Man marries dog...

On the face of it, this is a pretty funny story:

NEW DELHI - A man in southern India married a female dog in a traditional Hindu ceremony as an attempt to atone for stoning two other dogs to death — an act he believes cursed him — a newspaper reported Tuesday.

P. Selvakumar married the sari-draped former stray named Selvi, chosen by family members and then bathed and clothed for the ceremony Sunday at a Hindu temple in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, the Hindustan Times newspaper said.

Selvakumar, 33, told the paper he had been suffering since he stoned two dogs to death and hung their bodies from a tree 15 years ago.

                        

Hilarious.

Sort of.

In actuality, this is no different than what many of us do. Whether it's giving to charity to make up for dissing that homeless guy way back when, or being nice to someone because they remind us of someone we mercilessly tormented back in school, or whatever... We find endless creative ways  to atone for our own sins. At least this guy is being conscious about what most of us keep unconscious.

The thing is, once you start on the atonement road, you find it's a cruel hamster-wheel indeed.
I mean, how many "nices" make up for one "cruelty"? 10-1? 20-1? Why does my conscience STILL torment me...

I read this story and instantly thought how good the good news of the Gospel would be to this man.
You don't have to atone for your own sins. In fact, you can't.

But Jesus can, and did.

And you really don't have to marry a freakin' dog...

Comments

[daniel]

Thanks for posting this. Makes me think of this interview with Bono from Christianity Today a couple years ago.

Bono: You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics—in physical laws—every action is met by an equal or an opposite one. It's clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the universe. I'm absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that "as you reap, so you will sow" stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I've done a lot of stupid stuff.

Assayas: I'd be interested to hear that.

Bono: That's between me and God. But I'd be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. I'd be in deep shit. It doesn't excuse my mistakes, but I'm holding out for Grace. I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don't have to depend on my own religiosity.