Contempt

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

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• From A Theology for the Social Gospel (1918)

  256 A THEOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL GOSPEL havehada conscious and definite relationto war and force revolution. With hisarrest Jesus fell into the hands of the war system. Whenthe soldiers stripped him, beat his back with theleaded whip, pressed the wreath of thorns into his scalp, draped a purple mantlearound himand salutedthis amusing king ofthe Jews, and when they blindfolded and struck him, asking him to prophesy whoit wasand spitting in his face, this was the humour ofthe bar- rack room. Thiswas funas the professional soldiers of the Roman Empire saw it. The menwho drove the spikesthrough his handsand feetwere the equivalent of a firing-squad told off for duty at an execution, andwhen theygambled forhis clothes, they were taking their sol- diers' perquisites. The last of this group ofracial sins is class contempt. Class pride andits obverse passion, class contempt, are the necessaryspiritual product of class divisions. They are thedirect negation of solidarity and love. They sub- stitute a semi-human, semi-ethicalrelationforfull human fraternity. The class system, therefore, is a sinful de- nial ofthe Kingdom of God, andone of the character- isticmarks andforces of the Kingdom ofEvil. Itis almost universal. Our capitalistic semi-democ- racy has alleviated it but not overcome it. Indeed, while some other nations are slowly breaking up the class sys- tems erected inthe past, the present economictendencies inour country, if allowed to go on, will inevitably build up a durable class system. Economic facts mock at po- litical theory.Sixty-five per centofthe national prop-

• From A Theology for the Social Gospel (1918)

  THE SOCIAL GOSPEL AND THE ATONEMENT 257 erty before the warwas held by two per cent of the popu- lation. The warhas contributed enormously tothe ag- gregation of great fortunes. * Parasitic incomes pro- duce class differences; class differences create dass pride anddass contempt This sin has always rested heavily on the great massof mankind. It expresses itself in social customsand in the lawsof anation. Where an aristocracy exists, ei- ther its members are formally exempt from the degrad- ing formsof punishment, asin Russia, or they areosten- sibly liable to them but practically exempt by the inability to put them in prison or keep them there. In Roman law crucifixion wasa punishment reserved for offenders of the lowestclasses.No Romancitizen could be crucified. Cicero flung it atVerres asaculmi- nating accusationin the counts of his misrulethathe had crucifieda Roman.When Jesus was nailed to the tree, therefore, he bore not only the lightning shoots of physi- cal pain imposed by the cruelties ofcriminal law, but also that contempt forthe lower classeswhich has always de- humanizedthe upper classes, numbed and crippled the spiritual self-respect ofthe lower classes, and set up in- superable barriers to the spirit of the Kingdom ofGod. Religious bigotry, the combination of graft and politi- cal power, the corruption of justice, the mob spirit, mili- MinorityReport of the Senate Committee on Finance, August 13,1917, containstablesof 95 industrial corporations and 50 railways in whichthe average income of 1911-13 is deducted fromthe net incomeof 1916, leaving special war profits of 100%, 400%, 1400%, 4500% insomecases. Thus the BethlehemSteel Cor- poration madeover 1300% or $40,518,860, and theDu PontPowder Co. over 1400% or $76,581,729.

• From Worried about Everything Because I Pray about Nothing (2022)

  Jesus says they loved to pray “standing in the synagogues and on street corners.” Synagogues were religious centers, and the street corners were business and social centers. In other words, wherever they went, they showed off how spiritual they were. The problem wasn’t that people heard them pray. Public, corporate prayer is seen throughout the Bible. The problem was that they prayed specifically “to be seen by others” (verse 5). That was their goal. Performance was the point. Jesus says that they received the payment they wanted: applause. Their reputation went up. People saw them as super spiritual. Parents pointed them out to their children as examples of holiness. “Normal” people felt intimidated, even guilty, when they heard them pray. The hypocrites wanted praise, and they got it. That was all they got, though. Because God wasn’t even listening. They weren’t talking to Him, so why should He care what they said? They were praying for people to hear, which isn’t prayer at all. It’s simply talking into the air. In prayer, as in everything else, our hearts matter most to God. He isn’t impressed with showy acts, with clever words, with rituals or rites or performances. God sees our inner selves. He knows our motivations better than we do. God loves the kind of prayer that is birthed out of genuine relationship, not out of pride. The poet Mary Oliver writes that prayer is not a competition, but rather a doorway into gratitude and silence. 2 It leads to a conversation with a God who responds when we approach Him in humility. That is the reward we should be seeking: not the praise of people, but the presence of God. 2. BABBLING PRAYERS After Jesus finished roasting hypocrites and their performative prayers, He took aim at another wrong form of prayer: empty, repetitive babblings.

