davydog

I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Satan’s Résumé

Upon close examination, it’s clear that “great deceiver” (more accurately “deceiver of the whole world”) stands out prominently among the knowledge, skills and abilities listed on Satan’s résumé. This in mind, a “Christian” dogmatist might do well to reexamine her or his understanding of how such a primary nemesis like Lucifer (also called “Light-Bringer,” “Morning Star,” “Devil,” “Adversary,” “Enemy,” “Accuser,” “Old Serpent,” “Great Dragon,” “Tempter,” “Beelzebub,” “Belial” and “Author Of All Evil”) might employ his hard-won craft. For that matter, those of us who consider “Satan” more metaphor than incarnate might do the same.

Now if you were the Great Deceiver and got your jollies by tricking “Christians,” where might you begin? Where better than by perverting famous declarations like “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”? Attributed to Jesus Christ, it’s hard to imagine better bait with which to lure a nearly endless stream of eternally lost souls to your brimstone villa on the hellfire shores of the netherworld’s Great Fiery Lake. The mystery is why so many who make up Christendom’s “faithful flock” fall for this deception. Have they failed to clearly examine the résumé of their own Christ, the one they claim to worship?

Christ’s Résumé

Among Christ’s (also known as “Jesus,” “The Anointed,” “Messiah,” “Yeshua” and “Prince of Peace”) many wonderful qualities, several stand out: Healer of sick, lame, demon-possessed and dead people. Nourishment provider to hungry folks. Denouncer of those who worship money and power, yet non-judgmental forgiver of sinners (asking only that they “go and sin no more”). Against this backdrop, why do so many of the “faithful” interpret Jesus’ “way, truth, life” declaration as their Lord’s attempt to peddle “Brand Jesus”? Why have the “faithful” diminished their Great Healer into a tawdry traveling salesman? A seller of spiritual snake oil? Judea’s Jim Jones; Galilee’s David Koresh?

Let’s forget about pointing to mistranslations, misreadings, misunderstandings and deliberate misguidings perpetrated upon the Bible, its authors, and its many thumpers. That argument is already too obvious. Flogging a shopworn idiom, it’s “shooting fish in a barrel.” Anyone with at least one functioning brain cell has already figured this out.

Why not instead focus on what Jesus was all about? Even if a specific “Jesus” never actually existed, the authors of each of the Gospels all point to this enlightened being’s core attributes: love, empathy, compassion, forgiveness. Jesus is depicted as a healer, devoid of ego, who teaches truth while denouncing hypocrisy. So when he tells disciples “I am the way” or “follow me” why would so many of his supposed “followers” use these words to turn their Savior into a spiritual huckster? An egotistical and self-serving brand pusher? A messianic cult hawker?

Your Résumé

To focus on this question, let’s examine your résumé. Or rather, the résumé circulated by your shoddy little mind. The representation of you put together by your soulless, squalid and depraved little ego. Hmmmm… looks like fear, hate, greed, jealousy and self-absorption compete ruthlessly for top spot on your KSAs. A bit further down the list we find gluttony, self-pity, apathy, worry, lust, envy, self-righteousness and restlessness. C’mon baby! Where’s the luv!?! We’re havin’ a hard time spottin’ it on this greasy little document. (Exclamations like “I loved watching that movie” or “I’d love to have sex with [this or that celebrity] all! night! long!” or “I would surely love another slice of your sweet cherry pie” obviously don’t cut it.)

You claim to “love all God’s children” while supporting a culture that slaughters them. How many of the “droid jockeys” who sit in front of computer terminals in windowless “command centers” outside Vegas, where they fondle joysticks that pilot Predator Drones to wedding parties halfway around the globe, then push buttons to shower the wedding party’s guests with Hellfire missiles, do you suspect show up for church service on Sunday morning after they’ve blown a bunch of men, women and children into tiny, bloody bits? Who, or what, do they worship as they sit in the pew, getting sermonized from the altar? Did you know they’re working on your behalf? Whether you like it or not? How can a culture that supports this kind of depravity show any genuine love even to our own offspring? Clearly we can’t, and we don’t.

What, then, does Jesus actually mean by his famous “way, truth and life” directive? The answer, of course, is clear and obvious. Rather, the answer becomes clear the moment you slow down your feverish thought-stream a bit and let just a tiny speck of enlightenment come into focus. To observe that speck, forget about what Christ purportedly said. What did he actually do?

Ironically, Christians get at least one thing right, albeit in a mostly wrong sort of way. They correctly trace humanity’s many woes all the way back to an “original” (if utterly misunderstood) “sin.” Setting all dogma, nursery rhymes and fairytales aside, it’s likely that Eve’s first bite into the “forbidden fruit” from the “Tree of Knowledge” represents the dawn of human speech. This enabled our species to chop up our holistic understanding of reality into degraded, fragmentary concepts. Some time afterward came the written word, violently plunging our already dulled, speech-addled minds deeper into the cesspool of thought-based delusion.

The available evidence clearly shows that organized thought is perfectly capable of putting together ideologies to enslave the mind and dogmas to ensnare the soul. Yet it always produces terrible religion. Please don’t take my word as the “gospel truth” on this; your responsibility is to examine it for yourself. Either that, or you can merely “take it as a fairy tale” as you cling desperately to your “inner deceiver.”