The chest used to belong to an aunt who passed away decades
ago. My wife and I unloaded it earlier this summer and noticed that some old
newspapers were lining the bottom of the chest so during my break I decided to
gently pull the papers out and read them. To my surprise, they were on that Sunday
exactly 80 years old. The yellowed pages were part of the Aug. 10, 1934,
edition of the Oregon Daily Journal
newspaper (Portland).
As a retired journalist I found many of the stories interesting
but two in particular caught my attention. I'm going to try to reproduce scans
of these articles here because readers should find them intriguing as well.
The first story was a short bit on page 1 about Catholic
bishops in Belgium decrying the rampant promiscuity on European beaches. The
swim suits of 1934 apparently were more than the pure bishops could cope with
so they issued an order that none of the priests under their care should be
exposed to them. All priests were to stay far away from the public beaches so
as to remain undefiled. One wonders, however, how the good bishops learned
about the licentious swimwear ‒
perhaps some of them had been frolicking at the beach? The article did not
answer this question.
Now, as the accompanying photo plainly shows, female
swimming attire of the 1930s was far from revealing, especially by today's
standards. Sex has always been a slippery issue for the church and historically
leaders in many religions have used restrictive rules governing sexual behavior
as a control mechanism. This 1934 news article, though humorous now, is a good
illustration of how religious leaders have tried to control their flocks by
controlling their behavior. This issue
is explored in depth by German Catholic theologian Uta Ranke-Heinemann in her
epic study, Eunuchs for the Kingdom of
Heaven: Women, Sexuality and the Catholic Church (1988, English translation
1990). The church, according to Ranke-Heinemann, has constantly insisted that
sex was only for procreation; sex for enjoyment, even within marriage, has
always been suspect. The result over the ages has been a general negativity
toward sexuality which religious leaders have often taken advantage of. Don't
think that this is a problem only for Roman Catholics; it is a culture-wide
issue in the Western world.
The second article catching my eye in the old newspaper
concerned a minister in a fundamentalist Christian snake handling church being
bitten during a religious service. Most of us have never been to a snake
handling church; the few congregations that still follow this bizarre practice
are mainly in the back country of Southern states (USA). Followers in these
churches take to heart the verse in Mark 16 that says believers will not be
harmed by poisonous snakes when they are picked up. In order to demonstrate the
so-called "truth" of the Bible these believers incorporate snake
handling in their worship. Ironically, the verse they revere has been shown not
to exist in the earliest manuscripts; it was added much later, probably by some
over-zealous copyist.
Read the story in the scan and you'll see a picture of a
poor misguided person who, first, foolishly tests his God by doing something ridiculous
and then, second, refuses medical help because to do so would cause him to lose
face.
Snake handling still goes on in some Southern churches. |
I'd like to postulate that this is an extreme example of
something a lot of folks do all the time ‒
they hold onto an unfounded belief then refuse to abandon or modify it when
confronted with valid evidence that they are wrong. This is certainly a
description of naysayers who refuse to examine evidence for the paranormal and
for life after so-called death. I see such folks figuratively sitting in the same
pews as the snake handlers; their minds are made up so you can almost hear them
saying, "don't confuse me with the facts." But the "facts"
are here and eventually everyone is going to have to respond to them.
Believe it or not, there is a theological point where these
snake handlers and the Catholic bishops in the articles see eye to eye. They
all share the belief in a literal lake of fire and brimstone (aka sulphur) where
unbelievers and sinners are tortured ("punished") by God for ever and
ever in the life hereafter. Never mind the after-death communication evidence
that has been around for 160 years saying that this lake of fire is a very
cruel myth fabricated by church leaders in order to hold power over
parishioners ‒ the
Bible allegedly says there is such a place so it must be!
But does the Bible actually teach eternal torture inflicted
by a loving, just God? Absolutely not. Verses used by eternal punishment
preachers are to be interpreted metaphorically according to a fascinating and
insightful book I finished reading this past weekend and in some cases, its
author contends, our English versions are horribly mistranslated.
The book is Spiritual
Terrorism: Spiritual Abuse From Womb to Tomb by Boyd C. Purcell, Ph.D. Dr.
Purcell is uniquely qualified to discuss this topic because for 20 years he was
pastor in an evangelical church, he has a bachelor of divinity degree, is
proficient in New Testament Greek, has his doctorate in counseling, teaches
counseling classes at the graduate level, served for many years as a hospice
chaplain and much more.
Purcell's book is more than 500 interesting pages long! On
those pages he thoroughly examines the lake of fire teachings, discounts them
as metaphorical statements and proves this by examining the verses in Greek and
various English translations, then he goes on to catalog the tragic
psychological results of such doctrines in the lives of believers. His account
is peppered with personal stories of patients he encountered in the hospice
setting who were in anguish as they faced their dying experience because of the
false hell teachings. These folks, Purcell contends, had all been subjected to
spiritual abuse and terrorism at the hands of misinformed clergy who teach
hellfire in order to coerce conversions.
Dr. Boyd C. Purcell |
I gather that Dr. Purcell is still committed to a
drastically reformed version of evangelical teaching but, nonetheless, he has
contributed greatly to my understanding of the traditional Christian punishment
doctrine while he offers a rational way out of the torturous lifestyle it has
created for believers. Hearing a Christian pastor call a core (albeit false) Christian
doctrine "abusive" and "torturous" is liberating in itself
and seeing how that viewpoint led to a conviction of universal
"salvation" is beautiful! We truly are living in a transforming age.
After reading this book it occurred to me that some people
who have left traditional Christianity because of exposure to spiritualism may
still be harboring effects of the abuse they suffered during their time within
the church. I know that my youthful exposure to evangelical Christianity left
many imprints on my mind which still pop up 50 years later. I frankly doubt
that I was much of a believer in hellfire when I attended my mother's Baptist
church but I did at least pay lip service to the doctrine. One had to in that
environment or else you weren't considered a true Christian!
This last observation is something Dr. Purcell had to
contend with in his own life. He had been a preacher in an evangelical
denomination for 20 years when his study convinced him that hellfire was not
literal and that a God of love was not going to torture his own children
eternally. When his denomination found out that Purcell's understanding of this
doctrine had changed, he was summarily discharged. Independent thinking
certainly comes with a high price for the clergy. Fortunately, Purcell made the
most of the difficult situation and got into counseling. He still preaches at
various churches who welcome his message and he is on the board of trustees of
the Christian Universalist Association.
All I can say is that it's too bad we don't have more Boyd
Purcells in the world, people who will not be afraid to poke deep into their
beliefs, weigh evidence, and change their minds if that is warranted.
Unfortunately, we still have too many snake handlers, priests and other
religious people who refuse to even consider they might be on the wrong path. Fortunately,
spiritual truth is readily available in today's world; it is well documented
and waiting to be examined. Thanks to the internet and a steady stream of new
books many people are being drawn to the light. And exposure to the light tends
to erase scars of spiritual abuse as individuals discover who they really are ‒ spirits manifested
within a world of matter in order to spiritually grow and flourish.