Story of Two Boys: One from 2001 Years Ago and the Other from 1849

By Donald F. Megnin

This book centers on the influence of each boy in his historical period having been born the product of the rape of their mothers and the subsequent different life experiences each boy had as a consequence of how their mothers were treated during their early childhood experiences. Jesus was fortunate in having a father who took an interest in him and helped him in every way he could become the man he became. Gottlieb, on the other hand, had a tragic beginning, barely surviving the ordeal of not having a legitimate father and facing the constant harassment of a society that rejected the illegal children from unmarried mothers. The outcome for the life of each boy proved to be what he himself had decided to do with the life that he had!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Jul 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490758695

Donald F. Megnin

Donald F. Megnin, the son of German immigrants, was born in Syracuse, New York, and grew up on a dairy farm while attending Fayetteville Grammar and High School during the early nineteen thirties and early nineteen forties. He received a scholarship from a Syracuse Industrialist to attend Syracuse University. He not only received an AB degree but also went on to receive his MA and PhD degrees from the Mawell School at Syracuse University. He also attended the Boston University School of Theology and served a Methodist Church in the Syracuse area for part of the time while he was a graduate student at Syracuse. He taught international politics at Slippery Rock University (one of the fourteen state-owned universities of Pennsylvania) until his retirement in 1994. He has written ten books since retiring and continues to take an interest in politics and religion.

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© Copyright 2015 Donald F. Megnin.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4907-5870-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-5871-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-5869-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015906543

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Contents

Preface

Foreword

Two Boys From A Similar Start, Developed Differently

A Precocious Boy Is Born

For Both Boys, A Tragic Beginning

Rape In Another Form

The Early Experiences of Jesus

The Adult Gottlieb

The Outcome of Mary’s Pregnancy

Forming A Group of Followers

Jesus’ Messages, Such As People Had Never Heard Before

Professional Jealousy

Arrival in Jerusalem

The End of the Jesus of History and the Beginning of the Christ of Faith

Early Conclusions

And Another Little Boy…..

In Summary

And What Conclusions Can Be Drawn From These Comparisons?

Second Summary?

And the Final Summary Is……?

And Another Thought to Add to the Final Summary

Some Final Words About the Two Boys

An Interesting Linkage Between the Second Boy and the 20th Century

Preface

I N CONTRAST TO THE MYTHOLOGY of the origin and development of a boy names Jesus, I should like to present him as a historical figure of the early twenty first century B.C. growing up in Nazareth, Judea. Unfortunately, he was born in a time of little or no educational benefit to the local people. Less than one percent of the local people worldwide could read or write. They took for granted the leaders of their country telling them the truth and they merely had to trust them because they would give the real information concerning the lives, experiences, and realities as they were endured by all of the local people. Mary was fortunate in having her neighbor, Joseph, ready to marry her irrespective of how she had become pregnant. They were, subsequently, able to keep the pregnancy secret from the rest of the community in which they lived.

The illustration of Gottlieb, on the other hand, was just the opposite of that of Jesus with respect to what happened to his mother becoming pregnant. Her impregnator had gotten her so inebriated she had no idea what was happening to her. There was no local man who had taken interest in her to whom she could turn and ask for help. She had to live through her pregnancy and suffer the consequences without assistance from anyone, including her family, until her child became a man and was able to move away to a new community in which to settle and suppress unbelievable experiences through which he suffered.

Each boy endured experiences which were truly unique to each of them. The outcome for each man also became remarkable and unique. And with these words of introduction, I now invite you to read the story of each boy as it happened.

Foreword

T HE STORY OF THE TWO boys presented in this book are taken from the history of Jesus of Nazareth in 2100 B.C. and my grandfather, Gottlieb Megnin, from the middle of the ninetieth to the early years of the twentieth centuries. While the years are incredibly wide apart and the circumstances of their lives were greatly separated in the context of their families and the times in which they lived, it is an attempt to bridge the gap between these two boys whom, it is my belief, were both caused by the rapes of their mothers. As the author of a book which will no doubt be criticized as juggling the facts of history as we were taught them, I should remind you that the era of the life of Jesus was one in which mythology was accepted as truth and the stories told about Jesus as well as the other notables of religious history were laden with projections of life on earth and heaven as though they were co-existing simply one door step away from the life of the average human being who was living in that era. Those persons who were designated as the leaders of the peoples of their times (Chiefs, Kings, Dukes, Rabbis, Priests, Bishops and Heads of generations of tribes) were looked upon by the rank and file members of their times as composing the societies of their day. They were illiterate, uneducated, followers of their self-selected leaders, in which it would have been difficult to determine if even less than one half of one percent of the population could read or write! In other words, the rulers of these early societies could determine what their rank and file members of their tribes would accept as truth whatever their leadership told them was the truth! Even in the nineteenth century the vast majority of the world’s population was illiterate and believed whatever their leaders told them was the truth!

If you still find persons who believe that churches should be called The Church of the Immaculate Conception or The Church of the Savior, you may still find examples of a carry over from the ancient times as we still find the language of centuries long past holding tightly to the edifices of the present.

Two Boys From A Similar Start, Developed Differently

W HEN I READ THE STORIES of how the recent Pope Benedict XVI had tried to absolve himself for not having taken the responsibility of separating bishops and priests from their parishes who were the instigators of the sexual exploitation of children while in charge of their parishes when he was a cardinal, the question of authority became a very pungent and important issue for those of us who have served in parishes as ministers.

