God's Waiting Room

This weekend we held a multi-family garage sale, and someone brought Uncle Arthur's Bible Stories to the table for sale. I was floored with flashbacks to being 5 years old and sitting in the doctor's waiting room, pouring through the contents of its pages.

What I remember is sitting there feeling quilty, like I was looking at pornography--so many nearly naked people--strutting around in Eden and then in later chapters, boys being bound by rope with men weilding knives over their heads. Tortures and nudity, like some S&M freak show. It was, to my young mind, not unlike the daytime soap operas that my grandmother loved to watch. I KNEW there was supposed to be something spiritual about it all, but couldn't get past all of the depravity and damnation.

It's funny, because 30 years later, I find that I STILL feel that way about Christianity. My 5 year old self got it completley, and taking a peek into Uncle Arthur's Bible Stories time capsuled for me the fact that traditional Christian doctrine is some really juvenille b-grade shit.