This series explores the credo behind the Seven Deadly Sins and the nearly comical manner that Christian based religion disobeys them. As a sober parallel to the Sin’s menace, all paintings are layered with the Eight Auspicious Symbols represented in teachings of the Buddha.
Sex. Sex, sex, sex. I’m not afraid to say it. Billions of people are doing it right now and billions of others are thinking about it. The amazing thing about being human, is the fact that we can tap into areas of our brain wherein sex becomes more than just mating. We can connect, love, allow vulnerability, and enjoy a physical satisfaction only those taboo body parts can accomplish.
How surprising that Western religion took this completely natural deed and spun it into a web of control and shame? Perhaps society wouldn’t be so ‘deviant’ as many followers preach, if we had not been taught that sex is wrong, outside of the sanctity of a woman/man marriage.
If you’ve been raised to believe that your sexual desires are sinful, how much more enticing do they become? Sex is a primary necessity of life. We would have no future without it, so it makes sense that mankind took the role of God and twisted it into a vehicle for population control, societal roles and misogyny. Yet we still accept it. We accept that the church infiltrates a legal union like marriage and can wheedle the laws to make it a Christian institution, with no room for those who are different under the creed of Biblical rules.
According to a survey by Ashley Madison, the infidelity promoting website, members were asked of their religious affiliation. 25.1% identified as Evangelical, 22.75% Catholic and 22.7% Protestant. Other religions and non-believers made up the minority of the rest of the poll. Insert here that emoji that’s rubbing his chin with an eyebrow raised.
There is another point of error I can’t help but notice in the religious war strikes on copulation: Purity. Recently, on a very secular Sunday afternoon, I listened to an NPR interview with Linda Kay Klein, the author of ‘Pure’, a woman who’d grown up evangelical and recounts the stiff rules that young girls had to adhere to, along with overall shaming for just having female anatomy. She described girls in this sect being taught that they are the keepers of their own innocence and that boys are weak in their desires. Therefore, girls must be modest, and responsible when around those weak, horny penises. Any funny business is strictly upon her pubescent shoulders; surely, she dressed too provocatively or didn’t try hard enough to deny his advances. The author interviewed women from the same faith and noted how ingrained these philosophies were into their identity. So much so, that many have been diagnosed with PTSD due to the intense conditioning that their purity could be compromised by their own wrongdoing at any time, making them outcasts of their community.
Oppressing women for thousands of years? Religion has done a stellar job there. A basis to deny progression beyond Biblical standards? Check. Sexually abusing children? Thanks again, God.
Priesthood is such a trusted, essential role in regard to religious leaders. Of what position do so many people of faith place their trust and hope? There are estimated to be 1.2 billion Catholics in the world, and like many in God’s name, with global power, comes devastating corruption. We have heard all of the stories, we know the numbers, the boys and girls who were victimized by their own leadership, in the house of their God. Can the abuse of power be any more foul than that of a man who desecrates his own beliefs and an innocent child? These priests are so trusted in fact, that after the Boston Globe blew the lid off the Catholic church’s secrets, many Catholics scoffed that the media was merely attacking or picking on the institution. Unsurprisingly, the reports were not limited geographically to the US.
The true nature of the church is so transparently shady that they managed a worldwide veil of abuse, by simply playing musical chairs with predatory priests, placing them into other dioceses, knowing they’d offend again, but maintaining the silence of the victims. Despite the exposure of these repugnant acts by a beast of a religion, it’s obvious that Dogma can overpower any dirty, creeping hands. Though their fortress was blasted incessantly by flaming cannon balls of evidence, the church stood tall, practically unmarred. To outsiders, it forces the opinion that strict believers, who stand by such an organization, are just as vile as the accused. Therein lies the power of faith: people will cling to their sect, through unholy acts, still so certain that those in power indeed know better than themselves, for they have a closer connection to God. Drink the Kool-aid, disown your loved ones for their difference in beliefs, and stand by men who’ve used their power to assault children.
Lust, by the Bible’s standards, is a creed telling humankind that pleasure from sexual stimuli is a salacious ticket to Hell. Lust, by fallible human standards, is a failure to adhere to laws designed by a system to keep people in check. Creating a role where a man must be so devout, he remains forever celibate, while throwing him unsupervised in a pheromonic crowd of vulnerable children, is quite simply, the perfect recipe for horrible acts to occur. Unfortunately, in my piece, the simplicity of a priest and boy are enough to lead the viewer to conclusion. I’m not much into depicting child molestation in my art, so the symbolic blessing on the head will be a nod to the boundaries these men in power break and invade into their victim’s lives. Engulfing them is the lotus flower, which represents Buddha’s teaching of complete purification of the defilement of our mind, body and speech. As the lotus blooms in muddy water, we can be freed by our scars in it’s image. Such a lovely comparison to draw for the victims of this kind of iniquitous assault, but it will never come close to unraveling the damage done by the so-called servants of God who took everything from the defenseless lives that trusted them.
As usual, it seems like our species should be so much further evolved than to still be cleaning up the messes made by religion. No great wave of progression can be made if men in robes and phallic hats are influencing billions of people. The question begs to be asked: Who will save the world from God?
But, perhaps the most pressing question to those believers who consider their leader’s sins don’t count: if God designed us in his image, does he have orgasms?
