description of God as a loving father doesn’t fit with the Old Testament image of God as an angry person who craves adoration, demands the horrible death of his son, and damns people to eternal agony. When I was growing up, my family attended Episcopal services. Although much of it didn’t make sense to me, I loved the character named Jesus and the kind, compassionate example he set. I still love that character. How could I not?
I’ve met people who believe they are Catholics even though they haven’t been to church in over 30 years, use artificial contraception, etc. And they are adamant about applying this label to themselves. Reminds me of other labels people apply to themselves, such as Cubs fan or Republican or white. People don’t like to change their labels. And labels are so divisive.
Reminds me of a George Carlin bit I liked so much that I committed it to memory:
“Religion has CONVINCED people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky! And the invisible man has a list of ten things he doesn’t want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he has a special place for you where you will spend eternity burning and screaming in agony! But… He loves you! He loves you and he NEEDS MONEY! He’s all-knowing, all-powerful… But he can’t hold onto money.”
Growing up, I was never comfortable with Easter. Yes, the Resurrection sounded great, but you had to go through the Crucifixion to get there, and I hated that. It never sounded like a good deal. And the necessity of Jesus’ sacrifice never made sense to me. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son so that we might have everlasting life,” or something like that. I’m supposed to feel sorry for God because it was necessary for him to sacrifice his son? If God was omnipotent, who could force God to do this? People seem to not really want an all-powerful God because then God would be responsible for the bad stuff too. They seem to want a God who also has to endure stuff He doesn’t like.
I know a retired lawyer who says he is Christian and believes all the dogma because it’s risky not to believe. “What if it’s all true? What if I would go to hell if I didn’t believe? It’s a lot safer to believe!” Is this real belief or self-administered mental sleight of hand?
I love the image you posted, by the way.
Well, today another Easter is history.
The only way I’ve ever found out of the part about God being responsible for the “bad things” is the Buddhist way, of redefining what we think of as bad and good. Nothing is either, it just is.
Yes, I think of it that way too.