My memories of church are not explicit. I remember the musty smells of old hymn books and old people, a man in layered robes talking for 2 hours and my first sip of wine in Communion at 12. Other than that, I was tuned out. Once I left the parental harness of the Sunday requirement to go, I only stepped back into church for weddings or funerals. Then as I raised a child who started asking questions about this guy named Jesus, which his Grandmothers were getting him all jazzed about like Santa, I decided I should think deeper about what I really believe. I came to the realization that I have no fucking clue…. And that’s OK. Thankfully, I am living in an era where I can feel this openly and shamelessly. One of my first posts noted that I identify as Agnostic, even though Atheism is tantalizing, my instincts reel me back to the whole point of Agnosticism: I don’t know, none of us know and that’s the crazy, amazing, thrilling, terrifying mystery of life. Though I stand by a strict code of respecting other beliefs, I still have a nerve that flares up with over-zealous preaching. I feel settled and content with my soul and it’s future, thank you very much, so if you leave me alone, I’ll leave you alone.
Almost a year ago, a friend asked me to do a commission for her. Most requests are usually fairly tame and universal; flowers, landscapes, anything and everything non-offensive, which is fine, but it can be a little redundant at times. I was surprised when she told me that she was thinking about the subject of The Seven Deadly Sins, and my mind started rapidly creating a series of paintings to attach with my interpretation of the Dogma represented within these principles. Turns out, it has taken me months to even reach the point of painting. I sketched out ideas, then tossed them. Finally, before I text her and said - screw it, can I just paint you some roses?- I got it. As simple as it is, I realized that the commentary I was trying to reach was right there all along. My series has now become a narrative on how these 7 sins are disobeyed directly by the churches/faiths/religions, primarily Christian, that spout them as law.
The Sins originate, per the best of my Google knowledge, from a 4th century monk, who noticed the particular human tendencies and emotions that would be exacerbated during their time of deprivation and prayer. The 6th century Pope declared these the ‘7 Cardinal Sins’, proving their gravity against less serious wrongdoings, or as they called it, ‘Venial Sins’. There is much, much more to their history, but let’s leave it simple: the Catholic church engraved these as the worst of the worst. Beyond just Catholicism, they are mirrored in all forms of Christianity and sub-religions, making it hard to ignore the average, daily emotions and practices all humans have been forbidden from according to this creed, but do anyway.
In this series, I wanted to explore the contradictions present in the Sins vs Religion. After putting pencil to paper though, I started feeling a bit uptight. I couldn’t explain it, but as I brainstormed, each image I developed was growing into a mass of malevolence. I love some good ol’ cynicism now and then, and I thought that would be all I needed to factory line these out. Apparently though, I have a heart and it started feeling heavy as I was illustrating my ideas. How could I add some positivity and hope to these ridiculous rules that we as humans have decided is law? I’ve always had a fascination with Buddhism, and if I were not such a selfish, foul-mouthed, wreck of a person, I’d be inclined to practice the lifestyle the Buddha taught. I can still understand these practices though, which I have read and studied for many years, and at least appreciate their value. This series is where they came to my rescue. How fitting, to paint the principles laid by the Catholic church, of actions that will damn us for eternity, in front of the beautiful rules to live by from The Buddha. The ‘Eight Auspicious Symbols’ are represented as the virtues Buddha gained after enlightenment. They are beautiful, positive, loving principles, very much paradoxical to the warnings of the Seven Deadly Sins.
In the next 6 posts, I will share the painting connected to each sin. I have too much to say about the hypocrisy of religion, especially those who demean and beat down others that do not follow the stringent path that is claimed in the Bible, therefore, I did not put all of them together into one post.
To draw back the curtain of this unholy series, I felt it appropriate to begin with the thorn in the shoe of all sins, the silent but dangerous practice that keeps our society shackled to the fantasy of a heavily re-translated, multi-authored, contradictory ancient book: Sloth. Interpreting sloth into religion came like a light bulb as I grasped what sloth means in terms of the Cardinal Sins. In much text around different corners of the internet, it became clear that sloth does not represent only laziness and apathy, but includes procrastination and excusing away expectations of God; those who do not take the time for prayer and worship, or even those unwilling to see the beauty in all of God’s creatures, are committing this sin. Above all else, resistance to reading and spreading the word of God, or to ignore the knowledge he gives us through the Bible is the epitome of Sloth.
I wrung my hands and had a discussion with myself; the sin of apathy, how can I spin it back around? What is synonymous today of God’s offense at his creation’s ignorance?.....Ignorance itself.
The issue I see continuing to gnaw at generations before and ahead of us is the crisis of pure Bible based callowness. Glean from scripture all you want, honk for Jesus, boycott Harry Potter, but pleeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssssseeeeeeeeee stop telling your kids that God created Earth in a week, made woman the secondary gender from man’s rib and then, as the lesser of the sexes, she fell into Satan’s talking snake temptation of eating a magic apple, thus damning all humanity to pain and suffering…. Okay?
From my view outside of the religious circle, I see sloth in much of Christianity as stated above: taking the Bible as literal, factual guidelines for society without ever opening the mind beyond a small story, to the vastness of our existence without God. Believers content with far fetched stories of divine creation and ships that fit every animal on Earth times two. This is not just an issue of difference in opinion either. We see the Bible as the cornerstone of ethics in the Western world and deviant, warlords holding conservative political office depend on it’s principals as fact to keep their policies in place. If they didn’t have this damning relic, then homosexuals, non-whites and women would run rampant and their weaker minds would hurdle the economy and law into absolute chaos.
Christians in particular, who believe these Bible stories as truth, in an era when science has become almost impossible to ignore, are the reason society has become stagnant. Complacency is frustrating, but it turns frightening when examining the dangers of a ‘Christian built’ nation. If our great-great grandchildren are lucky enough to have a habitable planet left, I can only imagine their disbelief that people in the dawn of the internet and medical breakthroughs, didn’t have the precocity to believe scientists on climate change.
Clearly, Eve, that reckless whore, is my focal point, placing her halfway up a tree, flirting with Satan and ready to defile that pure, immaculate fruit… while above this Biblical catastrophe is a colorful vase, one of the Buddha's symbolic principles. The treasure vase in Buddhism represents endless knowledge of life through Buddha's teachings. No matter how much is taken from the vase, it will never empty, but continue to replenish it’s bounty for all. Along with such a sensible meaning, the treasure vase also represents long life and prosperity, not unlike an educated mind, for the more we know, the more valuable our lives become.
If you or a loved one is struggling with the absurdity of the Bible, direct them to the Buddha's teachings; while there may not be a mystical Creator to pray to when our car keys are lost, there is a trove of love and contentment to be found within finding internal Enlightenment. Some will not budge against Genesis’ procession of events… but the more we recruit away from a fossilised story that plagues us, the closer to a true Eden we will be.