by Bernadette L. Wagner
One of the best resources I’ve discovered, thanks to a conversation with a local playwright and media personality some 12 years ago, is Barbara Walker’s, The Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. It’s a veritable tome of women’s history (herstory) to which I turn time and time again.
Last week, when I opened said tome to research a poem, a paper fell out and fluttered to the floor. On the scrap of paper was a quote I had written out. I often do that with quotes that capture my attention. I wasn’t surprised then, when the quote came to me last night after the English language leaders’ debate. From Gregory of Nanzianzus (329-389):
A little jargon is all that is necessary to impose upon the people. The less they comprehend, the more they admire. Our forefathers and doctors have often said, not what they thought, but what circumstances and necessity dictated.
[in Doane, T. W. Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions, Truth Seeker: 1882, as cited in Walker, Barbara G. Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, HarperCollins: 1983, p. 211.]
In prefacing this quote from St. Gregory, Doane said, It was a common thing among the early Christian Fathers and saints to lie and deceive, if their lies and deceits helped the cause of their Christ.”
Apparently, it is also common hundreds of years later to help the cause of the Stephen Harper Party.
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Crossposted at rabble.ca/election
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