If we disobey the gods well be punished thought through history skit

Variations on the following thought have been believed and passed down from ancient civilizations to our generation today. There are other thoughts that have been passed down to us as well, but this skit focuses on the following belief -- If we disobey the gods well be punished. Setting Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Medieval Europe, Nazi Germany, Rwanda 1994, Present Day United States Pharaoh #1: Heavens! The rains havent come yet, and there is a famine in the land! People: (in unison) It must mean that you have done something wrong Pharaoh. It must mean that you have disobeyed the gods. Why else would this benevolent earth and our kind gods refuse us rain? They are refusing us rain because you have disobeyed them, and now we are all being punished. Pharaoh #1: But I didnt no oh no! People: Yes! You are the culprit and the cause of our draught and famine! Our gods are displeased with you and so are we. It is time for a regime change! (People remove Pharaoh #1) Pharaoh #1: (as he is being led off stage) Noooooo.! (Pharaoh #2 enters) Pharaoh #2: Ahh the years of regular flooding of the Nile has blessed our prosperous civilization. I must be doing something right. And so must my people. All of the elaborate and beautiful temples and pyramids that I have built with the taxes my bureaucrats have collected from the Egyptian people, all of the detailed and intricate worship practices we perform, and all of the time our priests and religious leaders spend taking care of our temples must mean that were pleasing the gods. They are blessing us with rain and prosperity in return. People: You are the gods representative on earth, Pharaoh. They must be pleased with you. We give you up to 50% of our wealth in taxes though it is non-monetary since coinage has not been invented to you and we love the temples and worship practices that you build from the wealth we give you. It allows us to worship the gods in ways that please them.

2007 Rachel Pickett Adapted from The Work of Byron Katie 2007. Gratefully used with permission.

Mesopotamians come on stage. Ancient Egyptians hand off the thought to the Mesopotamians as they exit stage. Babylonian King: Oh good people of Babylon, as you know I am the earthly representative of the gods of Babylon. Our gods are extremely temperamental People: (point at an imaginary flood approaching) Oh no! It is spring and here come the floods from the Northern Mountains! Babylonian King: Yes, well we do know that while our land is fertile because Mesopotamia is situated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, it is also subject to harsh and violent floods that cut off our communication and trade route systems with other cities. People: Are the Babylonian gods angry with us? Babylonian King: Perhaps. They may be punishing us because we have not worshipped them properly. So, we must make a much more fervent and diligent effort to practice our religious rituals! You must all donate gifts to our temple that is housed in the center of Babylon! And all of you who practice wayward ways such as theft and prostitution must stop immediately! Lest we all be punished because you are disobeying our gods! People from Medieval Europe enter stage. Mesopotamians hand off the thought to Medieval Europeans as they exit. Pope: Witches! Burn them! Burn themmmmm!!! People: We shall burn the witches then! Accused Witch: What?! No. This is ridiculous! Stop! Pope: Evil woman! Even now you are disobeying God. You are going against our instructions my instructions! And I am inspired by God. You do not question me or go against my words, for it means that you are disobeying God! And, the famines and the Plague that have tormented us are Gods wrath visited upon us due to your evil ways. You have sinned and gone against Gods will, so the Lord Almighty, He sends us disease and makes our land difficult to farm to punish us for your actions. Accused Witch: But I have not done anything wrong! I cast no spells, I possess no bodies, and I do not summon the dead. People: You lie! Liar! You perform dark, evil magic. You practice pagan, evil rituals. You have no husband or father to watch you to make sure that you do not stray. And you talk back to the Pope right now. Go to your death willingly that is Gods wish, that is obeying God. 2007 Rachel Pickett Adapted from The Work of Byron Katie 2007. Gratefully used with permission.

Pope: Yes. You speak against God when you speak against my orders. And my orders are that you are to be burned because you disobey God, and the punishments God is sending to us are the result of your actions. Everyone knows that witchcraft has been considered un-Christian since the 8th century A.D. Accused Witch: And tens of thousands of accused witches were executed between the years of 1450 to 1700. Germans and Jews living in Nazi Germany enter stage. Medieval Europeans hand off the thought to the Germans as the Medieval Europeans exit. Nazi: You darn Jew! You are the reason we lost the First World War. Jew: Huh?? What are you talking about? Nazi: I read all about it in Hitlers autobiography. They way that you Jews pretended to fight as soldiers for Germany and then on the front lines you turned and stabbed the German soldiers of pure Arian blood, killing them. Jew: We so did not do that. Nazi: Liar. Hitler would not lie. And we lost the war because of you Jew devils. Jew: But Germany is our land, our beautiful nation. I love Germany and would not want to harm her or you. Nazi: Hitler has warned us of your slippery, deceitful speech. God is on our side. He approves of what were doing. Were purifying the Arian race. We are the superior race, and we must get rid of you Jews as well as the other people who are not of true and pure Arian blood. When there was the assassination attempt on Hitlers life, he survived. This proves that God wants us to exterminate you, and that Hitler is holy. Rwandans enter stage. Germans hand off the thought to the Rwandans as the Germans exit. Hutu: You Tutsis are cockroaches. We must exterminate you. Tutsi: We are not cockroaches. We are people. Hutu: For centuries your people have been seen as better than us, and as having more fair skin. But now we all know you are nothing but cockroaches. It is our Hutu duty, our honor, to exterminate you. We will be dishonoring the Hutu, the power of the Hutu, if we do not rid ourselves of the cockroaches. Tutsi: And 1 million of us died. Then Tutsi rebels fought back and killed thousands of Hutus. 2007 Rachel Pickett Adapted from The Work of Byron Katie 2007. Gratefully used with permission.

Present day United States. Pat Roberson and Ellen DeGeneres enter stage. Rwandans hand off the thought to Pat and Ellen as Rwandans exit. Pat: You and your sexual deviance is the cause of 911 and hurricane Katrina! Every time you host the Emmys a huge national disaster strikes. God is punishing us all for your sinning, and this proves it. Ellen: So, let me see if Ive got this because Im a lesbian God sends hurricanes and terrorists? Pat: As punishment. And you are not a lesbian, youve chosen to sin and practice sexual deviance. It disgusts God. Present day U.S. Two people enter stage. Pat and Ellen hand off the thought to the two people, and exit. Person 1: Jeremy is such a handful! Hes doing horribly in school, and I think hes into drugs. Person 2: Oh no! Person 1: Yeah. Sometimes I wonder if I did something horrible in a past life to deserve this. Person 2: You mean bad karma? Person 1: Something like that. Why else would the universe give me this situation? I must have done something really wrong. Person 2: Or maybe Jeremy did something horrible in a past life? Person 1: Ha! Or hes doing it in this lifetime! Maybe hell have troubled kids and his karma will come back to him. Person 2: I guess we do the universe wrong sometimes sucks to be you right now.

2007 Rachel Pickett Adapted from The Work of Byron Katie 2007. Gratefully used with permission.