I think my husband stumbled across a new term that I like. Fallopitarian. It comes from one of SlowPoke’s editorial cartoons. Seems that surreal absurdist argument is the only thing that comes close to describing the mental state of a small rather extreme group of patriarchal folks who really believe that they are better, more deserving, and closer to God than the rest of us, especially those of us who look different from them – any white, Godly, male who has been “chosen” to have wealth in this life to them is obviously better, purer, and far more deserving than others.
Reminds me of power hungry men throughout history both recent and ancient.
Militaristic men usurped the movement that was a small revolutionary sect of Jews who followed the teaching of a man who assaulted the money changers and was tortured to death a short time later who met in widowed women’s homes, and lived to teach an egalitarian message of love. Constantine brought Christianity to Roman Empire and the Council of Nicea expunged all texts that did not support the views that would solidify their positions of power. Political and religious rule came down through the ranks of men to the lowly peasants who if they were good would get a chance at a life without suffering, illness and hunger in another life. The feudal system arose and co-existed within the Holy Roman Empire and continued past the Reformation until royals in Europe bumped heads, occasionally losing theirs, with the Industrial Revolution that expanded the Guild structure of Middle Ages that was the beginning of the European Middle Class.
That in a nutshell was what I was taught by my father who as far as I can tell learned it from his Grandfather who was a Universalist and a minister in an Anabaptist-leaning Christian denomination. My personal belief structure is just as valid as any one else’s belief structure. While the “haves” in the current socio-political structure would like to think of the Agrarian population of the 1800s were bumpkins, and uneducated rednecks. But this is far from the reality of the valued placed on education and what served as a basic education in the primarily agrarian America of the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Take a look at any of the reader series that were used as texts up until the early 20th Century and see what a minimally educated person was expected to know and be capable of doing.
Beliefs about the existence and nature of the soul and when it enters the body varies from culture to culture. This is not at all set in stone around the world. I have my belief and that is that the unique energy that each of us possesses becomes associated with our physical bodies at different times for different individuals. I also think that it leaves us at different times.
Why is this religious belief being given political clout? Our democratic republic is supposed to allow belief to stay belief and not taint our legislative processes.
Leave a Reply