My mother was a Presbyterian. She took me to church every Sunday when I was growing up in Ghana. I recall being frequently put off in those days by readings from the Old Testament. I felt they contained too much violence. My childhood innocence was still intact then, which is one of the reasons I found those Biblical stories so distasteful.
The New Testament’s teachings of kindness, humility and respect for the poor and the marginalized were profoundly appealing to me. Those were the principles my mother lived by and she instilled them in all of her children. I have always considered her and my father to be the best teachers I have had in my life.
When I left my mother’s nest to attend college in the Soviet Union, I took a New Testament Bible with me. I read it often to stay reminded of the ideals I had learned in my childhood.
The Cold War was at its tail end when I went to the Soviet Union. In much of the period since then, although there were sporadic armed conflicts in some parts of the world, the global community was nicely glued together by the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. Largely, the concept of national sovereignty was universally recognized.
That tranquil world, in which the meek were also allowed to inherit the Earth, has vanished rather quickly. Small and weak nations are now being asked to submit to the wishes of powerful countries in ways that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. That is bad enough. Worse, there are too many people who say that what we are currently witnessing is just the way things were always supposed to be.
At just thirty-three years old when he died, Jesus apparently didn’t live long enough for his teachings to take root on our planet.
I find our universe today to be a bit too close to the one depicted in the Old Testament. My fervent hope is that the old world, which was filled with kindness and decency, will return someday soon. In the meantime, I need to do something to get myself somewhat acclimated to this new environment. I think reading the Old Testament will be the best way to accomplish that.