Four years ago I was one of the thieves on the cross in the Passion Play at Andrews University.
By the second performance I had the anguished looks, the agony in my voice, and the bloodcurdling screams of a man dying a gruesome death down pretty good. My screams made children cry and then after the scene,when they would see me alive, they would scream and run away. Apparently those kids thought I was a zombie. They were on to something, dead men can’t walk.
It’s one thing for adults, but to have kids get attached to a likable character and then watch him get beat and killed…talk about sick. It borderlines on abuse.
Being on that cross was kind of painful, more than a few minutes was unbearable, which certainly helped contribute to some of the screams. Of course, don’t worry, the wounds weren’t any more real than the story we reenacted. Rather than being the work of the Roman soldiers I’m pictured with, they were the work of two really cute girls that did my makeup. I also feel the need to mention that I have lost some weight since then, I’m probably 10 or 15 pounds lighter than I was back then.
The whole concept of sacrificial atonement is not only unjust and illogical, it is down right twisted. The mere idea that someone else, someone innocent, should be tortured and killed for my wrong doing is simply abhorrent, especially considering that I haven’t done anything that bad.
Every person should stand for their own actions.
For the “sins” that the alleged man Jesus allegedly died for, the punishment does not fit the crime. Lying, while bad, doesn’t merit death. Premarital sex is healthy and promotes later matrimonial compatibility, it certainly doesn’t merit death. People who are born with a little different mental wiring than what is “normal” do not deserve death for finding happiness, intimacy, and love with other consenting adults. Certainly NO ONE deserves to die for their mere thoughts or words and few deserve death for their actions.
The kind of “God” who is unable or unwilling to forgive petty offences without bloodshed, who condemns people for the way they are born, who condemns people for finding happiness and trying to live normal lives, and who would accept the death of another in the stead of those who deserve it is not just, merciful, or worthy of anything but disgust and contempt.
We rightfully condemn nations like Iran for executing people for blasphemy, adultery, homosexuality, and apostasy, yet most Americans worship a God who they believe does the same. How are they the good ones and those of us who call bull shit on the whole notion the ones who can’t be trusted? What the hell is wrong with people?