Throughout the Poisonwood Bible, author Barbara Kingsolver uses Nathan Price as a representation of the dangers of combining religious fervor and power between evil hands. This is not to say that religion in itself is a bad influence, but that it has the potential to be if implemented in the wrong way - forced by judgment or focused solely on written rules specific rather than the ideology and true meaning behind them. he. Nathan is an impeccable example of the “dangerous hands” in which religious control should not be placed. He uses the Bible as a weapon, bludgeoning the people of Kilanga with his strict Christian beliefs rather than approaching them with flexible methods and ease of adaptation to their very different culture. One of the major flaws in Nathan Price's religious practice is his failure to recognize the true meaning of Christianity. Instead, it focuses only on the specific standards and rules laid down verbatim by the Bible, such as baptism or prayer, when it should embrace the spirit of religion, such as compassion, love and kindness. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayAn excellent illustration of this unconsciousness is Nathan's interaction with his family. Nathan always prioritizes his religious mission over his family, neglecting to show his wife and daughters the love and care they deserve. Orleanna Price, Nathan's wife, often informs the reader of his neglect through her account of how he treated her throughout their marriage. Before her marriage to Nathan Price at the age of 17, Orleanna was a bright, passionate and ambitious young girl living in Mississippi. Once married, she loses almost all sense of will and becomes an obedient, passive housewife. Orleanna is undermined by the higher priority of her husband's religion to the point that her actions towards it are not simply neglect, but disgust; “He was deeply embarrassed by my pregnancies. According to his way of thinking, these were undeserved blessings, and furthermore, each one again called God's attention to the fact that I had a vagina and he had a penis and that we had brought them together. enough to conceive a child” (Page 198, Orleanna). Nathan does not view reproduction with his wife as a beautiful and blessed event, but rather as a shameful action in the eyes of God. Nathan's neglect doesn't stop with his wife; this results in a lack of care for his entire family. When the Congo became a politically unstable state in the midst of the war, the Mission State wanted to remove the Price family from the country and bring them safely within American borders. However, Nathan chose to disregard the mission state's advice and fought against his family's desire to listen to it; “Mother tries to explain to him day after day how he puts his own children in danger, but he won't even listen to his own wife, much less his simple eldest daughter” (Page 176, Rachel). He risks losing his entire family simply to pursue his goal of spreading Christianity across the Congo. Some may see this as a selfless and humble decision, but Nathan did not make this decision because he believed the Congolese people needed faith; he did it to satisfy his own need to succeed in the propagation of the Christian faith. Additionally, Nathan continues to demonstrate that his religion is a higher priority than that of his own family afterthe death of his daughter Ruth May Price. In immediate reaction to Ruth May's death, Nathan Price exclaims, "She wasn't even baptized yet" (Page 368, Nathan), in shock. The loss of a child usually causes a traumatic emotional response; however, Nathan only expressed concern that he had not fulfilled his personal religious mission. The family had passionate and devastating reactions to the death of Ruth May - "As long as I kept moving, my grief flowed behind me like the long hair of a swimmer in the water. I knew the weight was there but it didn't touch me. It was only when I stopped that the dark, slippery material came floating around my face, grabbing my arms and my throat until I began to drown” (Page 281, Orleanna) – and the crying deeply, Nathan persisted in using his death to fulfill his desire. ultimate goal of baptizing the Congolese. His lack of a natural, humane response to his daughter's death shows his selfishness and unnecessarily low priority for his family. Additionally, Nathan's comment after Ruth May's death: "She wasn't even baptized yet" (page 368, Nathan), is a sign of his hypocrisy as a "devout Christian." Nathan regularly preaches the importance of baptism to all Congolese people, but he has never baptized his own daughter. This brings us to discuss the religious hypocrisy that persists strongly in today's society, whether it is a massive scandal or a quiet but tangible group of offending Christians. For example, the Holy See of the Catholic Church released information in 2010 that nearly 3,000 priests had been the subject of sexual abuse allegations over the past fifty years. The Bible clearly states: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals” (1 Corinthians 6:9). As a secondary example, another major problem with the imposition of beliefs by religious institutions on members of society is Planned Parenthood and the use of any form of contraception. Due to clerical celibacy, a priest is not allowed to marry or have children. Therefore, he does not experience the struggles and difficulties of supporting a family. For priests to preach to the faithful that they should not divorce or use any form of contraception is simply hypocritical. They are unable to understand the dynamics of life with a wife and children and the circumstances that create difficulty in following the strict standards of strict preaching of Christianity, such as not being able to financially support oneself. 