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The Many Faces of Religion: excerpt from The Journey by Sara Niles

The Journey by Sara Niles Christmas edition 2013

The Journey is a narrative memoir of the life of Sara Niles and her children after having fled abuse. Niles includes the context of world events and social issues within the narrative of their lives from 1987-2011; the following is an excerpt that demonstrates the power and influence of religion in individual lives:

Excerpt

Chapter 8

The Many Faces of Religion

Throughout history, every nation and village system in the world, has used religious gatherings to form social circles and networks among neighbors. I grew up in the southern United States, deep in the Bible Belt where country churches were the bulwarks of the communities. It did not matter what the local issue of the day was, church was where the meetings took place and the people gathered.

It takes a wise person to be able to judge situations from all sides,  and to see them multi-dimensionally, and to be able to do this perpetually: in fact perhaps it takes special genius to do so. At that time in our lives, I did not possess the genius necessary to judge where the boundaries that limited my children’s freedoms should be. I lacked the balance needed to use religion wisely.  Religion was a vital and powerful force, which can be as useful as it can be dangerous, if not used in a balanced way. Karl Marx once said, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature… It is the opium of the people”, and though this famous saying has angered many a religious soul, it is a true statement nevertheless. Too much religion can indeed be like a drug of escape, for those who are trying to avoid the realities of a ‘dangerous’ world. Just as I found my way into religion as I perceived it at the time, I would find my way again. My children were simply my followers until they developed stronger wills of their own, and would then be free to chart their own paths in life.

SARA NILES: Books, Writing, and Social Issues: Children Dying from Abuse by Sara Niles

SARA NILES: Books, Writing, and Social Issues: Children Dying from Abuse by Sara Niles: Over Four Children a Day Die from Abuse In U.S. Hundreds of Thousands suffer from emotional abuse and neglect Books Written by former Chi...

Children Dying from Abuse by Sara Niles

Over Four Children a Day Die from Abuse In U.S.
Hundreds of Thousands suffer from emotional abuse and neglect

Books Written by former Child Abuse Victims top the charts
Damaged by Cathy Glass
A Child Called It by David Pelzer
Betty's Child by Donald Dempsey
Betty's Child by Donald Dempsey
Breaking Night from "Homeless to Harvard" author, Liz Murray

The Torn Trilogy By Sara Niles

Quote from Torn From the Inside Out

Torn From the inside Out

“For the next half decade, I lived on the ‘flower bed of Eden’, as Cousin Andrew called it.  The days were never long enough; perhaps that is why I hated to sleep.  Seasons came and went in a panorama of delight.  The record ice storm of the early 1960’s was a great memory to me as a small child, as I watched the storm through steam fogged windows, warm and snug, as the loud popping of snapping pine trees screamed with the howling winds. Nothing caused me to fear those years, because I felt perfectly safe, as I expected I always would”

The Torn Trilogy by Sara Niles

From: The Journey

The Journey

“When the dark night ended, a new day dawned for us when my children were still small, and the new day was a long as the long night had been, and in some ways, just as frightening”

“Love is one of the greatest human emotions and a powerful force in its own right, but even love cannot prevent some things from happening”

“Sometimes when you become so accustomed to loss, a new loss is only part of your usual ‘normal’”

“Our flight to freedom and safety was filled with a calm suppressed terror in the children and I, the type terror you have when you are used to living with danger

Quotes and Excerpts

From: Out of the Maelstrom

Out of the Maelstrom

“He was dead, alright. The sight of death is an ugly and fearsome thing, I thought, as I absorbed the tragic sight in front of me. It was a man, ‘The man’ , was lying in the road with blackish- red blood pooled around his head, and as he lay face down with his feet in his own yard, while his head and shoulders were planted in the street, he gave the appearance of  a killed animal felled in its tracks by a hunter. 

"Love is one of the greatest human emotions and a powerful force in its own right, but even love cannot prevent some things from happening”

“Sometimes when you become so accustomed to loss, a new loss is only part of your usual ‘normal’”

“Our flight to freedom and safety was filled with a calm suppressed terror in the children and I, the type terror you have when you are used to living with danger”

“Emotional breakings are delicate to repair and even harder to decipher. I was not smart enough, nor did I have the wisdom needed for such a job at that time”

“Ariel was the perfect emotional adapter when things went wrong, but she was not amenable to life when things went right. It seemed her coping mechanism was geared towards trouble”

The Journey by Sara Niles

Torn From the Inside Out Sara Niles

“In every life there is a timeless and unforgettable minute or day that will be forever etched into our mind’s memory. I have unforgettable memories that are so vivid that I see them in Technicolor, and I hear them in surround sound”