Shielding Gods from People
“There’s no use calling on the Lord – he never hears,” Cassy tells Tom with a mix of pain and scorn. “There isn’t any God, I believe; or, if there is, he’s taken sides against us. All goes against us, heaven and earth. Everything is pushing us into hell.” Tom and Cassy are characters in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852). They are both Black slaves who have suffered much pain, physically as well as emotionally. The pain has had totally different effects on each. Tom’s faith in Jesus, his God, is redemptive, while Cassy’s attitude to the very question of God’s existence is resistant. Tom finds meaning in his suffering through the suffering of Jesus. Cassy rejects a god who, in her view, is on the side of her oppressors. I was reminded of Tom and Cassy, and the novel in general, when I read yesterday that certain famous Hindu pilgrimage centres like Badrinath, Kedarnath, and 47 affiliated temples are being closed to non-Hindus . I remembered...
