The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture (20 page)

At times when the moral issues get big, there is no demonstrable difference between religionists and non-theists. For example, what percentage of Christians tried to protect and save Jews in Nazi Germany? Was the percentage any higher than the percentage of Atheists who tried to save Jews? You probably couldn’t find a more immoral man than Oscar Schindler
¹⁸
of
Schindler’s List
fame: financially shady, involved in gambling, and always with one or two mistresses besides a wife. Yet, the “moral” bishops and cardinals of Germany probably didn’t come close
in doing the moral actions of this one man.

18
Famous for saving 1,200 Jews from the death camps in WW II. He was the subject of the Steven Spielberg movie
Schindler’s List
(Touchstone, 1 September 1995) and was named Righteous Among the Nations by Israel, an honor for non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
¹⁹
famous for his theological works, gets pretty good press for trying to assassinate Hitler, but thousands of Atheists died under Hitler’s rule, including dozens who tried to assassinate Hitler as well. Those stories are not told very often. Is a Christian’s heroism more heroic or important than an Atheist’s? Is Albert Camus any less heroic in the French resistance because of his agnosticism?

The god virus usurps the story of the moral person who makes the hard and courageous decision. It is not interested in the millions of other religious people who made the immoral choice. It is a case of massive selective perception. For every inspirational Christian story in religious bookstores, there are a thousand stories of ministers gone bad, priests molesting children or elders and deacons lynching blacks in the 1920s.

The vast majority of Nazis were Christians; only a tiny fraction of Christians actually tried to save Jews or Communists. Christians point to those who saved Jews with pride; and they should. If their faith gave them courage to resist, all the better. However, that does not negate the bravery of Albert Camus or Oscar Schindler, or the communist resistance fighters in France, Germany and Spain. Bravery, courage and morality are not values unique to religionists. On the other hand, how did Christianity inform the morality of millions of Nazis and fascists who celebrated mass every week or attended Lutheran services while supporting Hitler’s murderous regime? It is mind-boggling to see religionists hold up the tiny minority of people who behaved morally while completely ignoring the millions who did not.

Where does the non-theist get the moral compass to make the hard decisions? It comes from doing the difficult work of self-examination and definition. For me, Albert Camus and Voltaire have been far more helpful than Jesus or Moses. Albert Einstein and Viktor Frankl
²⁰
have given me more moral guidance than any minister. From an early age, I had a sense of justice and injustice, and it often ran counter to the teachings of my church.

19
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German Lutheran Pastor and Theologian, was imprisoned for his part in an assassination attempt against Hitler and executed only weeks before the fall of Germany. See Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
The Cost of Discipleship
and
Letters
(B&H Publishing Group, 1999) and
Papers from Prison
updated ed. (Touchstone, 1997).

20
Viktor Frankl (1905–1997) was a psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor. He was prominent in existential therapy and founder of logotherapy after the war. He was author of the small but extremely influential book,
Man’s Search for Meaning
(Beacon Press, 2006).

Non-theists have to decide what course of action is moral. We cannot look to a make-believe god or an instruction book. We also do not have the shifting sands of religious morality to contend with. As we have seen in this chapter, morality is a moving target for the religious. The shifting nature of religious morality is hidden to those infected by a god virus.

The immoral lessons of my religious training were anything but a moral compass. Creating a sense of balance between my wants and desires and those of others has been my primary happiness in life. As long as I listened to my own moral compass, I seemed to make some good decisions.

Morality is a product of culture, not religion. The god virus is constantly changing to adjust to the culture and to survive. Moral superiority is a myth perpetuated by the virus to maintain control. Viral control is maintained through the myth of unchanging morality. Those infected have difficulty seeing the changing nature of religious morality and feel secure that they are more moral than others. This blinds religionists to real-world data needed to make hard choices. Non-theists have a huge advantage because they waste no time on fantasies, worries and fears related to the virus. While we have worries and fears, they are not complicated by the demands of a god virus.

“There is so much in the Bible against which every instinct of my being rebels, so much so that I regret the necessity which has compelled me to read it through from beginning to end. I do not think that the knowledge I have gained of its history and sources compensates me for the unpleasant details it has forced upon my attention.”

-Helen Keller, American lecturer

American evangelism is a new virus with new tools and methods for infection and propagation, including psychosocial methods such as hypnosis. Evangelical preachers are also different from the priests and ministers of the past in both style and education.

Carrie volunteered this story when she learned I was writing a book on religion. I am grateful for her willingness to share her private journey. It illustrates the nature of the new evangelical virus we will examine in this chapter.

I was raised in a chaotic, disruptive home and gravitated to ultra-conservative Baptist friends. They seemed to have all the answers. The church accepted me ‘unconditionally,’ provided guidance on righteous living and offered me a future in eternity. There was a trance-like joy that radiated from believers and I wanted to feel that ‘good.’ There’s comfort in knowing the answers and knowing you are accepted because you belong.

I married a man who was raised in a very strict, deeply religious home as well. We raised our children in the Baptist church and attended five days a week. I stayed home with my children, home-schooled them and embraced my submissive wife role. I was always involved in several Bible Studies at once, taught Sunday School and led the women’s groups. We lived in a large home in a wealthy neighborhood, and we ‘looked’ very good from the outside. My husband and I never argued. We also talked little. Internally we were both dying. My husband frequently criticized men who cheated on their wives as having a lack of morals. At the same time, he was having several affairs. I also had affairs and would repent and join another Bible Study to ‘cleanse my soul.’ Our faith was the band-aid that kept our marriage together. It covered the wound but didn’t heal it. We just didn’t have to look at the problems.