• From A Theology for the Social Gospel (1918)

  254 A THEOLOGY FORTHE SOCIALGOSPEL consentedto do. Pilate's wash-bowl deserves to be a mysticsymbol, the counter-part ofthe Holy Grail. So Jesus made experience of one ofthe permanent sins of organized society, bearing in his own body and soul what so many thousands of the poor andweak haveborne before and after, the corruption of justice. A fourth permanent social sinwhich participated in the death of Jesus wasthe mob spirit andmob action. The mob spirit is the social spirit gone mad.The social group then escapes from thecontrol of itswiser and fairer habits, and is lashed intoaction byprimitive pas- sions. Thesocial spirit reacts so powerfully on individ- uals, that when oncethe restraints of self-criticismand self-control areshot back, thecrowd gets drunkon the mereeffluvia of its own emotions. We know only too wellthat a city of respectable and religious people will do fiendish acts of cruelty and obscenity. There are radical mobsand conservative mobs.Well- dressed mobs are more dangerous than ragged mobs because they are far more efficientEntire nations may come under the mob spirit, and abdicate their judgment. Rarely aremobs wholly spontaneous; usually there is leadership to fanaticize themasses. Atthis point this sin connects with the sins of selfish leadership whichwe have analysed before.Sometimes the crowdturns against the oligarchy; usually the oligarchymanipulates the crowd. So it was in the case of Jesus. The mob shouted for the physical force man and against the man who embodied thebetter spirit of the Jewish nation. There was " pa- THE SOCIAL GOSPEL AND THEATONEMENT 255 triotism " in this choice. Pilate realized that, and tried to play on it by calling Jesus the king of the Jews, butthe native politicians outplayed him. The choice was pro- phetic. Itwasthe Barabbas type which ledthe nation to its doomin the Jewish War and the later risings ofthe Jewish patriots. So this pervasive sin of community life, the intoxica- tionof the social spirit, before whichso many prophets and semi-prophets have hadto quail, contributed to the death of Jesus. He bore it, not bysympathy or imputa- tion, but by experience. Thefifth universal sin of organized society which co- operated inthe deathof Christwasmilitarism.So far as we know, Jesus never passed through an actual war. He probably never saw hishome burned, his father killed, hissisters ravished, nor was heeverforced to beararms. But thathe had convictionson waris plain fromhis say- ings. "He that taketh theswordshall perish by the sword," showsclear comprehension ofthe fact that in warneitherside gains, and thatthe reactions ofwar are as dangerous as the direct effects; ofwhich fact ample demonstrations arebeforeus. If thewords spoken in his lamentover Jerusalem are authentic, henot only foresaw that the present drift would carry his nationtowar and destruction, but he regarded the acceptance of his leadership astheone means by which his peoplemight have escaped their doom : " If thou hadstknowninthis day the things that makefor peace! Butnow they are hidden from thine eyes." To his mind, then, the Kingdom of God must

• From A Theology for the Social Gospel (1918)

  merited hatred, and stifled intellectual and social liberty. It is proof of the high valuation men put on the Church that its corruption seems to have weighed more heavily on the conscience of Christendom than the correspond- ing corruption of the State. At least the religious Revo- lution antedated the political Revolution by several centuries. To-day the Church is practically free from graft and exploitation; its sins are mainly sins of omis- sion; yet the contrast between the idea of the Church and its reality, between the force for good which it might exert and the force which it does exert in public life, produces profounder feelings than the shortcomings of the State. While these pages are being written, our nation is arming itself to invade another continent for the purpose of overthrowing the German government, on the ground that the existence of autocratic governments is a menace to the peace of the world and the freedom of its peoples. This momentous declaration of President Wilson recog- nizes the fact that the Governments of Great States too may be super-personal powers of sin; that they may in reality be only groups of men using their fellow-men as pawns and tools ; that such governments have in the past waged war for dynastic and class interests without con- sulting the people ; and that in their diplomacy they have cunningly contrived plans of deception and aggression, working them out through generations behind the guarded confidences of a narrow and privileged class.^ 1 These ideas and phrases are drawn from the President’s Ad- dress to Congress on April 2nd, 1917. THE SUPER-PERSONAL FORCES OF EVIL 75 There is no doubt that these charges justly character- ize the German government. There is no doubt that they characterize all governments of past history with few exceptions, and that even the democratic govern-* ments of to-day are not able to show clean hands on these points. The governments even of free States like the Dutch Republic, the city republics of Italy, and the British Empire have been based on a relatively narrow group who determined the real policies and decisions of the nation. How often have we been told that in our own country we have one government on paper and another in fact? Genuine political democracy will evi- dence its existence by the social, economic, and educa- tional condition of the people. Generally speaking, city slums, a spiritless and drunken peasantry, and a large emigration are corollaries of class government. If the people were free, they would stop exploitation. If they can not stop exploitation, the parasitic interests are pre- sumably in control of legislation, the courts, and the powers of coercion. Parasitic government is sin on a high scale. If this war leads to the downfall or regen- eration of all governments which support the exploita- tion of the masses by powerful groups, it will be worth its cost.

