I was born into the all encompassing warmth of the church of Rome. At home and at school certain precepts were drummed into us not least of which was the rule Thou shalt not take the Lords name in vain. To do so was to consign oneself to hell for all eternity. I was shocked one day when I overheard my Grandfather muttering under his breath. He was wrestling with a tight bolt and when the spanner slipped so did the phrase Jesus Wept. I worried for days that my beloved Grandpa had just signed a lease on an apartment in the land of living hellfire. In my late teens I was becoming something of a music geek and when I had a little spare cash I would rummage through the racks of the local record store in search of new sounds. Why I decided to buy the debut Public Image album I will never know, but there it was spinning on my turntable uttering all kinds of blasphemous words. I was shocked, stunned and certain that I had done something horribly wrong. Fortunately my time with the Catholic Church was coming to a close. Despite the relentless indoctrination, too many inconsistencies in the core teachings had worn me down and my burgeoning critical thinking facilities could be ignored no more. I remember clearly the first time I used the name of Jesus in vain. It was an experiment and it felt good. I started to use god and Jesus more and more frequently to express emotions like frustration and bewilderment. The only method the church had to enforce its authority were threats of exclusion from the chosen community. The wider world did not give a toss. There were no state laws that forbade me from misusing the names of Christianitys god and his progeny and prophets and I was protected by the same state institutions from retaliation from those who believed differently to myself. Through this process I learned the joy of freedom of thought and through freedom of thought I began to appreciate satire, critique, irony and humour and their value as tools for questioning belief systems. RIP Charlie Hebdo, may fear never stop us from questioning and challenging accepted truths and principles.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 21:24:13 +0000
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