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High Priest


                 Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people. And no one takes this honor on himself, but he receives it when called by God, just as Aaron was. (Hebrews 5:1-4)
                What would happen if we lived in a society that required animal sacrifice for sin? I toyed briefly with the question because the answer was obvious. They would rebel against the religion as being cruel to animals. It wouldn’t even cross their minds that to stop sinning. The fault, they would scream, is with the religion, not with themselves. The animals deserve life… but not at the cost of their bad behavior. 
                David Horowitz pointed this out in Dark Agenda. He was a friend of Christopher Hitchens, the renowned Atheist who proclaimed that religion poisons everything. Horowitz is an agnostic. He claims it is impossible to know whether or not God exists, but of Hitchens’ claim, he wrote, “On the contrary, since religion, as practiced, is a human activity, the reverse is true. Human beings poison religion, imposing their prejudices, superstitions, and corruptions onto its rituals and texts, not the other way around.” (p 18)
                Some people will complain that I am not high priest (they’re right) and that while we should all deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray (I agree), I don’t deal gently (or, if I do, it’s only with myself that I deal gently.) That is where I think we err. We are so pushed into identity politics that we see our sin as ourselves, and as our means of gaining power over others. 
                It’s easy to do, and we don’t have a sacrificial system to remind us that we are not our sins. I wouldn’t want to go back to that system, but I’m thinking this is a weapon I need to bring to bear on a few of the struggles I’m facing – perhaps it will silence a few of the voices screaming “Failure!” This is yet another reason why identity politics kills.

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