• From Tipping the Velvet (1998)

  They occasionally obliged a gentleman with a poke or two, when they were feeling friendly; but they never let their own parts be fondled or kissed. They were proud to the point of mania, Sweet Alice said, on that score.My own renter persona was, of necessity, a rather curious mixture of types. Never a very virile boy, I held no appeal for the kind of gentleman who liked a rough hand through the slit of his drawers, or a bit of a slap in the shadows; equally, however, I could never afford to let myself be seen as one of those lily-white lads whom the working-men go for, and make rather free with. Then again, I was choosy. There were many fellows with curious appetites in the streets round Leicester Square; but not all of them were the sort I was after. Most men, to be frank, will step aside with a renter as you or I might call into a public-house, on our way home from the market: they take their pleasure, give a belch, and think no more of it than that. But still there are always some - they are gentlemen, for the most part; I learned to spot them from afar - who are fretful, or wistful, or romantic - who could, like the fellow from the Burlington Arcade, be brought to kiss me, or thank me, or even weep over me, as I was handling them.And, as they did so - as they strained and gasped, and whispered their desires to me in some alley or court or dripping lavatory stall - I would have to turn my face away to hide my smiles. If they favoured Walter, then so much the better. If they did not - well, they were all gents and (whatever their own opinion on the matter) with their trousers unbuttoned they all looked the same.I never felt my own lusts rise, raising theirs. I didn’t even need the coins they gave me. I was like a person who, having once been robbed of all he owns and loves, turns thief himself - not to enjoy his neighbours’ chattels, but to spoil them. My one regret was that, though I was daily giving such marvellous performances, they had no audience.

• From A Theology for the Social Gospel (1918)

  Evil collective forces have usually fallen from a better estate. Organizations are rarely formed for avowedly evil ends. They drift into evil under sinister leadership, or under the pressure of need or temptation. For in- stance, a small corrupt group in a city council, in order to secure control, tempts the weak, conciliates and serves good men, and turns the council itself into a force of evil in the city; an inside ring in the police force grafts on the vice trade, and draws a part of the force into protecting crime and brow-beating decent citizens ; a trade union fights for the right to organize a shop, but resorts to violence and terrorizing; a trust, desiring to steady prices and to get away from antiquated compe- tition, undersells the independents and evades or pur- chases legislation. This tendency to deterioration shows the soundness of the social instincts, but also the ease with which they go astray, and the need of righteous social institutions to prevent temptation. In the previous chapter it was pointed out that the love of gain is one of the most unlimited desires and the most inviting outlet for sinful selfishness. The power of combination lends itself to extortion. Predatory profit or graft, when once its sources are opened up and developed, constitutes an almost overwhelming tempta- THE SUPER-PERSONAL FORCES OF EVIL 73 tion to combinations of men. Its pursuit gives them cohesion and unity of mind, capacity to resist common dangers, and an outfit of moral and political principles which will justify their anti-social activities. The ag-. gressive and defensive doings of such combinations are written all over history. History should be re-written to explain the nature of human parasitism. It would be a revelation. The Roman publicani, who collected the taxes from conquered provinces on a contract basis; the upper class in all slave-holding communities; the landlord class in all ages and countries, such as East Prussia, Ireland, Italy, and Russia; the great trading companies in the early history of commerce ; — these are instances of social groups consolidated by extortionate gain. Such groups necessarily resist efforts to gain political liberty or social justice, for liberty and justice do away with unearned incomes. Their malign in- fluence on the development of humanity has been beyond telling. The higher the institution, the worse it is when it goes wrong. The most disastrous backsliding in history was the deterioration of the Church. Long before the Reformation the condition of the Church had become the most serious social question of the age. It weighed on all good men. The Church, which was founded on democracy and brotherhood, had, in its higher levels, become an organization controlled by the upper classes for parasitic ends, a religious duplicate of the coercive State, and a chief check on the advance of democracy and brotherhood. Its duty was to bring love, unity and freedom to mankind; instead it created division, fo- 74 A THEOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL GOSPEL

• From Tipping the Velvet (1998)

  Your maid was a slum-girl, wasn’t she? Didn’t you have her from a prison or a home? You know what the women get up to in prison, don’t you? I should think they must frot until their parts are the size of mushrooms!’Diana turned her eyes from me, and drew on her pink-tipped fag; and then she smiled. ‘Mrs Hooper!’ she called. ‘Where is Blake?’‘She is in the kitchen, ma’am,’ answered the housekeeper from her station at the bowl of wine. ‘She is loading her tray.’‘Go and fetch her.’‘Yes ma’am.’Mrs Hooper went. The ladies looked at one another, and then at Diana. She stood very calm and steady beside the bust of cold Antinous; but when she raised her glass to her lip, I saw that her hand was trembling slightly. I shifted from one foot to the other, my briefly flaring lust all faded. In a moment, Mrs Hooper had returned, with Zena. When Diana called to her, Zena walked blinkingly into the centre of the room. The ladies parted to let her pass, then stepped together again at the back of her.Diana said, ‘We have been wondering about you, Blake.’Zena blinked again. ‘Ma’am?’‘We have been wondering about your time at the reformatory.’ Now Zena coloured. ‘We have been wondering how you filled your hours. We thought there must be some little occupation, to which you turned your idle fingers, in your solitary cell.’Zena hesitated. Then she said, ‘Please, m’m, do you mean, sewing bags?’At that, the ladies gave a roar of laughter, which made Zena flinch, and blush worse than ever, and put a hand to her throat. Diana said, very slowly, ‘No, child, I did not mean sewing bags. I meant, that we thought you must have turned frigstress, in your little cell. That you must have frigged yourself until your cunt was sore. That you must have frigged yourself so long and so hard, you frigged yourself a cock. We think you must have a cock, Blake, in your drawers. We want you to lift your skirt, and let us see it!’Now the ladies laughed again. Zena looked at them, and then at Diana. ‘Please, m’m,’ she said, beginning to shake, ’I don’t know what you mean!’Diana stepped towards her. ‘I think you do,’ she said. She had picked up the book that Dickie had given her, and now she opened it, and held it oppressively close to Zena’s face, so that Zena flinched again. ‘We have been reading a book full of stories of girls like you,’ she said. ‘And now, what are you suggesting? That the doctor who wrote this book - this book that Miss Reynolds gave me, for my birthday - is a fool?’‘No, m’m!’‘Well then. The doctor says you have a cock. Come along, lift your skirts!

