MATHETΩN

In Jesus and the Envoys’ time, slavery was everywhere and they used it, and its related customs, laws, and emancipation, as a central image — probably the central image — of their teaching. Nowadays we have no slavery and very little idea of it. What could serve as a nowadays analogous image in our teaching? As I puzzle this out, as I look around me, my mind turns more and more to — addiction …

According to a survey by a financial-news network in 2006, 20 percent of American men described themselves as “addicted to pornography”.

By comparison, in a recent poll conducted by a Christian news organization, almost 50 percent of “born again” respondents described themselves as addicted.

Further, in an internal study, Christian übermenschen group Promise Keepers found that 53 percent of their members are self-described pornography addicts.

“Fear is the drug that you push: / Well, I’m a truth addict — / oh, shit, I’ve got a head rush!”