Losing my Religion
I’m in France, land of a thousand churches. To be more exact there are actually about 40,000 of them, built mainly in the middle ages. With a medieval population of around 6 million this would mean one church per 150 people.
I think we can safely assume that religion was more popular than a Led Zeppelin gig – put your child’s name down at birth for a guaranteed season ticket. So what happened?
Our minds evolved.
We don’t take things literally any more. We know that hell is not a place with flames and pitchforks and heaven doesn’t come with harps and cloud pavements.
We don’t have to leave this earth to be in a state of heaven or hell – these are energetic states of being.
This has been a bit of a problem for the Roman Catholic head honchos who built a successful cult our of our predilection for fear and superstition. In medieval France the Catholic church amassed a fortune through the selling of “indulgences” (instant removal of sin without the need for penance or remorse).
In the old days you really could buy a Stairway to Heaven.
And then there were the lucrative merchandise concessions – fingernails of Popes, splinters from the Cross, droplets of Stigmata. These would guarantee to lessen your days of suffering in purgatory (another literal place where all sorts of sado-masochistic fantasies were fulfilled).
Of course the universe abhors a vacuum so what rushed in to take the place of the Catholic Church?
News Corp!
Let’s look at the similarities.
1. Both churn out fear inducing nonsense on a daily basis but particularly on a Sunday.
Fearful, superstitious people are easily controlled. The hierarchies of Religion and Media know this.
The early church-goers may have thought the Monarchy was corrupt, but they knew the real enemy was…
The Devil!
The readers of tabloid newspapers may be unhappy with the Government and the Bankers, but they know the real enemies are…
Unmarried mothers, Drug addicts and the Taliban!
This takes the heat off the actual power brokers and allows them to get away with all kinds of stuff.
2. Both are obsessed with sexuality
The Roman Catholics repress theirs, ensuring that their dirty little secrets explode in the most dysfunctional manner possible. Priests cannot marry but are protected when they abuse altar boys. Loving sex outside the contract of marriage is sinful, but rape within marriage is perfectly ok.
News Corp express theirs every which way but loose, managing to glorify and vilify simultaneously. They are fascinated by the sex lives of celebrities, politicians and rock stars – as long as the sex is extra marital, illegal or contains some sort of perversion. Loving sex is boring and not worth talking about.
3. Both are rapacious for money
The Roman Catholic church is one of the wealthiest institutions on the planet. Most of its dogma is man made (not passed down by Jesus as they imply). The Virgin birth was added on later and the idea of priest celibacy didn’t arrive until 1000 years after the crucifixion. Before then priests could marry, which meant the wealth they accumulated from collection boxes was inherited by wives and children. Celibacy ensured that the money went straight into the church coffers – not to their mistresses and (now illegitimate) children!
News Corp is another of the wealthiest institutions on the planet. Its stock in trade is bribery and corruption, routinely bribing both the police for information, and their journalists to keep quiet about it. Dodgy accountants ensured that Newscorp Investments have paid no corporation tax in the UK for the past 11 years, despite pre tax profits of nearly £1.4 billion.
4. Both have a triumvirate of power
The Catholics have a Father, Son and Holy Ghost – two male figures and an androgynous vapour or winged creature who acts as intercessionary mediator.
News Corp have Rupert, James and a token female string puller.
There was Rebekah, the pre-Raphaelite bird who transmogrified into Princess of Darkness, eager to do her Father’s bidding.
And there’s Wendi, aka Lady Macbeth, presiding over her assets more like a hawk than a dove. In the above picture she literally is the string puller! It’s clear to see that she married for love!
Less holy trinity – more Monsters Ink.
Enough!
As humans, we are on a journey of evolution to higher conscious beings. It’s a tough call and we’re doing our best. We try to rise above things, to find the positive, to exercise compassion – but it’s a daily struggle. Rupert and his empire seem hell bent on sending us backwards to the dark ages. They want to create a Planet of the Apes scenario in which we forget about our potential for brilliance and turn our focus to rage, sex and screeching – simultaneously if possible.
We need to do a 180 and start marching the other way towards a more positive, creative future – one free from fear and superstition.
Our minds may have evolved, but our souls need to follow suit.
The real Holy Spirit is the creativity that lies dormant inside each and every one of us. If we wake it up and join with the creative spirit in others, we can reclaim the media, change our lowest common denominator systems into highest common denominator ones and start building heaven on earth.
It ain’t over till Our Lady sings. But for Rupert et al… stop hey what’s that sound?