This is my last Substack article (and why)

Time for YOUNG PEOPLE to STEP UP!!

First, I would like to warmly express my gratitude to Substack. I started writing articles and loading videos to Substack in 2022. Having been kicked off of Facebook (twice), Medium.com, and “warned” by YouTube, or whatever the hell YouTube bitched about, I came to Substack thinking that “Most likely, I’ll be booted off here too.” I even tested Substack by stating some stuff that Facebook would have deemed “inappropriate,” or outrageous. But Substack allowed all—every single one—of my articles and submissions to stay. Thank you, Substack, for defending free speech!!

Although I didn’t know it, at the time, my bitching career (a “righteous” bitching) started in the third grade, at Corpus Christi Grammar School, on Chicago’s south side, which was located near the southwest corner of South Park Avenue, which is now called King Drive. Again, as I said, I didn’t know, then, that a question that I asked Sister Mary Wencheslaus (Truth be told, I can’t remember her name, but it was some such Sister-Mary name) would be the question that launched my bitching career.

It was in Catechism class—Religion class. She had explained, to us students, the “love” that God had had for us, and how He “proved” his “love” for us by sending “His only begotten son, Jesus Christ,” to die, on the cross, for the sins of the rest of us; and that whoever did not accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior would “burn in hell forever.” To perfectly clarify what “burn in hell forever” meant, she said the following:

“The skin of those rejecting Jesus Christ will burn to the bone. And then, their skin will grow back again. And that layer of skin will burn to the bone. And the burning and growing back; burning and growing back; burning and growing back will never ever stop. It will continue forever!!!” Of course, it would all be done because God Loves us.

It’s not an exaggeration. That was pre-Vatican II Catholism. But to this day—even though I left Catholicism in 1968 and accepted Islam in 1975—I still cherish my former religion, Catholicism/Christianity, and I support the Traditionalist Catholic movement of today, which rejects the liberalist changes introduced after Vatican II.

But, getting back to the story. Well, instantly a thought occurred to me, and I asked a question. And I did not ask the question for the purpose of being smart-mouthed or attempting to disrupt the class. I loved my religion, though I could never grasp why God decided to kill his son, rather than commit suicide, instead, to effect His salvation plan.

“God so loved the world that He” sent his “only begotten son” to die on the cross as an atonement for the sins of human beings. It simply didn’t seem fair to me that God would send his son. Why couldn’t God have committed suicide, and then let his son take over as God? If dying for the sins of the world helped human beings, what difference would it make whether it was Jesus—God’s son—or God Himself?

It seemed to me that atonement would work either way, whether it was Jesus or his “Father,” God. And since it was God’s idea that someone be whacked to atone for the sins of humanity, it seemed a rather cowardly thing to do to send one’s own son, rather than oneself to earth.

Every Easter, it would depress me when I read, in the Bible, that Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemene, had begged his Father, God, to be relieved from the torture of being nailed to the cross to die for the rest of our sorry asses. Well, the nuns were like a “second mom,” as my dad was a single parent. They were important for my comfort.

I loved the rituals of Catholicism, such as the Latin Holy Mass. I loved the idea of being united in one Catholic “Body of Christ,” that is, the world Catholic population. I loved the stain-glass depictions of scenes of heaven—God, Jesus, Joseph, Mary, angels, cheribums, seraphims.

I loved the incense, the symbolisms, such as dipping one’s fingers in “holy water” before making the sign of the cross. I loved the idea of Holy Communion. I loved Novena candles, I think they were called. I felt very secure being part of a global family. That security was magnified immesely when, every year, the Principal of the school, through the Intercom, would announce, “Children, the Holy Father wishes you a Merry Christmas!!” Wow!! I was one of hundreds of millions, all together.

Well, getting back to Sister Mary. I repeat: I did not ask the following question for the purpose of being flippant. I thought about something that seemed the very height of injustice, although, in my young mind, the very word injustice was not particularly in my vocabulary at that time. I just felt, or sensed that which, as I got older, I’d equate to injustice. I raised my hand to be recognized. When she recognized me, I asked,

“Sister, but, what happens to the people who live on islands, who never heard of Jesus? Will they burn in hell too, for not accepting him?” Reader, and as my childhood friend, Ralph, would say, “I shit you not,” this is what Sister Whencheslaus answered:

I instantly burst out crying. Did she walk to my seat, have me stand up, and embrace me with a soothing hug—or anything? No. She just turned back to the blackboard.

JMG (Jesus, Mary, Joseph) Catechism. Courtesy, mlive.com

She continued teaching Catechism class after telling me that even people who lived on islands, who had never heard of Jesus Christ, would burn in hell for not “accepting” him. After that day, the doctrine of atonement was one I simply never thought about.

Time passed. I’m now in my Sophomore year in high school, at Hales Franciscan High School. It had been a rule that, if you ate meat on Friday that would place a mortal sin on your soul. And if you died with a mortal sin on your soul, you’d burn in hell forever. (Here we go again!!) I was sitting in Religion Class one day, simply pondering over something: The rule had changed. No longer would you burn in hell, if you had eaten some meat on Friday and then died before getting to Confession.

Still trying to understand my beloved religion—but no longer a little boy—I politely raised my hand and I politely asked what I felt was a logical and important question. And, again, when I asked the question, I was not trying to be smart-mouthed. I asked,

“Excuse me, Father, but I have a question. What happens to the people who are burning in hell under the old rule? Now that the rule has changed, will God send angels to hell so they can let the people who’ve been burning in hell under the old rule, out?”

