“The Beast”
By Jim Culp
October 25, 2022
When I was a kid around the
age of 11 or 12, my parents sent me and my older brother Dave to a Christian
School across town.
As part of our studies, we had
to memorize chapters from the King James version of the Holy Bible. When it
came my term, my teacher told me to “pick one myself.”
Well, that came easy for me.
The Old Testament (the first tome of the bible, and the recordings of many men
and women that allegedly wrote down the words of God… but through men and women)
was really boring. It was filled with all kinds of stuff, but nothing that
attracted a young Jamie Culp.
So, I opted to memorize Revelation
13: 1-18. It was cool, and had some exciting stuff rather than boring tales of
gardens, guys with leprosy, and a God that brought swift judgement on any wary
soul that crossed his commandments.
So I sat in my little cubicle,
and starting memorizing.
There are 15 more verses, but
they all point to a “beast” that would do some serious damage (as ordered by
Satan; God’s enemy)
The guy that was writing all
this down was allegedly the last of the disciples of Jesus the Christ. He was
called John of Patmos, because the isle he had been exiled to was called
Patmos. The Emperor Domitian had made that call because John was making trouble
for the Empire. Much later on, John was called “Saint John the Divine.”
Anyhow, John saw things that
would happen in the distant future, and he wrote all of them down. You can read
about them yourself; the Book of Revelation is that last book of the Holt
Bible. If you can’t afford one, get online and visit https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/...
No internet? Visit a library to
rent one or a Mormon church; they will give you one for free.
Fast Forward to 1977. This
school was part of a church, and most of them were. My parents sent us there because
I guess they figured that attending church three times a week was not enough. So,
every morning, we’d board a bus at our church, and it would take us to the
other one where the school was.
On one particular day, Mrs. Berg
stopped at my cubicle, and asked how my memorization assignment was coming.
“Pretty good, Ma’am.”
“And what does this chapter tell
you about the subject?” she inquired.
“Um…we’re all screwed?”
“She laid her hand on my head
and softly said in my ear. “Um, that is vulgar, and you’re getting a swat for
that.”
Let me digress a bit. A “swat”
at that school meant being smacked in the rump with a six-foot boat oar. Yeah,
that’ll teach me.
So off I trudged to the principal’s
office, and received my punishment, then a language lesson.
“James, the word “screwed” in
the context you used it means F-U-…you know the rest.
“It does?!” I exclaimed.
“Yes sir!” he replied.
Well, the rest of that year
went ok. We moved to Silver City to the same kind of church school, just
smaller.
In due time, the Beast would
come to me in my dreams. It horrified me and made me be a good boy for a few
days. The senseless diatribe of established and fanatical religion had taken
control of another kid. The Beast would stay with me until 2003, when I removed
religion form my mind, and buried myself in other subjects. Life would be much
better now. That year I only had to fight one war, not two. My mental palate no
longer had that monkey on my back. Believe me, I needed my whole brain and
mental fortitude to do my job and get all my boys home.
To LTC John Killigan: Thank
you for your guidance, Sir. I am proud to call you brother.
-Jim
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