It’s On My Card: Dresser of Sycamore Trees
Me and my man, Amos, we’re two peas in a pod. He was a god-fearing man, born in a time of corrupt religion. In his day, religion wasn’t just the place you and the members of your family went to worship and get atonement for all the ways in which you were crappy to yourself and others. I mean, it was one purpose that religion did in fact serve in his day, but in the big picture, religion had a very different role that was as much if not more important. It was religion’s job to be a check on the corrupting influence that power has on people, most particularly in politics, most particularly in the king’s court. You see, every king had a prophet, or a school of prophets that when not corrupt themselves, had the delightful effect of moderating the king’s rule. When any king started lording it around, levying oppressive taxes, passing laws that benefited his wealthy associates at the expense of the scads of people living it poverty, it was the prophet’s job to tell him ‘God says knock that shit off, right now. The God you worship doesn’t stand for this kind of tomfuckery, and you bloody well know it. Also, your people are starving, jackass.’
As you might imagine, genuine prophets were frequently killed. (more…)
