Requiem [COMPLETED]

I'm Sure Everything Is Under Control

Sven had never told me about his religious beliefs, how much he did or didn't believe. I rarely caught a glimpse of him praying, and he constantly ridiculed our church to Chuck, but then from our more philosophical talks I had always gotten the impression that he had a strong faith. He didn't display any doubt in God's existence, using it as a given in our talks about the universe and didn't display any irony or sarcasm towards God per se but rather towards some of his followers. As I got older I began to wonder more about it though, especially since the things he did and said seemed contradictory sometimes.

By the time he took religious studies as a senior (a mandatory class for graduation) his anger was barely cloaked. Our church had strong words about everything but grandpa's way of quoting particularly unpleasant proverb snippets with relish when chastising my brother had really sent Sven over the edge. He liked to grumble something about it always being "Night of the Hunter in this house."

For the class—taught by a teacher who attended our church, though she also taught biology—they had to write several papers over the year rather than regular exams. Sven's latest paper as usual was brilliant—but it made me reassess him. He'd always seemed impermeable to peer pressure to act or say certain things, but here he was angrily lashing out against it, calling it bullying and dismissing the intelligence (or lack of it) in our fellow believers. He was blaming them for believing and pressuring others to do the same. It was practically an op ed to our church. It was unlike anything he'd written before. It was suppose to be explaining arguments for the existence of God; Sven inverted it on its' ear and made a mockery of the whole assignment. Every paragraph nimbly exposed philosophical logic problems with surgical exactness. He'd outlined how religion followed the fundamental tenets of marketing to 'sell itself' in four steps: 1. The artificial creation (or framing) of a need; 2. The offer of a product or service addressing the 'need'; 3. Incentivize the product/service by showing the rewards of obtainment and the consequences of not doing so; and 4. Creating urgency to act now. He called religion a great triumph of capitalism and marketing for modern humanity.

Grandpa was sent a copy of this essay by Sven's religion teacher; it was the final infringement. I hadn't seen grandpa that angry and it catalyzed something that I would never have foreseen.

"What kind of heathen writes this shit? MY GOD, if this was still the Cold War you'd be shot! What the hell were you thinking? You weren't thinking. You rarely do, except to be a smartass. The sinner is caught up in the web of his own lies, and sees not his folly," grandpa raged. I had been out weeding the garden since we got home from school, so I wasn't sure at first to what he was referring. Then I saw the religion paper with a yellow post-it note attached from the teacher sitting on the kitchen table. Sven silently motioned with his eyes that I should leave, but I sat down at the table with him. I never liked to abandon him when he and grandpa fought; Sven always looked so vulnerable, like a hollow tin soldier standing stiffly in a wind that could easily topple him.

"'A scoundrel and villain, who goes about with a corrupt mouth, who winks with his eye, signals with his feet and motions with his fingers," grandpa had picked up on Sven's motion to me and not lost a beat, "who plots evil with deceit in his heart--he always stirs up dissension. Therefore disaster will overtake him in an instant; he will suddenly be destroyed by the righteous--without any other remedy.'" Grandpa paced around the kitchen; he always gave the impression of a buffalo in a small room, big and wild and apt to sudden action that could destroy the things around him.

"'Man, despite his cunning, does not endureth, he is like the beasts who perish, but yet has a worse fate in the fires of hell. This is the fate of those who trust in their cunning, and of their followers, who approve of their sayings. Like sheep they are destined for the grave, and death will feed upon them and devils torture them. The just shall rule over them whose forms will decay in the grave; he takes nothing with him when he dies.'"