Garth Rattray | Who or what do you worship?

This recent Christmas season invoked my curiosity about who or what people worship. Although ‘worship’ often refers to the reverence and adoration of a deity, it also connotes being obsessed and overly dedicated to something or someone. Consequently, a lot of people ‘worship’ mundane things like money, possessions, power, and people.

We all know that Christmas was piggybacked onto a pagan event for the convenience of it. We all know that Christianity has nothing to do with an imaginary, commercially manufactured Santa Claus. Perhaps, most importantly, Christians are supposed to use this opportunity to focus on the Messiah because it is believed that Jesus the Christ was the incarnation of God, and a devout Jew who was imbued with the Holy Spirit. Genuine Christianity is deep, and is really about the heart, mind, and soul. It is not merely about the history of the man who was seen as the Messiah.

When I was a child, I took it for granted that Jesus was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, straight-nosed, thin-lipped, straight-faced, long-haired, light-skinned, hippy-looking gentleman. However, I became suspicious when the Holy Bible stated that He was forced to hide for a time in the North African country of Egypt. I realised that, in order to do so without raising suspicion, He had to look like the Egyptians of the day. The people of Egypt were certainly not blonde-haired, blue-eyed, straight-nosed, thin-lipped, straight-faced, light-skinned, hippy-looking individuals.

DARKER HUE

It turns out that Jesus would have had to be of a noticeably darker hue, with curly hair, and no Caucasian features, to blend in with the Egyptians. However, European artists took extreme liberties with His image to facilitate His easy acceptance as a deity. I was reminded of this when, early in the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, many international observers empathised with their plight when they said, on mainstream and social media, “They look just like us!” Others remarked that very few nations emoted that degree of sympathy for war-torn African nations and their people who undergo horrible atrocities.

And so, the powers that be had to pander to the superficiality of most human beings to ‘save their souls’… how ironic! The most popular religion on the planet, Christianity (which is 31.2 per cent of all religions), was and is still partly built on a barefaced lie. The small-mindedness and backwardness of prejudice would never allow most Caucasians to worship anybody that had more African than European features. And, going forward since the days of early Christianity, during the era of the despicable trans-Atlantic slave trade, the British would not be able to buy and (later on) raid villages and capture Africans if the appearance of the natives bore any resemblance to the image of Jesus the Christ. Even today, if so-called Christians realised that the Messiah had North African features, they would treat people of African descent better.

Some may argue that most people would accept Jesus’ real physical appearance, and still worship Him because of His message. Well, I think not. The history of human behaviour does not support such religious maturity. Most people need to be able to associate with the deity that they worship. Otherwise, it takes everything, from conquering and subjugating nations to early inculcation, intimidation, the sparkle of ‘magic’ (which is how many view miracles), and traditional beliefs for most people to accept Christianity. However, an indeterminate number of people accept Christianity because they feel deeply moved to do so on a spiritual level. Except for that atypical minority, one is left to wonder how many so-called Christians are genuine Christians at an (essential) spiritual level.

TRULY ACCEPT

If people truly accepted Christianity, or any other religion for that matter, on a spiritual level, there would be far less hate, prejudice, envy, greed, violence, and disrespect for others. People would accept others and not oppress the less fortunate. But it is obvious that too many of those who claim to be religious are only so in a very superficial way. Consequently, they wage holy wars (a clear oxymoron), criticise other beliefs, and harbour an attitude of privilege and superiority over the other children of our Heavenly Father. The dichotomy of religiosity is so bad that, like me, many prefer to separate ‘religion’ from ‘spirituality’.

When it comes to the worship of worldly things, perhaps the most profound is the worship of money. Psychologists have found that money is the only thing that people never get tired of accumulating. Perhaps it is not the money per se, but it is because money is able to get us so many things. The lust for money leads people to do any and everything imaginable. It is not unusual for people to ignore their morals, harm and even kill others, and sell their soul because of money.

Many people worship power. Those who are able to become powerful usually see that as the culmination of their entire life’s achievements. Those who are unable to achieve such heights become part of the retinue, the lackies, the underlings for powerful people. They do their bidding, whatever it entails and whomever it hurts. They experience power vicariously.

Many people worship other people romantically. This is very dangerous, and sometimes leads to violence and death if romantic disappointment occurs. We should only worship our God because everything else is transient and fickle. As Solomon said, “All is vanity.”

Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com.