Mar 24
What does religion smell like?
Old, musty. Definitely leathery. Ancient… like it’s been gone for a while and isn’t coming back anytime soon.
How do I know this? Well, there’s a 1967 Gideons New Testament and three similarly leather-wrapped devotional books (Faith, Hope, Power) from 1947 in my grandparents’ bathroom. I’d wager they’ve been here since the house was built in the 1960’s, and they haven’t moved since. Those books were printed long before I was born and were probably put there several years before my mom met my dad. Those books, which my grandparents and parents have probably looked to in times of trial or sorrow, are pretty much the epitome of my understanding of religion.
It’s old, it’s musty, and whatever made them magical has been gone now for several decades. But they’re still there, and will probably be there until my grandparents expire and somebody else gets the house. Better yet, if it’s one of my family members, odds are fairly good they’ll be staying.
Maybe that’s what scares me about christianity - it has no way of forward-thinking because God never really gave us anything (besides the basics) to look forward with.