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It was my first day at bible camp when the camp leader reiterated to me the story of Genesis. “In the beginning, God created heaven and earth. God made Adam in his perfect image, created Eve as his female companion, and surrounded them with animals and plants in which existed in abundance.” he said. “And everyone lived happily ever after! “ I interrupted. I zoned out after that. I knew there was more to the story yet I was much more concerned with developing my own conclusions as to how the world evolved. In my mind, the story of Adam and Eve was a simple tale, almost fairytale like. It took place in an uncomplicated world wherein people weren’t faced with uncertainties and unexpected obstacles. The world was free of complexities and hardships. According to my five-year-old mind, humans were born into the world with a built-in-ability to flourish under any circumstances and destined to have a happy ending.
Out of all the stories of Genesis, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah impacted me most. My grandmother, firm in her belief in Christianity, told me on more than several occasions of how God unleashed his wrath by setting flames to the wickedness, the evil doing, and the “sexual degradation” that manifested in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. As my grandmother is a conservative Christian, I know that her motives for the constant retelling of the story was to express to me- no, more like make me fearful of- the consequences that would arise had I ever engaged in loose and meaningless sexual activity. According to grandmother, sexual expressions in all its forms were expressions against God. “You want to end up like the people I told you about in the story?” she used to ask me, “That’s what happens to people who are bad. You must exercise control over your sexual behavior or else…you might just get smite.” During my lifetime wherein I was religious the story terrified me. I made a very irrational promise to myself. I promised myself that I would never fall in love to avoid inevitably submitting to the lusty, passionate nature that would send me into a dizzying frenzy compelling me to act in sexual ways consequentially sending me to damnation. I instead vowed to be a lonely, sexless woman who would one day have two or three children through virgin births. Ridiculous? I know! But at the time, I was only twelve and my grandmother’s tactics aimed at terrifying me were working. At the time, I would definitely say that I was scared sinless.
I think that you did a good job answering the prompt questions, and that your anecdote about being told that if you committed "sexual degradation" that you would be smote was funny. I also think that you might have said just a bit more in your blog this time, as it seemed rather short.The reason for the story of Sodom and Gomorrah being such an impact was slightly unclear to me, and as such I think may have been more explained. On the whole though, you did a great job.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job of tying the name of the blog into your final point when you said you were literally "scared sinless." I loved how you approached the topic and brought humor into the whole blog. Also, I liked your point that when you're younger, even the Bible seems full of happy endings, however when you grow older you become aware of both the happy endings and sad ones.
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