Once upon a time there was a coatmaker of unrivaled skill. No other man who had chosen to follow the noble trade could compare to this coatmaker. He made coats so lovely and soft that even the toughest of soldiers would smile boyishly when they put on one of the Coatmaker's wares. Even the king himself delighted in cloaking himself in the work of the skilled Coatmaker.
The Coatmaker had a good friend, a beggar. One year fall started to turn to winter, the icy winds began to creep towards their hometown, and the Coatmaker noticed that his threadbare friend was turning blue.
"Ah, my poor friend!" cried the Coatmaker, "He'll surely freeze to death if I let him stumble about without a warm coat! He hasn't the money to pay for a coat of his own, but I'll loan him one, the finest coat I've got in fact!"
And so the kindly Coatmaker scurried into his shop and found a shimmering, silken coat, the best he had. He then happily tried to hand it to his shivering friend.
"Oh, I couldn't! I can't afford this!" sighed the Beggar.
"You won't owe me a coin," said the Coatmaker. "This is to keep you warm throughout the winter. Just take good care of it and return it to me once the snow melts and the flowers bloom."
The Beggar, though hesitant to take such a gorgeous coat, accepted his friend's offer, seeing how much the Coatmaker wanted him to be properly cloaked during the cold months ahead.
And so the Beggar wore the coat all throughout the winter, every day for three long months. The coat, naturally, being worn every second of the day, was subject to abuse many times. It was stained, torn, and wrinkled. But the Beggar took care of the coat. He had every stain cleaned until it departed, personally sewed up every rip, and ironed it out until he had eradicated as many wrinkles as possible.
Of course there were occasions when repairs could only do so much, but by the time winter had come to a close and the flowers of spring were beginning to awaken, the coat was only a bit worn down, with a noticeably stitched up tear here or there. Nothing that couldn't be expected given the circumstances.
Still, the Beggar stayed up all night on the day before he was due to return the coat to the Coatmaker. He tossed and turned, worrying about every crease that the coat now possessed.
"Oh, I'm so horrible!" the Beggar wept. "I've ruined my friend's beautiful coat! Oh, he'll hate me now, I know it!"
But the next day, the Beggar rose early and went to the Coatmaker's shop. He trembled as though it were still winter as he handed the coat back to his friend and awaited the harsh rebuke he was certain he deserved.
But the Coatmaker took one look at the coat and a broad smile spread out across his face.
"My friend!" he cried, "You've taken such wonderful care of my coat! Thank you for being so thoughtful! Now why don't you come inside and have some tea?"
The Beggar at first could not believe his ears, but he swiftly smiled and cheerfully joined his friend at the table.
The Moral of the Story:
Many religious Christians believe in the concept of original sin, that humanity is naturally stained and imperfect and therefore needs a savior (Jesus) to absolve them of their sins. If you believe in this concept, fine, you're allowed to believe whatever you want and express your beliefs. I have no problem with you believing in something-but I do take issue with the belief itself.
There is a difference: I can object to a belief system on a personal or religious basis without hating or thinking less of the followers of said system. The concept of original sin is one such belief system: you might believe in it, but I strongly and respectfully disagree.
I'm not Christian, by the way: I'm Jewish. The Jewish Bible (the Tanakh) has no mention of such an inborn sinful state. In Judaism, we are born pure and whole, like the coat that the Coatmaker gave to the Beggar.
We are given a pure, undamaged soul and it's our job to take good care of it. Now, naturally, like the coat, we can't be expected to return it in a completely perfect condition-the Great Coatmaker in the sky knows that we're not perfect and He expects a few tears or stains to show up by the time we give it back to Him.
What matters is making sure that we give back the coat in as good of a condition as we can. There's no need to panic as long as you do everything in your power to make sure that coat, your soul, is unsoiled. You're not a horrible person, you're not evil: you're a friend and a borrower. Mend the tears, clean the stains as best as you can, and He'll be satisfied.
And that's my two cents. Hope you enjoyed my little allegory and before any of you ask, no, I will not be converting to accept Jesus as my god/savior/sin-detergent/whatever. It ain't happening.
No.
Nada.
Nein.
Nay.
Believe it or not, I'm not stupid, I have read the Bible (in the original Hebrew, no less), and I've made my choice on the basis of said Bible. I neither need nor want Jesus. So you…yeah, you, don't think I don't see you there! You, who's about to type six paragraphs about how Jesus loves me or how I'm gonna go to Hellfire-Darkfire-Be-Mine-Or-You-Will-Burn (six points to anyone who gets that reference)...
Stop.
Halt.
Cease.
Desist.
It won't work and you'll look like a jerk…I didn't mean to make that rhyme.
At any rate, please review (unless you still wanna try to convert me, in which case please don't review.)
Thanks for reading!