'another child, leading to resorting to birth control, or having a relationship with your spouse so cruel that the two of you – and your children if applicable – are better off separated. It is easy for a single man without children to preach abstention from forms of birth control, sex, and divorce because he never faces these issues. Although this story took place in a different time, Kingsolver highlights these flaws in Christian institutions through the actions and characteristics of his characters. Continuing Nathan's inadequate preaching methods, his goals of spreading Christianity are so focused on salvation, such as heaven and hell, that he is oblivious to the real problems of reality that lie right in front of him. him and makes no effort to pay attention to it. like a true missionary would do. For example, Mama Tataba tells him that people from Congo do not want to be baptized in the river; “She [a girl fromvillage] was killed and eaten by a crocodile. They never let their children set foot in the river. Not even to be washed in the Blood of the Lamb” (Page 81, Leah). Even after learning that a child had recently lost his life there and that the people of Kilanga would ultimately refuse to enter the waters to be baptized, he did not change his approach but simply persisted in preaching the importance and necessity of baptism and that the river is the only appropriate place to do it. Overall, Nathan Price is a harsh, rigid and inflexible preacher who has no desire to adapt to Congolese culture. He remains unable to acclimatize to his new environment, which hinders his religious influence on the population of Kilanga. Throughout history, he does not attempt to modify his methods for the better of the Congolese people; “he confronts and attempts to change a people he does not understand” (Purcell). He is unable to adapt to a new environment and culture and is not propagating Christianity in the correct way to have the greatest effect on the Congolese religiously, failing to refrain from influencing the their entire ideology, their culture and their way of life in general. His daughters understand their father's difficult nature very well, as Leah explains: "Everything that you know is right can be wrong somewhere else." Especially here” (Page 505, Léa). Although this quote refers to the specific linguistic differences between English and Congolese, it has a deeper meaning and is widely applicable to her father and his unyielding practices. Furthermore, Nathan is convinced that his ideas are superior, even when he is wrong. concrete evidence and valid facts. His very first action in Kilanga, attempting to cultivate the land, is a perfect example of his righteousness. Although his method has been shown to absolutely not work. Nathan refuses to listen to Mama Tataba's advice regarding growing and planting seeds correctly. He hurriedly continues planting in the garden: "He bent down and began to pull up long handfuls of grass with quick, forceful jerks as if he were tearing out the world's hair" (page 36, Leah), showing his trouble by being proven wrong and his stubbornness in refusing to admit he was wrong. He ends up killing all the crops and wasting time and resources, harming everyone else in Kilanga but feeding his own ego because, in his mind, he was right again. This is a static characteristic of Nathan that has been foreshadowed throughout the book by his family: "It is harder to imagine a mortal more reluctant to change course than Nathan Price" (page 96, Orleanna) . Likewise, Nathan refuses to listen or consider the opinions of everyone else and only seeks the mission God has sent him. This relates to him using God and religion to exercise his arrogance and need for control to show that he is right and that everyone else's opinions are inferior. As stated previously and repeatedly, Nathan is a very arrogant, critical and naive man. . He uses his religious mission to satiate himself by making him feel higher and feeding his arrogance through his ability to be condescending to those who are "unsaved." He is too focused on his own salvation that he doesn't really care about the salvation of other people's souls or their well-being, but only the prosperity it will bring him if he succeeds in his mission. He allows himself to be convinced that the way to secure his place in salvation is to convert as many souls as possible to Christianity, although this is not necessarily the direct meaning of Christianity. As his daughter explains, “The father only needs the. 2016.