©1999 by James
A. Fowler. All rights
reserved.
You are free to download this article provided it remains intact without alteration.
You are also free to transmit this article electronically provided that you do so
in its entirety with proper citation of authorship included.
The illustrator of these
parodies is Aaron Eskridge.
For contact and information about Aaron: Illustrator's
Page
Text of article below graphic
For some there was the slight
semblance of the synchophonic sound of church bells. But it was,
instead, the clanging of chains as the prisoners performed their
duties.
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Their day began with
roll-call, responding to their assigned identification number.
Then, dressed in the dreary uniformity that dissipates individuality,
and manacled together in bondage, they marched out to perform
their monotonous tasks. The obligatory service having been performed
under the watchful eye of the taskmaster, the prisoners filed
back into the vaulted dungeon to be fed a bland diet and to engage
in the socialization of their chants. They were psyching themselves
up for another day of the same regimen on the chain-gang.
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Each day as they labored,
a crusader on a nearby hill repetitively proclaimed, "Let
my people go!" "Let my people go!" "What
you are doing to my people is contrary to justice; it is cruel
and unusual punishment." "I have come to set you free!"
"Exercise your right to walk out in freedom with me."
This sounded like good
news to the prisoners, yet there was little hope that such freedom
could be effected until their sentence had been served. Whatever
hope these men had was long-term and futuristic, for these men
were "lifers." Meanwhile, the law-enforcement officers
who guarded them made every effort to keep the prisoners from
hearing the daily proclamations of the rabblerouser on the hill.
They knew that what he was saying was true. |
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Very few exercised the right
to walk away unto freedom. They were held not by the manacles
of chains but by the captivity of their own minds.
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There was an initial enactment of this scenario
when the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt. Moses was the designated
leader to "set the people free." A great exodus ensued,
though few ever found their way to the land of freedom.
Today God's people are enslaved
in the bondage of religion. Individuality is dissipated; conformity
is dictated. Attendance is mandated; performance is regulated.
The roll is taken as we file back into our vaulted cathedrals
to be "fed" a bland diet, and to engage in what we
have been conditioned to call "worship."
Jesus Christ, by His Spirit,
still stands on Calvary hill, calling, "Let My people go!"
"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free" (John 8:32). "I am the truth" (John 14:6).
"I came that you might have life, and might have it abundantly"
(John 10:10). "I am the life (John 14:6).
Few there are who leave
the bondage of religion for the freedom of Christ's life.
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