• From A Theology for the Social Gospel (1918)

  the proper hate and repugnance for it only when we see it as the terrible defeat and frustration of a great good which we love and desire. Theology has tried to give us such a realization of- sin by elaborating the contrast between the sinless con- dition of Adam before the fall and his sinful condition after it. But there are objections to this. In the first place of course we do not know whether Adam was as perfect as he is portrayed. Theology has ante-dated conceptions of human perfection which we have derived from Jesus Christ and has converted Adam into a per- fect Christian. Paul does nothing of the kind. In the second place, any interpretation of the nature of sin taken from Adam will be imperfect, because Adam’s situation gave very limited opportunities for selfishness, which is the essence of sin. He had no scope to exhibit either the virtues or the sinful vices which come out in the pursuits of commerce or politics. The only persons with whom he could associate were God, Eve, and Satan. Consequently theology lacked all social details in de- scribing his condition before and after the fall. It could only ascribe to him the virtues of knowing and loving God and of having no carnal concupiscence, and, by contrast, after the fall he lost the love and knowledge of God and acquired carnal desires. Thus a fatal turn toward an individualistic conception of sin was given to theology through the solitariness of Adam. A better and more Christian method of getting a re- ligious realization of sin is to bring before our minds the positive ideals of social righteousness contained in the person of Christ and in the Kingdom of God, and 52 A THEOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL GOSPEL

• From A Theology for the Social Gospel (1918)

  Rarely are mobs wholly spontaneous ; usually there is leadership to fanaticize the masses. At this point this sin connects with the sins of selfish leadership which we have analysed before. Sometimes the crowd turns against the oligarchy; usually the oligarchy manipulates the crowd. So it was in the case of Jesus. The mob shouted for the physical force man and against the man who embodied the better spirit of the Jewish nation. There was “ pa- THE SOCIAL GOSPEL AND THE ATONEMENT 255 triotism ’’ in this choice. Pilate realized that, and tried to play on it by calling Jesus the king of the Jews, but the native politicians outplayed him. The choice was pro- phetic. It was the Barabbas type which led the nation to its doom in the Jewish War and the later risings of the Jewish patriots. So this pervasive sin of community life, the intoxica- tion of the social spirit, before which so many prophets and semi-prophets have had to quail, contributed to the death of Jesus. He bore it, not by sympathy or imputa- tion, but by experience. The fifth universal sin of organized society which co- operated in the death of Christ was militarism. So far as we know, Jesus never passed through an actual war. He probably never saw his home burned, his father killed, his sisters ravished, nor was he ever forced to bear arms. But that he had convictions on war is plain from his say- ings. “ He that taketh the sword shall perish by the sword,’’ shows clear comprehension of the fact that in war neither side gains, and that the reactions of war are as dangerous as the direct eflfects; of which fact ample demonstrations are before us. If the words spoken in his lament over Jerusalem are authentic, he not only foresaw that the present drift would carry his nation to war and destruction, but he regarded the acceptance of his leadership as the one means by which his people might have escaped their doom: If thou hadst known in this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from thine eyes.” To his mind, then, the Kingdom of God must 256 A THEOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL GOSPEL have had a conscious and definite relation to war and force revolution.

• From A Theology for the Social Gospel (1918)

