Religion was now to meet His Majesty. He had looked forward to this meeting because he believed King Almighty would have some kind words for him because of what he thought he stood for. For reasons only he could explain, Religion had always maintained, more than anyone else, that he was out to protect the interests of the King. He was known to have shouted it on rooftops so that everyone could hear. He saw himself as an unapologetic protector of His Majesty's interests, ways and legacies. He often comforted himself with this thought. He was therefore glad to be ushered into His Majesty's presence.
The King was to start the ball rolling by asking him,
'Why did you decide to cause so much mayhem while claiming to be protecting my interests? Why did you willingly choose to be so troublesome? Did it not bother you that your life has been to many a source of divisions, headaches and heartaches? My friend, if you could cause so much mayhem while claiming to be protecting my interests, what would have happened if you were up against me?'
'Live forever, great King,' Religion began, his voice trembling,
'I acknowledge your greatness and your love for whatever is truthful and just. I would like to state that there has definitely been some mix-up somewhere. Firstly, I pride myself on being the totality of your representatives' efforts to reach out to the Supreme Being, that is, Your Majesty. I personify the efforts of your emissaries to touch you. I have always done my best in this regard. I am glorified when the purported relationship between you and these representatives of yours is dictated by them without any regard to your thoughts, ways and taste. This is sufficient to make your representatives believe that everything is fine and that they are doing the right thing. As long as I make people believe that they are on the right path, it is okay with me. So long as I ensure that people think that they are doing what is expected of them, it is fine by me.
'The thing is that I do not necessarily care about what the truth is all about. In any case, I am not anchored on the truth. Once I win the confidence and the hearts of these emissaries of yours, I ensure that they believe what I want them to believe, and this is usually not the truth.'
This contentious god continued,
'I cannot give contentment to anyone because I am not premised on the truth. The confidence I give to people is based on falsehood. I am not wired to give fulfillment but to delude. It is a tribute to my chameleonic composition and nature that up till now your representatives have failed to find out who I really am.
'Great King, it is your decree that fulfillment only flows from knowing and building on the truth but truth is alien to me. Nevertheless, in order to appear credible and relevant, I often give the impression that I am about the truth. Surprisingly, despite my failure due to my inability to deliver, your representatives still went ahead and made me an object of worship. Even though I enjoy all the attention, I remain puzzled as to how they arrived at their decision. Sadly, it appears from all indications that the people are not going to change this decision. Ultimately, all I give is false hope that everything will be fine by and by.'
Religion went on,
'I have been deified by your representatives because I always tell them what they want to hear. They wait on every word of mine as they are fiercely devoted to me. The funny thing is that they invented me, but this fact has not stopped them from allowing me to control them. I must confess that I have enjoyed being in charge.
'Your Majesty, their decision to make me god was entirely theirs. I played absolutely no part in it.'
The King found it particularly sad that His emissaries could not see through the false pretences of Religion even though he claimed to be working for His Majesty.
'
No comments:
Post a Comment