Chapel
A chapel is a lovely space. Cool, quiet, reflective. The chapel at the University of the West Indies‘ campus in Kingston, Jamaica is fringed with palm trees and the favorite venue for society weddings. When the Petchary visited King’s College Chapel in Cambridge a few years back, its flying arches of stone took her breath away. And the choristers’ voices rose up like flowers. The Petchary’s son has often spoken of the artistic glory that is the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo’s masterpiece, which he visited on a tour of the Vatican.
The leaping columns of King's College Chapel
Yes, we can float away among the columns encrusted with gold, the intricate designs like embroidery on the wall of a mosque, the glowing stained glass windows. We can find, as the Petchary did on one vacation, astonishing art in the dark corners of every church in Venice. It’s a positive magic carpet ride, that may include the slender minarets of Istanbul‘s Blue Mosque, the weight and wonder of the Vatican buildings, the ornate scripts and beautiful language of the Torah and the Psalms. The Petchary is particularly fond of Rachmaninov‘s “Vespers” and often reads Khalil Gibran‘s “The Prophet,” and never tires of them.
The floating minarets of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul
And yet, these works of art, although inspired by various religious beliefs, can be admired as exquisite expressions of the human spirit alone, can’t they? What do they really have to do with organized religion? Moreover, as a writer to the “Jamaica Observer” comments today, “The evidence is that there is no need for a person to subscribe to a religion to become spiritually developed.”
The writer, Dr. S. Victor Evelyn, is worried about the planned construction of a chapel on the University of the West Indies campus in Cave Hill, Barbados, with the expressed intent of strengthening the spiritual development of the students. His concern is that the chapel will simply strengthen the religiosity of the campus, with a particular bent towards Christianity, thus indoctrinating the students rather than guiding them towards spiritual enlightenment. A university, argues Dr. Evelyn, should encourage an opening of the mind, a healthy skepticism and a willingness to embrace all points of view… Isn’t that what the word university means?
The very attractive little chapel at the University of the West Indies' Kingston campus
Dr. Evelyn takes his argument further. He suggests a Museum of Religion instead… a no-holds-barred historical exhibit that documents the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition, the barbarism of the Crusades, the hatred of Northern Ireland, the brutality of sharia law and the mindless slaughter of suicide bombers.
Indeed, the Petchary agrees with him that organized religion has not just inspired works of art – which can be viewed as simply art – but also racism, cruelty, prejudice, extreme human rights abuses… and yes, wars, both civil wars and bloody conflicts between nations. The Petchary vividly remembers an incident when, as a student at Oxford, she was entertaining a group of children from Belfast, who were on an exchange to escape from the nasty situation there in the 1970s. One ten year-old’s first question was, “Are you a Catholic or a Prod?” The Petchary was lost for words. And what was the correct answer, anyway? A trick question, indeed.
For God and Ulster - "Thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them"... Hate in Northern Ireland, beautifully painted on a wall
Yes, organized religion has done us proud.
And the Petchary was taken aback a few days ago when, on entering the reception area of a Jamaican government ministry, she was confronted with a large frieze on the wall, exhorting all visitors to “embrace Jesus.” This is the same kind of thing as the proposed chapel-building. So is the recital of a prayer before meetings of any kind, which has become almost de rigeur. Those people at the meeting, whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, atheist or agnostic, have no choice but to murmur “amen,” or else they appear churlish.
Perhaps the answer is to have a Museum of Religious History that honestly depicts the dark side of organized religion (which we cannot and must not deny) and the kindness and benevolence it has also inspired. In other words, the two sides of human nature, the Yin and the Yang.
This medieval artist knew plenty about Good and Evil...especially Evil (from the Garden of Earthly Delights)
Well, and perhaps all this good and evil stuff would have happened anyway, with or without religion – but didn’t the religion add that extra spice? Didn’t the Spanish torturers go about their work with added zeal because God was on their side? Doesn’t Allah give the bomb-makers extra special skills, and patience?
The Petchary’s appeal is… I am happy for you that you are attached to an organized religion, if it gives you comfort. But don’t tell me that makes you a better person than me. And don’t assume that it’s OK to force your beliefs on me, either. If I don’t want to close my eyes and fold my hands piously, or dress in my Sunday best to spend hours in church, I am not a wicked person, nor am I to be pitied. Oh, and by the way, the Haitians aren’t “wicked” either because they “believe in voodoo” and are not Christians the way Jamaicans are. (Which country has the highest murder rate, I wonder, if we are talking about wickedness?)
Going back to those beautiful chapels…Thanks to Dr. Evelyn for these words: ”For too long we have also been seduced and mesmerised by the cultural beauty associated with religion: the magnificent music, architecture and art. But beauty and truth are different muses. Excellence of the one does not imply excellence of the other. The magnificent Hagia Sophia Church, still standing today, was built in Constantinople by the same Christian Emperor Justinian who ordered the bloody purge of 532AD. When beauty is used to promote an ugly falsehood, she is being forced into the role of a harlot.”
You brought us down to earth, Dr. Evelyn.
Father Junipero Serra, called by some the "Father of California," bringing his organized religion and along with it, of course, "Civilization" as we know it
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