Cedric Mayson
Spirit Level
Myths fool thousands and religious myths fool millions. The old apartheid myths of the communist onslaught with reds under the beds and black cut-throats in the ikhaya are dead, but there are plenty of others around.
Most countries acclaim democracy as a good method of achieving a government which represents the desires of the people. But our opposition has now invented the incredible myth that if a huge majority favours one party, democracy becomes undemocratic. It is necessary to oppose the government “to save democracy”. This myth means: “Our hands itch to hold power but we shall never get it by democratic means.”
Racism is out in these new South Africa days, but it is preserved by a host of myths. “Of course, I’m not a racist, darling, but we do have certain standards, don’t we!”; “It’s not racism – it’s just that we’re a different class, you see.”; “Actually, I still love the native”; “What can you expect from a whitey?”
Racism is justified in the workplace by myths about “having competent abilities” and “being over-qualified”. It is a myth to imagine that “reconciliation” can be achieved round a table in a conference or a boardroom if it does not happen round the supper table too. Racism is ousted by friends in other races.
Some religions speak of “preserving family values” which sounds good if you have a valuable family. But it is often a myth to conceal a culture demanding submission to parental or cultural domination. The essence of the freedom won in 1994 was a culture of responsibility to make our own decisions, not a culture of domination. But heads of families, churches and businesses find that empowering people to be responsible for themselves is too threatening. “Family values” usually means telling the brats, the women, the poor and the sinners to do what they’re told.
Professor Harvey Cox of Harvard writes about the myth of the market that has become God. The market is the guiding principle of the world, and everyone must have faith in the market or be condemned to utter darkness.
“Trust me,” says the market god while imposing deadly restrictions on the poor. “It may hurt a bit but it will all come right in the end.” Like hell, it will.
The market is omnipotent and has turned everything into a commodity with a price tag. The market is omniscient, knowing all the answers and dispensing grace through its priests, the financial experts. The market is omnipresent, moving into every area of life, the God in whom we live and move and have our being. Come, bow down and worship the golden idol! The problem with this myth is that the market god is dead, and like a veld fire will suddenly collapse in a heap of greying ashes when it has nothing left to consume.
The greatest myth is the whopper propagated by fundamentalist Christians who say that “Christ was God, and he died to save you from your sins.” This has nothing to do with the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, who did not claim to be God, or to save people from their sins.
The myth began when early preachers like Peter, Paul and John sought to interpret Jesus in the thought forms of Jewish and Roman-Greek hearers. Carried into other contexts among people who did not believe in blood-sacrifice this teaching was twisted into outrageous and misleading myths by succeeding generations, and these still infect many churches today like a spiritual cancer.
The claim that it is “fundamental” to scriptural teaching is simply ignorance: it was all post-Jesus. The notion of original sin came from Augustine of Hippo about AD 400. Jesus knew nothing about the Trinity: it was 300 years later that Athanasius put that one together.
The myth that Jesus died to placate the demands of a God who wanted the satisfaction of seeing our sins punished comes from the culture of the Middle Ages and depends on Anselm, William the Conqueror’s Archbishop of Canterbury. But mere facts never fazed the fundis who make a packet from this sort of racket.
Modern evangelists, waving their floppy Bibles and whipping texts out of context like salesmen with samples, mesmerised by their own emotional ecstasies, convey the notion that the only way to avoid going to hell when you die is to “come to Jesus” by joining their church. Allelujah, brother, and pass the collection plate. This myth is non-Jesus, non-sense, and heretical.
Myths are bunk and leave junk in the head. They capture your mind like witchcraft and have to be dispelled. Mockery is more help than argument for “the Devil cannot abide to be mocked”.
What can un-fool you? The best remedy seems to be a small friendly group, maybe in someone’s house, where anyone is welcomed into a caring atmosphere which encourages people to stand on their own feet, share their stories, fears and dreams, and in that generous empowering find a new spirit in their relationships. You may or may not call that spirit God – but it’s no myth. It’s real. Fun, too.