vignette by Fred Leeds

The real problem with Christianity, as an idea, is revealed in the figure of Satan. In a symbolic sense, Satan serves as God’s shadow. As God is an idea about whats unreachably or absolutely right, He comes to represent a denial of what’s relative and interconnected. We cannot be perfect non-relative or already finished and complete as humans, so the idea of God comes to seem like an alienated wraith.

Along comes Satan, to take the rap for our unexplainable variation as living beings. It is Satan, not we who believe, who is tied to the natural and out of sorts with all perfection. Like the unbeliever, it is Satan, not us, who is beyond the reach of God’s forgiveness of whats natural and unique. It is Satan, not God, who cannot form a bridge between nature and the supernatural. Like the unbeliever, old Lucifer certainly not us, not we who believe that is saddled with an individuality so burdensomely alive and in progress as to stand cursed.