Trinity College School - Record Yearbook (Port Hope, Ontario Canada)

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many different authors in different settings over a period of about a thousand years. This is why it is academic bad taste to use the Bible for proofs. because one could find anything to back up his arguments if he looked hard enough: even the Devil quoted scripture for his own ends.4 It is also the probable reason why Christianity is the most sectarian religion in the world. There are over two hundred Christian religions , and while some may have been founded for historical or political reasons, a great many were formed from different theological interpretations of the Bible. South Africa's policy of racial apartheid. while being condemned by the World Council of Churches. has its theological roots with the Dutch Reform Church. Likewise, Jehovah's Witnesses charge that blood transfusions are a violation of certain Old Testament rules regarding the eating of animal blood. Thus, it is shown how blind insistence on the Bi- ble being absolute truth is leaning on emptiness. lt blinds us to what it is pointing at, i.e. God, and instead, focuses our attention on the pointer itself, the Bible and its interpreters. This has caus- ed the sectarian divisions of Christianity. the op- position of faith to reason, even bloodshed. Llnder our democratic system, we owe allegiance to the law behind the law, the ideas, not the bare words of the Bible. These can only be expressed through poetry, which the Bible is, and which we only can discover for ourselves. 1. Frederic M. Wheelock. Latin. tltlew York: Harpur and Row, l963J. p. 78 2. Mr. Brian Jones. Class Discussion. 1987. 3. Tom Harpur, Bible has Answers Science cant Give, Toronto Star, November. 1987. 4. Matthew 4:5 HONOURABLE MENTION SHORT STORY TIMES GONE BY by Michael Bach Those were the days. We fought for peace. not warg love, not hate: laughter, not tears. Flower Power was a way of life, peace rallies on a Satur- day afternoon, singing songs about love. Those were the times of freedom and choice. But they are all gone. Look at us now. One a teacher, one a politician. one a cop, one a writer, one . . . brain dead - too afraid to move out of the sixties and into the eighties. Look at us now. Back then, we were all so free. We loved each other, and lived in perfect harmony, but the peace is broken and is destined not to return. After the war, Brian went to teachers college, he now works at a private school. Who would 'f-'t'K92b'Vf'f1'. ' 'X vtvlfqw + .3-.-'t.:.T.?'t?fii -4 have thought that the spaced out hippie teenager would have grown up to try teaching a bunch of spaced out hippie teenagers? Who would have thought . . . Jeanne went into politics. feeling that she could make a change in the world. by way of her party. She went from a socialist to a . . . conser- vative. What a horrifying thought. The voice that always stood out from the crowd, now represents that same crowd, and hides behind them. Dave now works for the police force. l say that with a tone of anger and sarcasm. because that same man was arrested twenty one times in three years, on charges ranging from disturbing the peace, to possession of narcotics. to assulting a

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LANCINIUIR WRITING CCNTEST FIRST PRIZE ESSAY THE BIBLE IS POETRY by Jonathan Good Christianity is the most popular, if not the most diverse religion ever. Its followers include a billion people, belonging to well over two hun- dred Churches and Sects. With this diversity comes varying attitudes towards its main Holy Book, the Bible. As one travels further right on the political spectrum, the Bible is increasingly sanctified, and to the left, increasingly down- played in importance. We are witnessing in the nineteen eighties a conservation backlash to the relative per- missiveness of the sixties and seventies: the latest swing in the political left-right cycle that has been going on since the Modern Age began. With this is a renewed faith in the absolute truth of the Bi- ble, as espoused by the Moral Majority and other Bible-Belt groups. This is manifested in their objection to homosexual rights, and to the teaching of evolution in school. This notion, however popular, is not true. The Bible is not literal, absolute truth from beginning to end, but poetry. What is poetry? As Servius wrote, Poetry is the art of not saying all . . . as opposed to prose, which is the art of saying all. 1,2 Unfortunately, of the few who do read the Bible, most read it as prose: they read it to find ultimate truth. This is what draws some to Christianity. Some people need a concrete, higher authority to fall back on, content that the dogma is unquestionable truth. In fact, since Vatican ll, when the Roman Catholic Church became decidedly less dogmatic, a lot of people have turned away from Catholicism. Now, there is no doubt that this kind of doctrine is good for some people twhat happens then is that a God-inspired biblical interpreter uses this faith to his own ends, such as Jim Jones didl. ln times of turmoil. it is almost necessary to have a strict set of rules to provide stability for ones self and ones people. But Christianity is much more than a series of i'Thou shalt nots . It seems that Crod does not want us to look to the Bible for answers, but to Him. Poetry is the art of not saying all, and it is up to us to discover what the hidden parts are, not some God-inspired biblical interpreter. Every society or culture has its mythologies, written or unwritten. Of those that are written down. a striking number of similarities exist be- tween them, because myths address eternal characteristics of human nature. Following these lines then, the Bible is in many ways a Western mythology. Indeed, it is acknowledged that North Americas moral foundation is a Judaeo-Christian one. Many people, however, would have trouble being told that the Bible is a series of myths, the connotation of a myth being, of course, an untrue story told by stupid ancients. While it is true that in the vernacular, a myth can mean a fanciful, empty yarn, this is not the sense in which it is us- ed by scholars when they talk about religion. They use the word in its more basic meaning, as a story which tells a truth which cannot be told in any other manner. 3 If we rigidly insist on strictly literal or historical interpretation of allegorical words, then we lose a lot. Putting one's faith in bare words is folly, because it is like walking on water. Putting one's faith in the ideas behind these words fthe ones discovered by oneself through poetryj, is not, because ideas are not physical and cannot pass away unless we let them. The creation story is a poetical myth, not a scientific truth. There are many Christians who refuse to believe that life was created in any way but as written in the first chapter of Genesis, despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary. In their eyes, anyone who believes differently is undermining the words of the Bible and, there- fore, the authority of God. But the words by their very nature are like the elephant that the six blind men went to see. What is something to one per- son could be quite another thing to someone else. Added to this is the fact that the Bible contains many contradictions, because it was written by

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police officer. A bit of hyprocrisy there. As for Simon, hes still back in the sixties. He still has his long hair. still decorates his home with bean bag chairs and hanging beads, still goes to peace rallies, still smokes up. His fear of growing old keeps him from growing up. He refuses to change. And now for me. I'm a writer, doing what ever I can to say what we always wanted to say when we were kids, but still trying to be democratic about it. I wish it had never ended. lt was heaven. We were all equal. all free, and all ourselves. Now most of us, excluding Simon, are products of our environment. lt scares the hell out of me. The long hair is gone. The bean bag chairs have been put into deep storage so that no one will see them and ask the dreaded question, i'Were you a hippie? . We were so proud of it then and yet now FIRST 'PRIZE PCEM THE LIE we try to hide what we once so proudly stood for. My God. look at us. I hate it. I see everyone from time to time. I nod or say hi , if I have time. But usually l just pass on by and sort of ignore everyone. trying not to remember. lf I were to have one wish, I would wish that we could all go back, and knowing what I know now, change the times gone by. by Grahame Lawson Neatly tied in a knot That strangles me Though I know it not And cannot feel it But I foreign to him Drive by his naked body Made that way by my foul fumes I dressed to suit authority He to keep friends Have made my life A stain on his black feet Something foreign to my neighbor r V . N e ,