God has a marketing problem. Crucifixion is a tough sell. Hard to find many takers! Turns out people want to live and be happy. Painful, agonizing deaths? Not so much. Seems God is out of touch - they say age will do that to a person - and not giving the people what they want.
And yet, the marketing plan remains: show up, be a good person, do unto others as you'd have them do unto you - and then suffer betrayal and horrific death. Even Jesus wasn't keen on facing his fate, sweating literal blood in anticipation. So that's your plan, God? Really? You can't do better than that? Really??
Now there's a lot times when I've the seen Bible misinterpreted for one reason or another. I suppose people think that keeps them safe from the Word. But God is amazingly in touch at times - making the whole crucifixion bit just that much more perplexing.
"The Bible promotes slavery!" I've heard breathlessly gasped. Reality is what the Good Book wrote is that if you asshole motherfuckers can't do any better than to enslave one another then you goddam well better inject some equity into the situation if you hope to come out alive. See? God knew what he was talking about there as here it thousands of years later and we’re still as much as slaves as ever, denouncing anyone who doesn't embrace our creed "In blackmail we trust".
I got your damn healthcare!
(I know, I know - you all think you're so "clever and classless and free". We proclaim "Human greed must be served!" on one hand then bitch when the greediest bastards are the ones who win out. Chains are chains.)
Now one can talk about the nature of responsibility and the karmic position mankind has placed itself in, but to the poor bastard on the cross he just wants the here and now to be fixed. Life is just a shitty deal. Speak truly and get shot or speak falsely and lose your soul. And all this shit is reaching a head. Great time to start a family!
If there were 1,000 people on this globe and 999 of them were Jesus and the last one an evil twit, all 999 of the Jesus's would be killed. The evil guy doesn't want to hear what any Jesus has to say! That's why the Good Book says to kill the evil among you. It takes only one to poison the communal well. But we've perverted it to be the reverse.
Democracy is the only viable way a society can grow and prosper. But it's no guarantee. Evil elected to power is just as damaging as evil that takes power by force. So in a land of popularly elected evil, who's going to be one to say we're on the wrong path? For while it's true it only takes one person to poison the well it also takes only one dissenter to point out the ship is sinking to ruin the party for all.
No dissent here - or truth either!
Now I don't have to tell you what's going to happen when the guy who interrupts a greed fest to announce that that lack of responsibility has left the ship in disrepair. We've all been shot down one time or the other speaking our truth. The protests are mighty and the retribution swift and unthinking. "If we can just shut up the truth we can keep the party going!" Hella plan that.
But this leads back to my beginning here, doesn't it, about people wanting to live. If ya ain't gonna fix the ship, ya ain't gonna live. You can toss the truthtellers overboard and declare "This is the only way we can live!" but your sorry ass is still going to end up in the cold dark waters and you haven't saved yourself at all. Turns out wanting to live and choosing to live are two different things.
So the ones truly wanting to live are thrown overboard and the ones wanting to die ruin the whole damn thing - maybe God's marketing plan isn't off the mark after all. It's the plan for those who want life. Maybe it's our own marketing of death as salvation that needs to be scrapped. We've all got garbage in our head that needs be thrown out.
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I never got the theology of Easter. Still don't - never will. It's all a bunch of hooey - this means that and that means this - whatever. Like politics and economics - it's just bullshit we make up.
What I did get about Easter was the feeling it gave me, like a bright, sunshiney day - the brightest of all living days. It's a feeling of endless life that can only be experienced, not explained. I think that's what Jesus wanted the legacy of that day to be: a gift for all time.
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