  25O A THEOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL GOSPEL Estimate the harm which the exponents of religion have done simply by suppressing the prophetic minds who had received from God fresh thought on spiritual and intel- lectual problems, and by cowing those who might have followedthe prophets. Jesus was killed by ecclesiastical religion. He might have appeared in almost any highly developed nation and suffered the same fate. Certainly after religion bore his name, there were a thousand situations in which he would have been put todeath by those whooffered salva- tion inhis name. Innumerable individuals contribute their little quota tomake up this collective evil, andwhen once the common mindis charged with it, it gets in- numerable outlets. This sin, then, wasborne by Jesus, not by imputation, nor bysympathy, but by direct ex- perience. A second social evil whichcontributed to killhim was thecombination of graft and politicalpower. Those who are in control of the machinery of organized society areableto use itfor selfishand predatory ends, turning into private profit what ought to serve the common good. In the Oberammergau Passion Play the whole plot turns on the cleansing of the temple. This interpretation has found scholarly support. Themarket was originally outsidethe temple gates, A location insidewould bea trading privilege. Did the pious hierarchy take no of- fence atthe chaffering and dickering inside ofthesa- cred enclosure? Or was somebody making something outof it? Knowing what we do of human nature and the versatility of graft, it does notseem likely that the THE SOCIAL GOSPEL ANDTHE ATONEMENT 25! concessionaires got theirinside stands for love. Ifthis conjecture is true, the feeling thatthe Galilaean prophet was on the side of right would explain the ready yielding to his command; andthe activeconcernof the traders and the hierarchy in their commonbusiness would ex- plain the energy with whichthehostile action hencefor- ward moved against him. Weare on sure ground when we realize that the pro- phetic leadership of Jesus endangered the power of the ruling class. There is always an oligarchy, wherever you look; monarchial and republican forms of government areboth protective devicesfor the-group-that-controls- things. This group is the universal government. For every oligarchy political power is convertible into finan- cial incomeand social influence, thus satisfying the pow- erful double instinctfor money and for power. In the case of the Jewish people, theRomans held the chief power and collectedthemain taxes through the concessionaires calledthe publicani or publicans. But considerable powers were left to thenative oligarchy, es- pecially thecontrol ofthe institutions of religion, and fromthe loyalty ofthe Jews totheir ancestraland cen- tralized faitha modest income in cash and considerable social prestige couldbeharvested. Evendistant colonies in the pagan cities remitted the annual temple tax, and a poor widow dropped her two farthings. Alsoit was pleasant to becalled Rabbi, and to get the best seats in the synagogue. Their sincere concern fortheir religion wasreinforced by concern for their special privileges as the custodians of the religious institutions and jurisdic- tions.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  To the outside observer the Jews at that time were the most religious people on earth, and in some sense this is true. Never was a nation so ruled by the written law of God; never did a nation so carefully and scrupulously study its sacred books, and pay greater reverence to its priests and teachers. The leaders of the nation looked with horror and contempt upon the unclean, uncircumcised Gentiles, and confirmed the people in their spiritual pride and conceit. No wonder that the Romans charged the Jews with the odium generis humani. Yet, after all, this intense religiosity was but a shadow of true religion. It was a praying corpse rather than a living body. Alas! the Christian Church in some ages and sections presents a similar sad spectacle of the deceptive form of godliness without its power. The rabbinical learning and piety bore the same relation to the living oracles of God as sophistic scholasticism to Scriptural theology, and Jesuitical casuistry to Christian ethics. The Rabbis spent all their energies in "fencing" the law so as to make it inaccessible. They analyzed it to death. They surrounded it with so many hair-splitting distinctions and refinements that the people could not see the forest for the trees or the roof for the tiles, and mistook the shell for the kernel.198 Thus they made void the Word of God by the traditions of men.199 A slavish formalism and mechanical ritualism was substituted for spiritual piety, an ostentatious sanctimoniousness for holiness of character, scrupulous casuistry for genuine morality, the killing letter for the life-giving spirit, and the temple of God was turned into a house of merchandise. The profanation and perversion of the spiritual into the carnal, and of the inward into the outward, invaded even the holy of holies of the religion of Israel, the Messianic promises and hopes which run like a golden thread from the protevangelium in paradise lost to the voice of John the Baptist pointing to the Lamb of God. The idea of a spiritual Messiah who should crush the serpent’s head and redeem Israel from the bondage of sin, was changed into the conception of a political deliverer who should re-establish the throne of David in Jerusalem, and from that centre rule over the Gentiles to the ends of the earth. The Jews of that time could not separate David’s Son, as they called the Messiah, from David’s sword, sceptre and crown. Even the apostles were affected by this false notion, and hoped to secure the chief places of honor in that great revolution; hence they could not understand the Master when he spoke to them of his, approaching passion and death.200

• From Justine (Alexandria Quartet vol. 1) (1957)

  Capodistria sits remote from it all, in his immaculate shark-skin coat with the coloured silk handkerchief lolling at his breast. His narrow shoes gleam. His friends call him Da Capo because of a sexual prowess reputed to be as great as his fortune — or his ugliness. He is obscurely related to Justine who says of him: ‘I pity him. His heart has withered in him and he has been left with the five senses, like pieces of a broken wineglass.’ However a life of such striking monotony does not seem to depress him. His family is noted for the number of suicides in it, and his psychological inheritance is an unlucky one with its history of mental disturbance and illness. He is unperturbed however and says, touching his temples with a long forefinger: ‘All my ancestors went wrong here in the head. My father also. He was a great womanizer. When he was very old he had a model of the perfect woman built in rubber — life-size. She could be filled with hot water in the winter. She was strikingly beautiful. He called her Sabina after his mother, and took her everywhere. He had a passion for travelling on ocean liners and actually lived on one for the last two years of his life, travelling backwards and forwards to New York. Sabina had a wonderful wardrobe. It was a sight to see them come into the dining-saloon, dressed for dinner. He travelled with his keeper, a manservant called Kelly. Between them, held on either side like a beautiful drunkard, walked Sabina in her marvellous evening clothes. The night he died he said to Kelly: “Send Demetrius a telegram and tell him that Sabina died in my arms tonight without any pain.” She was buried with him off Naples.’ His laughter is the most natural and unfeigned of any I have ever heard.

