The following was originally written for Excommunicated! The Musical. Much of it is no longer in the show (for reasons of length and continuity), so here it is for your enjoyment...or displeasure...
Language warning. I'm called Foul-Mouthed Mystic for a reason.
This is not the show in which I regale you with my full commentary on the Old Testament, verse by verse. I did that show for my husband and believe me, it gets old. There is a mind-numbing *lot* of really horrible, frustrating, absurd stuff.
I’m just going to give you a few highlights, which will give those of you who haven’t heard me rage against the institution--while fiercely loving the spirit--an idea of my perspective. And those of you have heard me: you knew what you were getting into.
Yahweh is a god who knows the difference between good and bad. We know this because Yahweh doesn’t want humans to eat from a particular tree because then they will know the difference and will be like him. So: Yahweh knows the difference between good and bad. And then Yaweh does bad. Kind of a lot.
One day, Yahweh’s mom, in the guise of a serpent, visits his garden and says to Eve, “wait, Lord said what? No, no, no, what will happen if you eat that fruit is your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad.”
The serpent speaks the truth. She’s not tricking Eve. And isn’t that what free will is? Knowing what is good and what is bad and then choosing? I’m confused as to why this fruit is forbidden. Other than 12-year old Yahweh doesn’t waaaant humans to know stuff. ”I just want them to looooooove me.”
Eve sees that the fruit looks good. Which is reasonable. She was told what the actual consequence would be. So she and Adam eat the good fruit.
Well, Yahweh throws a fit. Banishes the serpent, the Goddess. Curses the woman: intensifies the pains of childbearing, says your husband shall be your master--if that’s a curse, that means that’s a bad thing, right? Curses the man: "the ground will be cursed and you shall toil and sweat."
Yahweh stamps his foot and says, “Seeeeee, the man has become like one of us, knowing what is good and what is bad. So he can’t eat from the tree of life or else he will live foreeeeeever.” (Dude, you made the living conditions super fun with the toiling and sweating and the painful childbearing--they’ll definitely want to do that foreeeeever.)
Then Lord Yahweh puts a firey sword at the entrance to the Garden so his humans can never return. Apparently you only get one chance with this guy. Adam and Eve have some boys, who are able to find wives.
Because there is an entire world out there. Because this is *a* creation story. Not THE creation story.
There are lessons in these stories, glimpses into humanity and history and into who we think God is. But to make it THE story robs us and the Divine of so much.
Now, Yahweh is *not* into humans. Humans are repeatedly disappointing to Yahweh. There’s a part where Yahweh is like, “every single thing men want is evil and I regret making them.” (I feel you, Yahweh.) He’s constantly considering wiping out entire towns--if not all of creation. That covenant Yahweh makes after Noah--the rainbow? In the translation I have, it says Yahweh promises not to do another *flood* to devastate the earth. There’s lots of other ways to destroy creation. Fire is still on the table. If humanity itself doesn’t do it first.
Over and over, that free will that we consider so important and vital? A gift from God? Yahweh overrides it. It’s like free will was an accident and Yahweh is not cool with it.
“Whatcha doin’, humans? Wait, you guys are building a skyscraper? I’m not into that. Now you’re scattered and can’t understand each other.” Man, if that isn’t an apt metaphor. Good story! Just not THE story.
“Hey, Abram, I like you. You’re blessed. Anyone who doesn’t like you is cursed. Just do as I say and it is all yours.” That’s totally playing favorites. And not just like: I like you, here’s cool stuff. It's: I like you so let’s destroy all the people you don’t like. Sounds like *a* god. Not THE God.
There are rules, and sometimes rule breakers are turned into salt and sometimes rule breakers get to father a nation (that’s Jacob stealing his older brother’s inheritance for those of you still with me).
There are ferocious demands for acts of loyalty like telling Abraham to take his son Isaac and sacrifice him on a pyre. Isaac is tied up on the wood. Then Yahweh stops Abraham and says “oh, you would have killed him for me, that’s so great, we’re best friends! I was just kidding, though. Gotta love me!”
But now we have a traumatized kid who has been tied up and thought his father was going to kill him. So...that’s shitty. I get that the story was written to stop human sacrifices, but when we make it THE story, it’s a shitty story!
Over and over, Yahweh hardens hearts or sends an evil spirit to make people persecute others. If you sleep with someone else’s wife and she gets pregnant and you conspire to kill the husband you’ve cuckholded--that’s David, the big deal patriarch we’re supposed to get all excited about--Yahweh kills the baby. The *baby.*
He hardens Pharaoh's heart, then punishes Pharaoh for having a hardened heart by killing a whole bunch of kids.
What. The. Fuck.
Yahweh hardens hearts and then goes and helps the hero. And then the hero praises Yahweh, who wouldn’t have been needed if there wasn’t the conflict. The hero is manufactured, because the villain is manufactured. Thanks to Pharaoh persecuting Moses, Moses is the shit. He’s super important. We have Mosaic law, for Yahweh’s sake.
So here is a group of stories that point to what happens when *WE* become *I* and say “I’m the most important. I’m the only one who matters.”
How did we all get entangled in this particular story? I don’t fucking care. I’m tired of asking how, why. I just want to listen to another story.
A story that is multiple. Multifaceted. Complex. Intricate. Elaborate. And yes, tangled. But the kind of tangled in which we pull on the threads to free them and see where they go, not in which we are caught in them.
Now let’s talk for a moment about the Christ story, which has been a major influence on this astrological age, whether you subscribe to it or not. Such a beautiful story, that Christ story. Some call it the Christ story. Others call it the Isis story, the Inana story, the Dionysis story….
The Christ story is about Life, Death, Rebirth. It is about real-izing that there is More. It is about love and innate worth and transformation. It is about knowing that there is no separation between us and God, the kingdom is at hand.
But holy wow, has the Christ story been appropriated by men who wanted to rule the world through hunger, scarcity, depletion. Through fear. Corrupted by specific storytellers who reject the greater understanding of life, death, rebirth in order to service a particular worldview that negates the many, varied, beautiful, horrible ways we all live, die, and are reborn over and over.
The Story is constantly revealing itself to us. Not just that one time. Definitely not just to that one guy. The Story is dynamic. When we insist on staying stagnant within a dynamic Story, when we insist that our version of the Big Story is the only version...
What the fuck would Jesus do? I think he’d be totally into smashing the patriarchy and calling in a diverse, inclusive, egalitarian story.
Excommunicated! The Musical is a hilarious and profound journey out of the patriarchy and into the Emerging Story. Visit ExcommunicatedTheMusical.com for details and tickets.
Katie Carey is a spiritual midwife, community herbalist, and theater artist devoted to real-izing the Emerging Story. Katie spent 10 years doing theater in the Northwest, followed by 8 years of theater in Chicago. She then decided what she really wanted to do was raise a family in a hand-built hobbit hole in the middle of a mud puddle on a Montana farm. So that’s what’s happening now. Katie's works include How to Re-Ignite Your Internal Fire, Foul-Mouthed Mystic, Vasilisa + Baba Yaga (or: How to Destroy Your Enemies without Losing Your Soul), Excommunicated! The Musical, New Creation Stories for the Emerging Paradigm, The Real Life Adventures of Lizzy and Rilla, and Solitaire.
Katie has degrees in theater and spirituality, so she can act like she cares.
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