This was originally a note to an online Rene Girard Forum on Ecunet, designed to jostle those who talk intellectually about theories. There was no immediate response. I am accounted an eccentric curmudgeon in such circles.
THE NOTE:
I picked up a Gideon Bible when I woke up this AM.
It opened to Esther so I read it.It said that the King ruled. His word was absolute law.
So he got rid rid of Queen 1 and made Esther Queen 2.
A manifestation of rampant hierarchical rule.
A manifestation of our fallen human nature and the corruption if power.
Now Purim is celebrated because, having bought into the arbitrary placement of Esther on the throne, everyone, Jews and Persians and everyone else, engaged in mutual slaughter.
Result: Many Dead Bodies. But wait, in their defense, they did not pounder.
I am disgusted because I read Esther as a text which celebrates war and the God on our side mentality.
I will not celebrate any such holidays in the future.
I will inveigh against violence even though I confess myself as violent and original-sinned as the next person.
Let's talk direct and simple sometimes.
Anything that kills or leads to same is not something to buy into. Anything, not just some things.
Best, S
Hillary Clinton chose the illegitimately-enthroned queen, author of a celebrated bloodbath, as her shining example of Biblical propriety. She might better have chosen Jesus standing silent before his accusers who mocked him as a failed and false ruler but whose overcoming of the principalities and powers have made him the venerated -- if rarely obeyed -- ruler of this world.
Had I been FOR Hillary Clinton, on hearing her selection of Esther as her Biblical heroine, I would have switched to Barack in a heartbeat.