• From Worried about Everything Because I Pray about Nothing (2022)

  He wants to guide you. Calling and ministryGod gives each of us spiritual gifts that are meant to be used for the benefit of others (see 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12:3–8). Prayer is one of the primary ways of discovering those gifts. Marriage and familyHaving a spouse or kids doesn’t change your value before God, of course, but it certainly qualifies as a big decision. If you want to get married or are already married, pray for your spouse. If you want kids or have kids, pray nonstop for them too. (By the way, if you don’t have kids but you do have a dog you are convinced is “just like a child,” then yes, pray for your pet. But I’ve had dogs and kids, and believe me, they are not the same.) Long-term direction tends to be general. It’s more of a big-picture idea of where God is leading you sometime in the future. Short-term instructions , on the other hand, are specific, immediate steps you should take in a particular area or decision. When you spend time in prayer, you will gain understanding about what your next step needs to be. Again, I can’t tell you exactly how you’ll know. It’s something you learn over time. Prayer opens up your mind and heart to God’s wisdom, and it will often be a catalyst to determine tangible, actionable steps. Usually, you’ll see just the next step or two, though. God won’t lay out your entire future in a detailed, fully illustrated handbook. If He did, you’d probably laugh in His face or quit on the spot. Instead, God will lead you and accompany you along the way. King David, who had a lot of experience in knowing and following God’s voice, wrote this in Psalm 32:8–9: I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you. In other words, God wants to guide you. He wants to instruct, teach, and counsel you, to use the terms in this passage. And He does it all from a place of love. God will lead you if you take the time to listen. He will give you purpose, then partner with you to fulfill that purpose. Pray. Work. Repeat. You and God together are unstoppable. FOUR God is not your dentistPrayer and premise There are certain occupations that I appreciate and hate at the same time. At the top of the list: dentists. There is nothing remotely enjoyable, relaxing, or pleasant about someone cranking open your mouth so they can poke you with sharp metal objects and power tools. Going to the dentist is misery from the moment that blue vinyl chair tilts backward to the final swish-and-spit.

• From Worried about Everything Because I Pray about Nothing (2022)

  Their reputation went up. People saw them as super spiritual. Parents pointed them out to their children as examples of holiness. “Normal” people felt intimidated, even guilty, when they heard them pray. The hypocrites wanted praise, and they got it. That was all they got, though. Because God wasn’t even listening. They weren’t talking to Him, so why should He care what they said? They were praying for people to hear, which isn’t prayer at all. It’s simply talking into the air. In prayer, as in everything else, our hearts matter most to God. He isn’t impressed with showy acts, with clever words, with rituals or rites or performances. God sees our inner selves. He knows our motivations better than we do. God loves the kind of prayer that is birthed out of genuine relationship, not out of pride. The poet Mary Oliver writes that prayer is not a competition, but rather a doorway into gratitude and silence.2 It leads to a conversation with a God who responds when we approach Him in humility. That is the reward we should be seeking: not the praise of people, but the presence of God. 2. BABBLING PRAYERS After Jesus finished roasting hypocrites and their performative prayers, He took aim at another wrong form of prayer: empty, repetitive babblings. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Matthew 6:7–8 I love the word babbling. It is onomatopoeia, meaning the word itself sounds like what it means. Babble. Babababababble. Meaningless syllables strung together. It is thought that the Greek word here is also onomatopoeic: battalogeo means to stammer, chatter, or babble on.3 It comes from a root word which—similar to the English word—sounds like baby noises. Imagine someone blah-blah-blahing long after you’ve tuned them out. That’s what Jesus is talking about here: people who pray long, flowery, wordy prayers with zero content. Their prayers are mere words, empty nonsense designed to impress or manipulate, not to communicate. Even God is bored by those prayers. Jesus says that pagans pray with this mindset, thinking that “they will be heard because of their many words” (verse 7). He would have been thinking of people outside the Jewish religion. Rather than believing in one God who loved His people and heard their prayers, they often believed in a pantheon of gods who could be convinced, manipulated, and even played against one another. Sometimes we pray that same way, though. We believe in one God, but we can still fall into the trap of thinking we can convince or manipulate Him into doing what we want. If we say enough things, if we use the right phrases, if we pay the price by praying enough, God will act on our behalf.

