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From Magic City Morning Star R.P. BenDedek
What a wonderful article it was that appeared in this newspaper on October 16th 2004 entitled: "Raelian Movement Supports Growing Trend of "Indian Resistance" (By the Raelian Movement) Yes! I like it very much! What a well reasoned argument! Yes! The Vatican, the Roman Catholic Priests, other Christians Missionaries and visionaries have been the cause of so much imperialism, death, plunder and other crimes and sins. Who can deny it! And if for some reason, some person wants to return to their cultural past, then who are we to stop them? I myself would like to get some wrongs undone in my family tree. The trouble is though, that my heritage is mixed. Not only that, but during the last 200 years, various ancestors decided to settle in Australia. On my paternal grandfather's side, our nationality changed every decade or so. Invaders kept changing the boundaries. Of course, on my paternal grandmother's side, it is quite possible that originally her family were Vikings. We'd have to settle that one first. So the problem is �to which country should I return?� Which governments should I sue for all the deaths and problems in the previous generations of my family. And what is worse, which religion should I follow? And how far back do I go with that? It's difficult to work out. Of course, I have white skin, and so I am not an 'indigenous person'. But if I were, then which tribe would I want to belong to? What about that one where on her wedding night, the bride must lose her virginity to her father before her husband has her? Then again, what about the OLD Greek tradition of turning boys into men, by first sodomising them? Or Perhaps the Upper Class Roman tradition of sex education in which little boys were raised with a full and working knowledge of sexual relationships with Men and Women, so that they can 'choose' which way they want to go, or at orgies, to enjoy the best of both Perhaps I'd prefer the southern Chinese tradition in which no one has a father, because women don't have husbands. Women choose a man for an unspecified period of time to be their lover. The man sleeps with them at night, and in the morning he returns to his 'mother'. This would have great appeal for a lot of women. No? Then there was that group I read about in the Journals of Marco Polo, who offered their wives and daughters to visitors. That sounds really great for this single guy. I might go visiting people more often. Now what about those who liked to offer young virgins to the gods. Sounds like a waste to me, but hey, if that is what the god requires, who are we to argue. I actually prefer those who throw their babies into the fire. Babies are such noisy and bothersome creatures. I think that is preferable to throwing young virgins into the volcano, or slicing them open on some cold stone slab. Of course, most primitive groups practiced 'circumcision'. That suits me, but I can think of some who would have to change some of their 'social' beliefs as well as their religious ones. And let's not forget about female circumcision. As a former policeman, and as a civilian who worked in Australia's 'dead centre' Alice Springs, I know only too well that many an Aboriginal youngster could do with some traditional justice rather than that 'limp wristed' white man's stuff. I remember the day the town got excited because an aboriginal man who had committed murder some 20 years previous, arrived back in Alice Springs, escorted by the police. Traditional justice required a 'blood payment' for his crime. In his case, that meant that he had to be speared in the leg by five different individuals, in order to pay his debt. His bodyguards were there to ensure all went well, and that he submitted to this 'rough justice', because if he didn't, then he would most assuredly turn up dead the day after they set him at liberty. Now that is Justice! Yep! I agree with some of those old 'pre-Christian' practices. Orgies, throwing babies into volcanoes, castrating little boys so that the pagan priests can have a sweet male lover, beating wives, spearing your enemies, collecting big dowries from the in-laws for letting them unload the female on you. Oh! And let's not forget multiple wives. Now under pre-Christian law, that would be fun. Unfortunately in these civilised times, my personal opinion is that one wife is one too many. Yes! There is a lot to be said for turning back the clock. R.P.Bendedek Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com R.P.BenDedek is the pseudonym of the Author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' (www.kingscalendar.com), and is a guest columnist at Magic City Morning Star News. An Australian, he currently teaches Conversational English in China. King's Calendar Social Commentaries "The King's Calendar" is a chronological study of the historical books of the Bible (Kings and Chronicles), Josephus, Seder Olam Rabbah, and the (Essene) Damascus Document of The Dead Sea Scrolls. © Copyright 2002-2008 by Magic City Morning Star |