Suffering

The stories of crucifixion of Christ for Christians and the slavery of Jews under Pharaoh are annual rituals designed to honor suffering and human transcendence over it. Unfortunately, woven into these stories of sacrifice and courage in the face of oppression, is the mythology of "faith" in a divine patriarchy. Abstracted away from religion, both stories are inspirational from a humanist perspective. 

If I simply imagine a historic humanist, Christ, whose values clash against materialism, usury and violence, I can relate him to today's brave Occupy protesters, who faced down police to say that the social injustice of corporate capitalism must be resisted. If I think of Moses as a single person who stood up to an imperial authority in Egypt to say his people were not going to stay in slavery willingly, I can relate him to Martin Luther King and others, marching through the American South in times of violent segregation. 

Religion is not a requirement for courage in the face of brutality. Today's young atheists stand up to enforced religion in schools across America. Today's LGBTQ youth come out in high schools in communities where the religious condemn them as less than human. The voluntary suffering of these courageous people will eventually ease the suffering of others to come. It does more in real terms than an "It Gets Better" video on Youtube. 

The intelligent person can separate symbolism from message in religious indoctrination. The uneducated and near-sighted use religious stories as justification for their tribalism and aggression. This is the division caused by doctrinal religions to propagate their own agendas for power, money and control. This breeds suffering. It does not liberate. The Easter story and the Passover story are about liberation in the face of subjugation by government, by religion, by family, by community. They are stories about unchaining the mind and heart to achieve actualization as a whole, free and happy person in the face of suffering.