Dualism
- 3 days ago
- 1 min read
By Ron Hickerson
Emotion is hard to distinguish from sin when you were raised
Between the pews of a church just fundamentalist enough
To make you second-guess every feeling in your body. One
Time at Bible Drill camp, a counselor asked us how long we
Thought we could go without sinning. “But even if you hadn’t
Sinned for an hour and said to yourself, ‘I’m doing pretty
Good!’ You just sinned,” he said. “That’s pride.” So I learned to go fundie,
Ignoring my body for my soul’s sake: elation became
Pride; depression, sloth; anxiety, doubt; anger, wrath; pleasure,
Gluttony- and God help you if you feel any sexual
Attraction. I tied my impulses into knots, hiding them
Deep in the demilitarized zone of my gut. But then some
Mythic Celtic ancestor appears and tells me the line of
Demarcation is thinner than I think; these two “factions” are
Sanctified whole. Christ came to rescue both body and soul when
He inhabited meat and bones that surged with holy hormones
And chemicals that made him feel proud of the gospel and its
Message of freedom and life; depressed at the constant need and
Never-ending work he faced; anxious on the night before He
Met His death; and angry at the injustice that threatened and
Disregarded daily the sacred bodies He came to save.
