Excerpt From a Soon-To-Be-Published Book by SAMUEL ORRIN SEWELL
MUDDITES
- A FABLE
Once
upon a time, long ago and far away, on the outskirts of a crowd which had gathered
to hear a great teacher speak, two men fell into conversation with each other. “I can’t hear what he is saying, but I
know that he is a miracle worker, and that the hand of God is upon him,”
said the first man. The second man responded enthusiastically, “I know you speak the truth, for I once was
blind, but now I see. He cured my blindness!” The first man exclaimed, “Really!” and launched into a detailed
explanation of how he too had been cured of blindness by the same holy man.
Both men were excited and animated in telling their versions of how they had
been cured of blindness.
It
soon became obvious that the men were in disagreement about the nature of the
miracle worker’s technique. One man insisted that his blindness had been cured
when the holy man gathered some soil from the ground which was mixed with
saliva and formed into some sort of mud pack, and then placed upon the man’s
eyes. The other man was equally adamant that no mud had been used at all, and
that the miracle had occurred when the holy man placed his hands on him and
simply declared him healed. Thus began the first theological split in
Christianity, between the Muddites and the Non-muddites.
The
two men gathered about them those who agreed with their particular version and
the two groups began to say terrible things about each other. Both groups were
convinced that God was on their side and that Satan inspired the other group.
Soon there were suspicious plots, dirty tricks, political power plays, and on
one occasion an actual fist fight. Many of the people who claim to follow Jesus
have been living that way ever since.
The moral to the
story:
Love
cures blindness. Dogma can cause blindness.
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