• From Justine (Alexandria Quartet vol. 1) (1957)

  He does a little mild procuring for my friend, and I am always astonished by the sudden flights of poetry of which he is capable in describing his protégées. Leaning over Pombal’s moon-like face he will say, for example, in a discreet undertone, as the razor begins to whisper: ‘I have something for you — something special.’ Pombal catches my eye in the mirror and looks hastily away lest we infect one another by a smile. He gives a cautious grunt. Mnemjian leans lightly on the balls of his feet, his eyes squinting slightly. The small wheedling voice puts a husk of double meaning round everything he says, and his speech is not the less remarkable for being punctuated by small world-weary sighs. For a while nothing more is said. I can see the top of Mnemjian’s head in the mirror — that obscene outcrop of black hair which he had trained into a spitcurl at each temple, hoping no doubt to draw attention away from that crooked papier-mâché back of his. While he works with a razor his eyes dim out and his features become as expressionless as a bottle. His fingers travel as coolly upon our live faces as they do upon those of the fastidious and (yes, lucky) dead. ‘This time’ says Mnemjian ‘you will be delighted from every point of view. She is young, cheap and clean. You will say to yourself, a young partridge, a honey-comb with all its honey sealed in it, a dove. She is in difficulties over money. She has recently come from the lunatic asylum in Helwan where her husband tried to get her locked up as mad. I have arranged for her to sit at the Rose Marie at the end table on the pavement. Go and see her at one o’clock; if you wish her to accompany you give her the card I will prepare for you. But remember, you will pay only me. As one gentleman to another it is the only condition I lay down.’

• From Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships (2000)

  A known troublemaker since his teens, he had been arrested for attempted murder, had stockpiled illegal weapons, and had sexually abused children and others. Finally, his own death and that of his followers-whether the fires were accidentally ignited by FBI tanks or deliberately set by cult members-showed his total irresponsibility, to say the least. To a person with this type of antisocial personality disorder, those who follow him are regarded by him as fools, suckers, and dupes. They don't exist as people; they are playthings to be used and abused. The idea of taking responsibility is as foreign to such a person as the ability to feel compassion, empathy, or sympathy, unless he has some ulterior motive in simulating such feelings. Throughout his life, David Koresh displayed a sense of purpose. He also had the ruthless determination to reach his objectives, no matter what the cost to others. It is likely that his behavior suffered a psychotic degeneration under the intense pressure of his last two months under siege by the ATF and FBI. Mental health professionals and cult researchers may continue for some time to question the diagnoses attributed to Koresh, not so much as a matter of scientific debate as an issue of deep social concern. Unmasking the GuruAs you read the fifteen-point checklist and David Koresh's profile, you may notice characteristics that are similar to and explain some of the attributes, atti tudes, and behaviors of your leader. Unmasking or demystifying the leader is an important part of postcult recovery. Becoming familiar with the characteristics of this personality disorder may help you prevent being revictimized. Here are some questions to ask about your experience: • How well did you know your leader? Was it through firsthand knowledge or others' accounts? • What did you feel when you met him? • Did those feelings change during the time you spent in the group or relationship? • Was your leader charismatic, charming, quick-witted, or able to sway a crowd? How did your leader use those qualities to get his way? • Did you believe your leader to have special powers, exalted spirituality, or special knowledge? Do you still believe that? • Did you ever catch your leader lying or faking? Being inconsistent? How did you rationalize what you saw and heard when it was clearly aberrant, irrational, or abusive? • How did your leader rationalize his behavior when it was aberrant, irrational, or abusive? • How many of the fifteen traits listed in the profile did you observe in your leader? • Were there second-level leaders in the group? Did they psychologically resemble the leader or were they devoted disciples blindly following orders? • What do you know of your leader's childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood? Does he fit the pattern? • Were you sexually intimate with your leader? How did that relationship come about and how was it explained or justified?

• From Sex with Kings: 500 Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge (2004)

  Unlike Louis XV, who encouraged his mistress to make political appointments, George was outraged when he learned that then secretary of state William Pitt had requested an interview with Lady Yarmouth to discuss his candidates for various positions. “Mr. Pitt shall not go to that channel anymore,” the king thundered. “She does not meddle and shall not meddle.”29 But if the king remained stubbornly oblivious of his mistress’s political influence, his courtiers did not. As the wit Lord Chesterfield noted, Lady Yarmouth must be seen as the keystone of His Majesty’s opinion, “for even the wisest man, like the chameleon, takes…the hue of what he is often upon.”30 EightRed Whores of Babylon— Public Opinion and the MistressSome praise at morning what they damn at night But always think the last opinion’s right. —ALEXANDER POPE WE CAN ONLY WONDER HOW WOMEN’S LOT IN WESTERN SOCIETY would have improved during the past four thousand years had Genesis blamed seductive Adam for tempting innocent Eve with a banana. But since it was Eve who gave Adam the apple, Sinful Woman became a fair target for tempting Virtuous Man from the straight and narrow path with her sexual wiles. This was doubly true for a royal mistress. Whereas most women conducted their illicit affairs hidden from public view, maintaining an outward image of chaste propriety, by virtue of her very position the royal mistress was known by all the world to be having sex with a man not her husband. Moreover, however dissatisfied a nation may have been with its king, it was treason to speak so, and the mistress was a far likelier target of wrath among the people and discontent at court. Often a royal mistress could not win in the stern court of public opinion no matter what she did. If she bore the king children, she was a harlot bringing expensive bastards into the world. If she did not, she was even worse—a barren harlot. If she was beautiful, her beauty was a gift from the devil to inflame the hapless monarch. If she was plain, the king deserved better. If she lived opulently, she was selfishly spending the poor people’s taxes. If she lived simply, she was detracting from the king’s glory. Mistresses from powerful noble families often meddled in politics and turned their relatives into a political faction, causing strife at court. For this reason, some kings avoided the snares of lovely countesses and breathtaking duchesses and sought out mistresses born as commoners. Such women were far more grateful for blessings bestowed and less adept at intrigue. Commoners usually applauded the rise of one of their own, but those born with blue blood pulsating nobly through purple veins turned green with jealousy when an outsider invaded the Holy of Holies.

