Journal | Religious Fundamentalism ~ Mind-Bending

I

WE have all done it. We watch a news item, we are interested, and we've enjoyed a light snack. We can still listen, but let’s just rest our eyes for a moment.

And so, for several minutes I kept track with BBC 24's Dateline London, in which foreign correspondents based in London give an outsider's view of events in the United Kingdom.

But ever so slowly it seems as if the pod attaching itself to the mothership high up above the earth’s atmosphere is drifting away. I just happen to be in that pod! I have arrived on the planet Nod!

II

A while passes.

I awake with a start! Thousands are cheering!! The presenter is booming…!!!

There arrives that point of discombobulation.

The 'presenter', mic in hand, was booming out at the audience from a stage. The auditorium seemed to be the size of the 02 Arena, with a capacity crowd of 80,000.

Thousands shouting in one accord. Hands raised high into the air.

What did he just say?!

"Do we believe in Hell?"

"Oh yes Lord, praise the Lord...", some theatrical enactment of hell depicted on stage goading thousands of worshippers into further hysterics and proclamations of hell, sin, salvation for the very carefully chosen few …of euphoria … damnation for the great unwashed, the majority of humankind, they seemed to be proclaiming.

III

I came to earth with a jolt. Somehow, while happily resting in my pod, my Smart TV had ventured to a ‘God’ Channel.

I may be a Christian by faith - and very much outside the box - but religious TV channels do not figure in my home. I will not listen to rubbish.

IV

By now I was sitting up, listening intently. Do those thousands, in 2021, believe, passionately it seems, in the existence of a literal hell?

Religious fundamentalism is dangerous. It skewers minds. It ruins the lives of children whose parents are so caught up, that they succeed only in damaging their children's lives before they've even ventured into adulthood.

Religious fundamentalism applies as much to christianity as it does to Islam, all the religions, and we know full well that the Taliban, Al Queda and ISIS/Daesh all destroy lives, and in the most horrendous ways they can devise.

V

All religions, without exception, stand upon the premise of guilt.

Instead of merely giving us examples of right and wrong and how best to live our lives, christian fundamentalism demands a constant awareness of guilt, of an all-seeing God who is forever judging and notching up sins. When we fill children’s minds with that, we wreak havoc in their lives; throughout adulthood, they are torn between what they would like to do but what the church has told them ‘the good lord would be most displeased’ with that disdainful wagging of the finger.

Children think literally. We all know this from personal experience as children, no matter how far back we can remember. My mum once commented to her eldest grandson, a tiny tot, that Grannie liked to draw pictures in the sky using the cloud formations. Now, my eldest great nephew was puzzled. But how do we get up there, Grannie?

That says it all.

VI

Many friends tune into these god channels. Sure, they serve a purpose. But allow them not to drag you into false guilt.

Visiting my home means there will be no watching the ‘god’ channels.

June 7, 2022
All Rights Reserved

© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2022

First written on 10 August 2021