My Freedom from the Bondage of Beliefs

I must admit that I have learned very important lessons of life from my Christian upbringing. However, often I have felt that I have had to free myself from so many chains that have kept my mind a prisoner. My growing and developing involved as much unlearning as learning. Most often, unlearning proved much more difficult than learning. Today I realize that religion not only redeems people but also enslaves them. Most of the people in the world live and die in the slavery of religion, while very few people get the opportunity to be redeemed by it. My Life in Bondage My parents were very religious, and I grew up learning that being a Christian means primarily to hold on to certain beliefs. The important beliefs are put together in creeds. All I have to do was to repeat them as often as I could even if I did not understand what they meant to me. Even the thought of deviating from the slightest of them put me in the risk of being excommunicated for being a heretic. The safest thing for me to do was to keep myself from the temptation to think anything about the inherited beliefs. Soon I realized that there are other traditions within the Christian tradition that do not believe the same things in the same way I did, and I got the explanation that ours are the right beliefs (ortho-dox), and all the others are wrong or false beliefs. I could not ask what makes ours the right beliefs for fear of being branded as a heretic. This false understanding of beliefs kept me a slave in bondage all these years. Today I look back with a sigh of relief as I have finally realized that I am beginning to be free of those chains. Today I understand that I don’t need to carry the heavy baggage of beliefs handed over to me from the past. I can leave all of them behind and keep on going. But I am also free to keep any beliefs that I find useful and meaningful to me. It is like inheriting a big library from my ancestors. I don’t need to carry all those books around as a burden. But I am always free to choose and read a book which I like to read. My Freedom Beliefs are no more at the center of my life. My life is not for beliefs. I have learned to turn it around. My beliefs are for my life. I keep the beliefs that are beneficial, discard the ones that are harmful, and ignore the ones that are unimportant and irrelevant. For example, nowadays I actively propagate the belief that God loves all people in the world in the same way because I know it is a very beneficial belief for the well-being of the humanity. Also, I attack the harmful belief that God loves a certain group of people more than the others. I do not make any attempt to make sense of all the beliefs I have inherited. On the other hand, I try to make sense of how I experience life using those beliefs. Beliefs are no more a goal of my life. They are just tools I may use as I need. The main thing for me is to live my life in the most meaningful way I can. Jesus, my role model I have received this inspiration to declare my freedom from the bondage of beliefs from Jesus himself. When I sought what Jesus taught about life, I found that Jesus placed human existence at the very center. He did not ask anybody to live for beliefs. When he stated that Sabbath is for man, that is what he meant. Religion is for man, and not the other way around. Jesus compared life to a journey toward a specific goal—which is to become as perfect as the heavenly father is perfect. Nothing else should take the place of that ultimate goal. Comfort, wealth, and popular acceptance can be effective tools that assist us in this journey. If any of those become the goal of the journey, we cannot successfully complete our journey of life. Our religious beliefs have to assist us in our journey toward this ultimate goal. Beliefs themselves should never become our goal. I have often heard that the central concern of Christian life is what we believe about Jesus. But when Jesus gave the following warning, he made it clear that our central concern should be doing the will of the heavenly father. “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” Mat 7:21. If we do not do the will of the heavenly father, it doesn’t matter whether we call Jesus Lord or God. Jesus said that there are two ways that people take for this journey of life—a narrow path and a highway. The majority of people move along the highway with wrong goals, whereas a few move along the narrow path toward the ideal goal of life. Jesus also compared human life to the life of a plant. The goal of a plant is to grow and become fruitful. Jesus asked people to become fruitful. We have to grow up to our maximum potential. If the growth does not happen in us, and if we waste our life amassing wealth or comfort or popular acceptance, it is certainly sad. If we sacrifice a meaningful life for preserving a set of beliefs, that would be very sad. Jesus also asked us to build our house of life on a strong foundation. This beautiful metaphor makes it clear what our central concern should be. Jesus expects us to be wise as to build our lives upon a strong foundation that keeps the house strong and steady in the midst of trials and temptations. How foolish are the ones who build up their life on wrong goals and meaningless beliefs! Jesus pointed out that it is essential to understand whatever beliefs and guidelines we have received from our ancestors in relation to our own situation in a meaningful way, and not in a slavish way. "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on (your) right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.” Math 5: 38-39 In this situation, Jesus is pointing out a harmful rule that has come down from the past. “An eye for an eye” is a definite instruction to retaliate. Jesus contradicts this instruction and advises to show the other cheek. "It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce.' But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Mat 5:31-32 In this situation also, Jesus rejects a rule from the past, which permits divorce. The inherited wisdom When I am writing about beliefs, I have in mind all kinds of beliefs of humankind of all places and times. I do not have any particular community in mind although I have referred to my own upbringing and my own community as examples. The beliefs include not only religious beliefs but also scientific beliefs. They include not only theistic beliefs but also atheistic beliefs. Humankind is different from the other animals in that we have a long childhood during which time the children receive from their parents the accumulated wisdom from the previous generations. Each parent-generation canonizes (formally and informally) and transmits to the child-generation a set of people, literature, beliefs, and rituals. Places and times are also canonized. The word tradition may be used to include all these. Depending upon the kind of community, they are known in different ways. In my own Oriental Orthodox Christian community, the canonized people are known as saints or fathers, canonized literature is known as Holy Scriptures, canonized rituals are known as sacraments, and canonized beliefs are known as true faith. Whatever come from the past through generations are considered to be divine and holy. Thus allegiance to them becomes synonymous to allegiance to God. I feel proud that I have inherited the tradition from long past. My community follows the tradition of at least 4000 years. Although Jesus lived 2000 years ago, Abraham lived even 2000 years before Jesus. There is no doubt that having a long and wealthy tradition is better than having a short-lived and poor tradition. The question I am asking is not whether tradition is good or not. Although we can’t accept whatever that has come down from the past as fully good for us, I must have to admit that most of what we have received from the past generations is good for us. A parent-generation takes the time and effort to do a canonization for the benefit of the child-generation. For example, by canonizing a few people from the millions of people, they single out a few who can serve as role models. By canonizing a few pieces of literature, the parent-generation singles out those that can provide guidance and instruction in life. Tradition for life My major concern here is the way we receive the traditions from the past. How do we see the relation between the tradition and our own life? Do we think that our life is for the sole purpose of preserving and transmitting the traditions? Do we think tradition is for our life, or our life is for the tradition? Are we supposed to accept everything canonized from the past as divine and holy? Aren’t we supposed to ask why they were canonized? We usually see that a person once canonized ceases to be a human being. He/she is no more a role model, but an object of worship and adoration. A belief once canonized ceases to be an ordinary belief that is subject to critical reasoning. A ritual once canonized is a divine act, and it is not treated as other rituals any more. A piece of literature once canonized is not studied as other literature, but adored. Sabbath was a canonized observance that came from the ancient past, and people were supposed to observe it without thinking about it. That is why the Pharisees confirmed that Jesus was a sinner due to the fact that he cured a blind man on the Sabbath. Whether Jesus was a sinner or a saint depended upon how he saw the canonized people, literature and observances. For the Pharisees, the Sabbath was a canonized observance from the past, and they didn’t care what it meant or how the observance originated. On the other hand, Jesus understood Sabbath based on how and why it originated. Moses originally gave the rule of Sabbath to give the privilege of a weekly rest to all people who included the slaves. That was intended to give some comfort to those who carried heavy burdens in life. The same ritual became one that adds burdens to an entire community when it was canonized, and when its original purpose was ignored. Jesus tried to teach people that it was a day for doing good rather than being inactive and lazy. Nothing can be known out of context. In order to understand Jesus, we need to live in his time and place. Then only we can understand the meaning of what he said and did. Similarly, in order to understand St. Paul, we need to live in his time and context, which was different from that of Jesus. In order to understand Parumala thirumeni, we need to live in his cultural context. Understanding does not come easily. But misunderstanding comes easily and effortlessly. Isn’t it important for us to know how Parumals thirumeni was known as a saint while he was alive? Isn’t it important for us to understand the cultural and social context in which he lived as a saint? Wouldn’t it help us to become saints in our own time? What is the use of adoring Parumala thirumeni if we do not want to live a saintly life today?

© John Kunnathu January 2007

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