• From Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships (2000)

  Although Koresh was arrested and charged with attempted murder, his trial ended in a hung jury and the charges were dropped. While Roden was incarcerated, Koresh took over the group and began using classic thought-reform techniques, such as isolation, sleep deprivation, physical exhaustion through mindless activity and overwork, food deprivation, and phobia induction. He led long hours of indoctrination, sometimes subjecting his followers to fifteen-hour sessions of Bible study. Koresh built up a following of several hundred men, women, and children, including those recruited on his trips to Israel, Australia, England, and other parts of the United States. His grandiose sense of self was well-known. His business card was imprinted "Messiah," and he stated on countless occasions, "If the Bible is true, then I'm Christ." Some believed him. He was able to convince husbands to give up their wives to him, and families to turn over their money and children. By April 19, 1993, there were almost one hundred people who believed in his promise of a heavenly afterlife. Koresh's callousness and lack of empathy were apparent in the treatment of his followers, specifically the children, whom he abused physically, emotionally, and sexually, then held as hostages during the FBI standoff, pawns in his ultimate power play. In the end, there were probably twenty-five children among the followers who died. Koresh's pathological lyingwas directed at media, government forces, and his followers. For example, he repeatedly reneged on promises to surrender and he assured his followers that they would be safe in underground bunkers. His lack of remorse, shame, or guilt was evident over the years as he frequently admitted that he was a sinner without equal. At no time is he known to have shown remorse for the harm inflicted on so many of his followers or for the suffering of their families. Koresh clearly revealed his incapacity for love and sexual instability by bedding and "wedding" all the women in the group, including other men's wives and girls as young as twelve years old. After demanding celibacy from all the men, Koresh must have wallowed in sadistic enjoyment as he was openly sexual with their wives, even though some of these men were his most loyal lieutenants. He displayed a restless need for stimulation in his stockpiling of weapons and ammunition, his irrational outbursts, and his frenzied activity within the compound. Poor behavior controls were evident in his raging at and physical abuse of the children and adults who worshiped him, and in his constantly changing rules about acceptable behavior. His parasitic lifestyle allowed him to live off the earnings of others while he regarded himself as a biblical king, Christ himself. His impulsive nature was apparent in the punishments that rained down on adults and children alike at any perceived disrespect or disobedience. He ruled by whim and fiat; he ruled by terror. His criminal versatility was exhibited throughout his life.

• From Sex with Kings: 500 Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge (2004)

  Courtiers loved to witness the equivalent of a seventeenth-century female mud-wrestling bout, and clapped their ring-bedecked hands together in glee at the thought of it. By the end of the year, the king’s fiery passion for Hortense was waning because of her flagrant infidelity—she even had an affair with Anne Palmer, Charles’s teenage bastard daughter with Lady Castlemaine. The sleekly insinuating Hortense, however, was permitted to remain officially in his harem. While most men dream of a woman who plays the lady in the parlor and the whore in bed, Charles effortlessly attained this fantasy by spending his days with cold, refined Louise and his evenings with lusty, bouncing Nell. Try as she might, Louise could not expel Nell from the game. Sexually restrained to begin with, Louise had caught a virulent strain of venereal disease from Charles in 1674 which caused her untold suffering for months. She made Charles repay her in the form of two magnificent necklaces, one diamond and the other pearl, but was warned by doctors never again to have sexual relations with the king. It is a testament to Charles’s love for Louise that he kept her as his official mistress with little or no sex. But there were the king’s sexual needs to be met, and Nell was more than happy to provide these services. One day Nell stopped by the apartments of Hortense Mancini and found Louise de Kéroualle there with her close friend the French ambassador. It was an odd group. Lady Harvey reported, “I do not suppose that in all England it would be possible to get together three women more obnoxious to one another.”53 Before Nell could prick Louise with her pointed barbs, the duchess haughtily swept out of the room. Nell turned to the ambassador and demanded to know why the king of France “did not send presents to her instead of to the weeping willow who had just gone out?”54 She said Louis XIV would spend his money more wisely in sending her gifts, as King Charles preferred her to Louise. As a matter of fact, he had sex with her—Nell—every night! The ambassador mumbled, turned red, and cringed. Hortense adroitly changed the subject to the reputed beauty of Nell’s undergarments. In a heartbeat, Nell raised her skirts and showed the ambassador her petticoats, stockings, and garters. It is interesting to contemplate what else she might have shown him, as underpants were not worn. Whatever he saw, the ambassador was evidently delighted. In his official report to the foreign office in Paris, this worthy gentleman lavished ample praise on Nell’s undergarments “and certain other things that were shown to us all,”55 and proclaimed he had never seen anything “more magnificent.”56 SixLoving Profitably— The Wages of SinBeauty is potent, but money is omnipotent. —JOHN RAY, ENGLISH PROVERBS