RELIGION AND ZORA

"When I studied the history of the great religions of the world, I saw that even in religion, man carried himself along. His worship of strength was there. God was made to look that way too. We see the Emperor Constantine , as pagan as he could lay in his hide, having his famous vision of the cross with the injunction: 'In Hoc Signo Vinces,' and arising next day not only to win a great battle, but to start out on his missionary journey with a sword. He could not sing like Peter, and he could not preach like Paul. He probably did not even have a good straining voice like my father to win converts and influence people. But he had his good points--one of them being a sword--and a seasoned army. And the way he brought sinners to repentance was nothing short of miraculous. Whole tribes and nations fell under conviction just as soon as they heard he was on the way. They did not wait for the stars to move, nor trees to jump the road. By the time he crossed the border, they knew they had been converted. Their testimony was on Christian experience and they were ready for the right hand of fellowship and baptism. It seems that Revered Brother Emperor Constantine carried the gospel up and down Europe with his revival meetings to such an extent that Christianity really took on. In Rome where Christians had been looked upon as rather indifferent lion-bait at best, and as keepers of virgins in their homes for no real good to the virgins among other things at their worst, Christianity mounted. Where before, Emperors could scarcely find enough of them to keep the spectacles going, now they were everywhere, in places high and low. The arrow had left the bow. Christianity was on its way to world power that would last. That was only the beginning. Military power was to be called in time and time again to carry forward the gospel of peace. There is not apt to be any difference of opinion between you and a dead man. "It was obvious that two men, both outsiders, had given my religion its chances of success . For the apostle Paul, who had been Saul , the erudite Pharisee, had arisen with a vision when he fell off his horse on the way to Damascus . He not only formulated the religion, but exerted his brilliant mind to carry it to the most civilized nations of his time. Then Constantine took up with force where Paul left off with persuasion."... "People need religion because the great masses fear life and its consequences. Its responsibilities weigh heavy, Feeling a weakness in the face of great forces, men seek an alliance with omnipotence to bolster up their feeling of weakness even though the omnipotence they rely upon is a creature of their own minds. It gives them a feeling of security. Strong, self-determining men are notorious for their lack of reverence. Constantine, having converted millions to Christianity by the sword, himself refused the consolation of Christ until his last hour. Some say not even then. "As for me, I do not pretend to read God's mind. If He has a plan of the Universe worked out to the smallest detail, it would be folly for me to presume to get down on my knees and attempt to revise it. That, to me, seems the highest form of sacrilege. So I do not pray. I accept the means at my disposal for working out my destiny. It seems to me that I have been given a mind with will-power for that very purpose. I do not expect God to single me out and give me advantages over my fellow men. Prayer is for those who need it. Prayer seems to me a cry of weakness, an attempt to avoid, by trickery, the rules of the game as laid down. I do not choose to admit weakness. I accept the challenge of responsibility. Life, as it is, does not frighten me, since I have made my peace with the universe as I find it, and bow to its laws....However, I would not, by word or deed, attempt to deprive another of the consolation it affords. It is simply not for me. Somebody else may have my rapturous glance at the archangels. The springing of the yellow line of morning out of the misty deep of dawn, is glory enough for me. I know that nothing is destructible; things merely change forms. When the consciousness we know as life ceases, I know that I shall still be part and parcel of the world. I was a part before the sun rolled into shape and burst forth in the glory of change. I was, when the earth was hurled out of its fiery rim. I shall return with the earth to Father Sun, and still exist in substance when the sun has lost its fire and disintegrated in infinity to perhaps become a part of the whirling rubble in space. Why fear? The stuff of my being is matter, ever changing , ever moving, but never lost; so what need of denominations and creeds to deny myself the comfort of all my fellow men? The wide belt of the universe has no need for finger rings. I am one with the infinite and need no other assurance. P. 222-223, 225-226, "Religion," DUST TRACKS ON A ROAD by Zora Neale Hurston (1942, 1995)