The Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge

This has been bouncing around in my head for a long time now.

Tonight, it just sort-of congealed into a half-baked idea.

Short version:

Christians believe they have to stomp out depravity. But they're just making it up.

Long version:

This starts in Genesis, which I believe (based upon science, and what my Mom taught me as a little kid) must be an allegory.

I generally don't have much use for Scripture, but this is my basic point:

From the NIV:

Genesis 3:

3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

 I spent most of my life believing that this was an allegory about people figuring out what the difference is between good and evil.

This interpretation is obviously false.

Most of the rest of the Old Testament is about God commanding the Jews to do objectively evil things.

My parents were conservative Christians, back in the 70s. They are/were prime candidates for all the MAGA propaganda.

I'm almost grateful that my Dad was dead at that point. Odds are, if he wasn't, he'd have been doing his part to arm the Jan 6 insurrection.

But my Mom's right in the sweet spot of the MAGA propaganda.

I think she hits a sweet spot to remember the 50s with total nostalgia. She has an extra incentive to forget how awful it was for the disadvantaged, because she managed to marry out of that despite her college degree.

Most of the stories I've heard are about the sock hops her sisters attended. Or their years as cheerleaders. Or superhero Judy who carried her (and her full-body cast) out of their burning house.

I've also heard a few stories about Grandpa hopping trains to travel the country as a hobo. Or picking fights around town after someone insulted one of his daughters. I don't have any faith in those memories (though I'm pretty sure he spent time hopping box cars).

Anyway. None of the stories I heard growing up involved our family's slaves or servants. Most of them that I remember were about the Trail of Tears and similar European atrocities.

But my mom has a chance to offer a very unique perspective on the current MAGA movement.

She grew up in the era that MAGA wants to bring back.

She told me once that one of her aunts once told her that she would spend her short life begging on the streets, because no man would ever want her for a wife.

Just for reference: two men did, at some point. I never did find out why things failed with the first one.

Life with the second one has been going for 30+ years now. It's like any marriage. They've had their ups and downs. And they've chosen to stay together.

That makes me hopeful that Laura and I can continue to do the same when things get rocky for us.

And all of that was a long way of snaking around to the point:

People did not get through Genesis with some sort of objective God view about what is good vs. evil after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. (Whatever it might have been).

Whatever "the serpent" might have been, what it seemed to have claimed was not true.

I think that, from our perspective, we can safely say that slavery is and always was objectively evil.

Historically, that was not true. I am positive that there are still some people who will claim that their family's slaves were so happy serving that they never wanted to be free.

We could disagree.

Historically, we could resolve that disagreement with a duel.

Perhaps with fisticuffs. Or rapiers.

That wouldn't have had anything to do with the actual point, of course.

But, hey. We were both suffering under the illusion that we could resolve that point by doing something that didn't have anything at all to do with the actual problem.

It's kind of like all those men who keep deciding what women are allowed to do when they have a pregnancy that the woman chooses to terminate.

What does that "choose" mean?

Well, that really isn't any of your business, is it? I've heard enough examples to know that it isn't any of mine.

I hate to resort to Scripture, again. But I know that it's Christians who are throwing away the fundamental principles of Christianity who are enabling this festering MAGA rot that is destroying America.

I know. That's the same sort of language the Christofascists use to describe the way liberals are destroying America.

So I'm going to quote the Bible verses that my Baby Boomer conservative Christian parents drilled into me:

Matthew 7:1 - Do not judge, or you too will be judged

Luke 6:31: Do to others as you would have them do to you.

I grew up with the King James version, but I always found the NIV easier to read.

The last quote I wanted to point out was "love your neighbor as yourself."

I've been avoiding the Bible long enough that I expected this one to be fairly obscure. I've been paying too much attention to the christians who are using the Bible as an excuse to spread racism as hatred.

I don't remember the last time I looked up a quote in the Bible and had this many hits.

Leviticus 19:18

Matthew 19:19

Matthew 22:39

Mark 12:31

Mark 12:33

Luke 10:27

Romans 13:9

Galatians 5:14

James 2:8

I thought I was going to have to look up quotes about widows and poor people and prisoners to make my point. (I'm pretty sure those are all in there as well, but I could be remembering it wrong).

I broke down and logged into twitter the other night. It was a big hate-fest of MAGA fans oppressing LGBTQ minorities. With a bunch of people who pretended to be Christian (but were really just Fascists) supporting the haters.

I gave up on Christianity years ago because I just can't believe in the mythology.

But I want to believe in the kindness and compassion and caring parts of it.

I feel like Christianity is this sleek little fish that's trying to make its way through a swarm of parasites that are determined to steal everything that was ever good about Christ's original ideas. And that Evangelical Christianity is that swarm of parasites.