My marriage lasted for 15 years, but eventually even a magical god can’t fix some problems. After the divorce, we both lost friends and few remained close. It was almost as if others thought divorce was contagious. Some even said we had “sinned” when we divorced.

In our very large conservative Southern Baptist church, I held long-standing leadership roles in women’s groups. Within a short time after our divorce, I was ‘encouraged’ to step down. Church members often admit to being flawed and imperfect, but say they are made ‘perfect through Christ.’ I guess I was really flawed at this point, and not even Christ could perfect me.

I moved to another city and raised my children as a single parent. I went back to school and finished a master’s degree as a therapist. I was still determined to raise my children in a Christian household. I comforted myself, knowing I had Christ beside me and I wasn’t raising them alone. I became very involved in the church, taught youth and joined every Bible Study I could. I prayed daily, sometimes hourly, asking for guidance. I surrounded myself with Christian friends and spoke a language that always included god.

Over the years, I watched as my children began to parrot the words they heard in youth group and from their youth leaders, teachers and preacher. Rather than embracing a loving and forgiving ‘god,’ they became more rigid in their thinking, more judgmental and condescending of those who did not embrace the Baptist lifestyle. They set themselves apart as ‘believers’ and others as ‘sinners.’ Somehow, they were elite and others were ‘lost.’ I didn’t like what I saw in my children. I felt awful. It was as if they were becoming less Christian even as we worked harder to be Christians.

About the time my children were leaving home to attend college, a friend of mine asked me to read a book with an alternative explanation for my feelings. The book explained religion in terms I had never considered. I agreed to read it with the clear purpose of showing him how wrong he was. I knew I was strong in my beliefs and would demonstrate how nonjudgmental and unbiased I could be. I even thought I could enlighten him and gently lead him back to Christ. I vehemently attacked the first few chapters. They made me angry, and the comments I wrote on the side of the pages reflected that. I was determined to not let my emotions drive my rebuttals, I would prove the book wrong by quoting from Scripture. I was certain I could make intelligent arguments that he would have to embrace.

After a few chapters, I began to notice that my arguments didn’t stand up to the simple scientific facts that were methodically presented. The concepts in the book made sense to me. Slowly, then dramatically, I made a shift. When I stopped being defensive, I was able to start thinking independently about my religion and beliefs. I stopped parroting words I was taught and behaviors I mimicked.

Considering the possibility that there was no god was so very threatening to my core beliefs. As I continued to read, all of my arguments fell away. It just made sense. I always thought I was an intelligent woman. How could I embrace such mythology and teach such fantasies to my children? The same words my friends would use to comfort me, that ‘God will be with you,’ ‘I’m praying for you’, ‘This is God’s plan,’ ‘He is in control,’ now sounded ridiculous. How comical. I insist on proof in everything else in my life, why did I not apply those same standards to the Master of my universe?

My world turned upside down with repercussions that I’m continuing to face. I already experienced the loss of respect and friendships through my divorce. I didn’t know if I was prepared to lose more friends, business contacts and community acceptance if I admitted I was Atheist. More importantly, I knew my children would be devastated. That was the hardest adjustment.

Admitting that I am truly alone in this world and that there is no ghostly figure always listening to me or intervening on my behalf was a difficult revelation. I fought it but finally recognized that all of my struggles were not because I was punished for some ‘sin’ and all of my successes were because I worked hard. Although this was hard, taking responsibility for my actions freed me to live an honest life.

Let us now look at the roots of the religious movement that had such powerful control over Carrie for much of her adult life. We will revisit her at the end of this chapter.

Over the centuries after the beginning of Christianity, the Catholic virus coupled with the cultures of Europe. Old European culture was changed and challenged. Catholicism adapted and adopted so completely that it appropriated many local customs. Churches were intentionally built on ancient pagan worship centers. Local holidays were adapted to reflect Catholic saints rather than pagan gods. Marriage was redefined in Catholic terms. The coupling was so strong that it was difficult to see any difference between the culture and the Catholic religion.

The first step toward uncoupling of religion from culture came when John Wycliffe (1320?–1384) and later Martin Luther (1483–1546) focused on individual accountability. This was an important departure from the Catholic communal approach. The idea of individual accountability led them to translate the Bible into the vernacular, thereby allowing common people to read and decide for themselves what to believe. For the previous one thousand years, Catholicism had controlled the Scripture.
¹
Daily life, rituals, customs and all stages of life were imbued with the Catholic god virus and interpreted only by the priest. Protestantism was communal as well, but included elements of individualism in it. The tendency in both Protestant and Catholic viruses was to try to create a homogenous community where possible.

Scripture translation brought a new viral tool onto the scene. With access to the Scriptures, the Bible could now function as a vector for the new Protestant religion and become the roots of evangelism. A new approach to the priesthood allowed anyone to interpret the Scriptures. That is, each person acting as his or her own priest could interpret the Scriptures – Luther’s priesthood of all believers. This new component would later allow Protestantism to survive in a highly individualistic culture and evolve into the evangelical virus we see today.