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Sunday, June 29. 2008
Evil Once Again
It’s been an interesting week. Change in meds and a touch of a summer cold, not to mention the news.A fashion model committed suicide by jumping from her apartment. Ruslana Korshunova killed herself Saturday. Course there will be the chorus of people who insist the business she was in drove her to do it. Please. Thousands of models, some famous, some not, and damn few of them carry out suicide attempts, let alone succeed. But, why not go for the easy answer so the holier-than-thou can say, “uh-huh! Bein’ a model will do it to ya.”
One of my favorite adult (nude) models, Erica Campbell, recently decided to become a born again Christian. That is a major disappointment. But she was obviously in a deep funk; a deep dark hole of depression and anything can seem like a lifeline. Even religion. Especially religion.
Some of us have a dark void in us that nothing seems to fill. Not relationships, food, sex, drugs, alcohol, or love. It’s a yearning for something more, a feeling of wholeness, wellness, like we are part of the community. And yet, we are the ones who look with disdain at the community.
The community that passes judgment on those who think differently, act differently, and require, without exception, compliance to the rules and standards without debate or deviation from those dictums. As if the freedom of speech is only a cute phrase from a simpler time. A community that only accepts a certain few as chosen for the “good life” and the rest of us better know our place, keep quiet and do what we’re told when we’re told to do it. A community that says, “You’re not one of us, but you can sit over at that table and we’ll let you order off the menu.”Religions, on the other hand, are looking for members, paying customers, who will adhere to their rules, take a pre-determined place in their community — often determined by whomever rules the church — and keep quiet unless told to speak and when told to speak the members speak only the appropriate and accepted thoughts and ideas.
And their initial come on is: Everyone is welcome! Especially those who have that emptiness and disdain for that larger community we never felt a part of.
And the more slavish the devotion and adherence to the approved speech, the higher up in the food chain of the religion the members can go and everyone — every member—can aspire to be a part of the hierarchy, although in reality not everyone can be a member of the elite, otherwise it wouldn’t be elite.
You know the elite: they get perks the other church members are not privy to; maybe only a vaunted place during services. Some of the more affluent and larger churches provide material perks, epitomized by the PTL religion of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. Their non-profit status was eventually revoked by the I.R.S. and Jim Bakker spent about five years in prison for a variety of charges, including fraud.
Both Jim and Tammy Faye renounced their PTL ways after they divorced and yet both became leading figures in new sects, designed by themselves. Their stories get pretty twisted; Tammy Faye married a friend from the PTL, Roe Messmer, and they started their own denomination. Jim Bakker, after leaving prison, renounced his former interpretation of “The Word” — his Prosperity Theology—and yet now he is the leader of a new church (with a new wife) centered in Branson, Missouri, that is broadcast nationally once again and brings in enough money to allow them a new studio to accommodate his growing popularity.
Bakker has been truly born again, with pretty much the same philosophy that got him tossed into prison. He still owes millions of back taxes but the new church is “run” by friends so the I.R.S. can’t touch the income. Same Bakker, just a little smarter about how to get over on the government. For Bakker, Jesus is still a cash cow.
Since seeing the “light,” the truth about religion, I’ve often wondered why people in the 21st Century still flock to something first created in the Stone Age. We look at the Book of Genesis, myths first created when humankind had to have an answer as to how did we get here. A super natural guy called “God” first created the universe — the Heavens and the Earth — light and dark, the ground and water, plants and animals and finally humankind to rule over all. And “God” did it all in six days, leaving the seventh day for rest, instructing humankind to use that day of rest to pay homage to him.
It had to be a male entity, super natural or otherwise. No female could be in charge if men were going to be the rulers on Earth.Most likely, the “how” we got here came after the question arose of “why” we are here. Every religion has a version of the same afterlife. In the Judeo-Christian-Muslim religions (all claim Abraham as their founding patriarch) that centerpiece of the afterlife is “Heaven,” a “place” where all the obedient ones go when they die, their souls lifted up in bright glory if their life has been pleasing to God. By pleasing to God, the Earthly rulers meant obedient to their Earthly rules, laws that could be (and often were) bent and twisted to the advantage of the Earthly rulers (all of whom were men).
Religion often claims to be all-inclusive — anyone and everyone is welcome. The most insidious of the Christian religions being the “non-denominational” churches that can interpret The Bible to fit their specific desires. At first I wrote “needs,” but what “they” need is a way to make their take on God and Christ palatable to the prospective members who feel that void. But the come on is always the same: what’s missing from your life is “God,” He will fill that void. And quite frankly, “God” fills that void — at least for a little while.
The rules vary from denomination to denomination slightly, but there is always the slavish devotion to “The Word” as determined in The Bible. How “The Word” is interpreted is what separates the different sects from one another.
And now Erica Campbell is part of that charade. I really liked her. Still like her as a matter of fact. She was nice to her fans, always let them (us) contact her via the internet, ask her often pointed questions about relationships and sex, her relationships with other models and just about any question we had.For many, she was the surrogate girlfriend. Consequently, some of those fans became over zealous, possessive and abusive, intruding on her “real” life so much so that she retreated to a reclusive farm in New Hampshire. Still, we, for a time anyway, filled that void inside of her. And eventually not even that was enough.
Hopefully she will find what she needs: personal peace and serenity. Hopefully, the people who have involved her in that religion will not take advantage of her, sexually or otherwise. Religious leaders have a long history of taking sexual advantage of young converts, especially the prettiest ones who don’t know any better and are still raw and vulnerable, easily manipulated by the right words strung together in the right sequence.
Or take advantage of her popularity, using her to attract more members. Besides the money new members bring to the church, larger memberships to their church means more power, a far more coveted prize than money.
Yeah, I’m cynical when it comes to religion. But it has proven, over the past 8,000 years, to be the root of all evil.
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