Pin drop silence in the classroom. But, after no more than about 7 seconds, the entire classroom burst out laughing—except for the Religion Class teacher, Fr. Angus.

When the laughter died down, Fr. Angus, staring at me (and not smiling), said, “Are you quite finished with your question, Mr. Chism?” I answered, “Yes, Father.” He replied,

He kicked me out of the classroom and ordered me to go to the Principal’s Office. There, I was given what’s called “Detention,” which means that I would have to stay after school and be punished. After school, I was forced to clean every damned blackboard in the entire fucking school!! And for committing……..Blasphemy?? For asking a damn question??

I’m barely exaggerating when I tell you that, after that day, I damn-near became a Biblical scholar, taking every chance I could get to challenge Fr. Angus—for the next TWO YEARS—in Religion Class. At home, I’d pour through Biblical verses, finding contradictions; questionable things that “holy” men were said to have done, such as David, after seeing his neighbor’s WIFE sun-bathing on a roof, ordering that neighbor to war so that he, David—a so-called “righteous” man—could have the woman for himself.

Then there were a bunch of absurdities in the Bible, one example of which is the story of Ahaziah and Jehoram. I can’t remember which, but one was the father and one was the son. And, when you simply read the stuff about them in the Bible, you discovered the ridiculous absurdity that the father was YOUNGER than his son.

By my Junior year, I’d discovered something amazing. We’d been taught that Jesus had died on the cross. He hadn’t. And it’s right there in the Bible to this day. “Feel me and see that I am flesh and blood, for a spirit hath not flesh and blood as ye see me have.” He’d survived the crucifixion, physically.

It was not until seven years after I graduated that I bumped into the theory, promoted by the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam, that Jesus had survived the crucifixion, traveled to Kashmir, married a woman named Marjan, had children by her (the regular way), lived to be 120 years old, and was buried in the Kan Yar section of the capital city of Srinagar, Kashmir, India.¹ See footnote No. 1 for documentaries and books on the subject. I’d already known that Jesus had survived the crucifixion, because it was right there in the Bible.

Why, for instance, had Nicodemus gathered healing herbs—Aloe & Myrrh—to rub on Jesus’s body? It was forbidden for Jews to do anything to the body of a dead Jew except give it a ritual bath. No such ointments were rubbed onto the body of a dead Jew. Jesus was a Jew. It was clear why they were rubbing Aloe and Myrrh on Jesus’s body. All over the ancient world, Aloe & Myrrh were known as healing agents.

Well, again, technically, my bitching career—or what I should call my career of questioning, and not just rolling over and accepting everything I hear because it’s from someone called an “authority”—can be said to have begun in the third grade at Corpus Christi Grammar School, although, at the time, I was far from a combative person. I was simply trying to make sense out of Sister Mary’s apparent penchant for burning folks.

And here I am today, after having written five full-length books, two of which are still selling at Amazon, all of which, in one way or another, has a theme of addressing injustice. Here are links to those books, three of which can be read for free at Academia.edu:

Uncle Tom’s Uncle—First Edition
Uncle Tom’s Uncle—Second Edition
The Real Heresy of Pope Francis
Saving the Savior—Did Christ Survive the Crucifixion?
The Afrocentric Myth

You’ll see a couple of videos I produced there at Academia.edu also. Check ‘em out.

This is my last Substack article—number 1,000—because I feel that I’ve done my part. And I’ve been doing my part since April 5, 1968. I’m done. I hope that young people will take this world into their hands and make it much better than those before you have made it. My motivation for writing articles at Substack was to contribute and hopefully inspire. I feel that I’ve done more than enough, aside from having had four children, three of whom told me, to my face, that they owe their success in life to me.

I’ve done a lot, on an individual level, to help a lot of people over the decades. So, I just hope and pray that young people will take their lives into their hand, and tell the politicians to go…..(You can fill in the blanks). GOOD LUCK!! Oh, one more thing:

1. DOCUMENTARIES

• Jesus in India (Produced by Paul Davids)

• Jesus in Kashmir (Documentary produced by the Indian government)

• Did Jesus Die (Produced by BBC-Four)

• The Hidden Story of Jesus (Produced and directed by David Batty. Presented by Dr. Robert Beckford)

• Jesus in India (A presentation by Edward T. Martin)

BOOKS

• Jesus Lived in India - 264 p. (Holger Kersten)

• Jesus Died in Kashmir - 184 p.(Andreas Faber-Kaiser)

• Jesus in Heaven on Earth - 471 p. (Khwaja Nazir Ahmad)

• Jesus in India - 315 p. (Dr. James Deardorff)

• Jesus in India - 160 p. (Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

  • NOTE: This is the first book published on the theory of a post-crucifixion life of Jesus. Although the book is partially tied to the author’s personal claim to be “The Promised Messiah & Mahdi,” this book is must reading. It was first published in the Urdu language, in 1908, under the title, Masih Hindustan Mein, i.e, Messiah in India)

• Saving the Savior - 408 p. (Abubakr Salahuddin, aka, Ron Chism)

• The Tomb of Jesus - 60 p. (Sufi Mutiur Rahman Bengalee)

• The Lost Years of Jesus - 432 p. (Elizabeth Clare Prophet)

  • NOTE: This books examines the theory that Jesus spent those “lost years” of his life that are not accounted for in the Bible in “the Orient.” Some researchers, such as Ms. Prophet, believe that Jesus, between the ages of 13 and 29, went to India only before the crucifixion, some believe only after the crucifixion, and some believe both before and after the crucifixion. Ms. Prophet says that Jesus traveled to India, Nepal, Ladakh, and Tibet.