First, the question of authority is and has been a crucial issue for those of us who seek truth before belief, honesty before the protection of status, justice before self-serving excuses, integrity before convenience, and the application of scientific testing of long held suppositions in place of respect for persons simply because they hold highly placed positions, and begin to apply reason to each and every role played by individuals whether by tradition, election, or illegal seizure of power.

Second, the history of humankind has been irregular at best and blatantly exploitative at worst, depending upon which individuals or authorities were in power. It has taken thousands of years for human beings to recognize their limitations and the impact which such limitations can have upon them and around them. Even today we still find religious authorities who take belief by virtue of the status assigned to them.

It is incredible that a pope could still believe his bishops, priests, nuns and he himself should remain celibate because an earlier pope wished to cleanse the Catholic Church of nepotism. The sons of earlier popes thought they should succeed their papal fathers as princes of the church who followed their father kings in natural succession. It is the consideration of this author that had the pope renounced celibacy both for himself and his religious cohorts, there would not be such a dearth of clergy to fill the millions of parishes around the globe. The caveat, however, is that such persons would still wish to perpetuate the prevailing myths and untestable beliefs which continue to be the mainstays of their religion. Even the current incumbent Pope is still supporting the limitation of men only as clergy even though he has undertaken to focus upon the needs of the poor as his major message to the world.

Third, the beginning of every religion (Hindu, Buddhist, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, and Mormonism) was started by persons of high status who simply stated to the uneducated, illiterate and subservient masses what they had written is the Word of God, the founder of their religious traditions, or exploiting their status as a means for the self-perpetuation of positions for their offspring or family for perpetuity. The positions assigned and occupied by the leaders of the faithful were devised, staffed and assumed to be their right as the most educated, wealthiest, and/or powerful in their respective communities of faith. If anyone should challenge these individuals who had designated to themselves these high positions or were appointed to these positions of authority, such a person was soon exiled, imprisoned, or killed depending upon the leniency of the most powerful authorities of their day.

Fourth, what follows in these stories is an attempt to clarify and remove the traditional gloss and mythological components of the Christian Faith. Why anyone would want to embellish a truly remarkable, logical, and tragic beginning of the life of Jesus into a series of myths, legends, and incomprehensible beliefs is astounding to this writer. What religious authorities historically have done is create a mythological religion based on figments of their imaginations and their need to justify themselves by linking their beliefs with a host of symbols of a God up there in heaven. a God who is ever present, a God who was revealed in a man, a God who welcomes us to heaven upon our deaths, and what is even more incredible, men, women and children who have died for such a belief system which was taught them as the absolute truth without which their lives would be wasted and consigned to another figure known as satan and hell, another part of the myth, should they not believe what was being taught to them!

With these caveats in mind, the following stories may make more sense and allow you to consider who and what Jesus of Nazareth was and attempted to do, and the meaning his life may have tried to illustrate apart from the fantasy which ancient authorities have tried to impose upon us of who he was and what he tried to do.

Likewise, the story of another little boy, Gottlieb Megnin, is an attempt to reflect what happened to him as the boy known as the local bastard of his mother and the unbelievable tragedy of suffering he endured simply by virtue of the actions of his father who rejected any thought of acknowledging him as his son even though he was the man who had gotten his mother drunk and raped her while she was unaware of what was happening to her! The stories are significant because of the way in which each father behaved so differently in the given context in which they were involved. Joseph was the ideal father given the situation in which he found himself. Rutschman, on the other hand, the father of Gottlieb, was the epitome of an abusive, uncaring and ruthless man who cared only for what he found enjoyable to himself! He couldn’t care less for what became of his offspring!

What was remarkable about both boys is the way in which their lives were molded by their experiences. Jesus had an ideal relationship with his father (Joseph), and in the family in which he grew up. His own brilliance resonated as a consequence of his encounter with the Rabbinic Council of Jerusalem when he was a boy of twelve. His ability to question the Council Members was so brilliant, they strongly recommended to Mary and Joseph that he be given an education. Where he ran afoul of his own ability to capitalize on his brilliance was that he thought he could become more than he was by revisiting Jerusalem after he had established his religious leadership of his disciples only to run headlong into the Jewish leadership which simply was unwilling to recognize this self-proclaimed leader of a group of radical followers who were willing to do whatever he wished. Had he not decided to return to Jerusalem, he very likely would have had several more years of counseling members of the Jewish Community in Judea and Samaria. By attacking the Jewish money-changers in Jerusalem and over turning their money counters, he committed an act of outrage which even the most tolerant members of the Jewish Council could not sanction. He was characterized as a radical who threatened the very existence of Judaism’s monetary system! The result was that his followers chose to believe his message and, subsequently, rejected the message of the Jewish majority which continued even after his death with a belief system promoted by his followers which made him the Son of God, who could do no wrong, and was seated next to God on his eternal throne in heaven. And thus the myth has been perpetuated ever since which some of the major religious communities of the world have perpetuated ever since and whose practices are still reflective of this ancient myth promoted after the death of Jesus through his crucifixion. While his response to the two fellow victims of the crucifixion was remarkable, his followers created the beginnings of a religious mythology which is still found today. The two women who attended the crucifixion and began the myth of his resurrection because his body had been removed from the tomb, promoted the view that he was with God as his son and which is still held as a valid part of the religious history of various churches even today which is both remarkable and tragic. The fable is a reflection of the inability of persons at that time to distinguish between truth and fiction so that the two aspects of life have become so enmeshed that it is hard to differentiate between truth and fiction. The result is the co-mingling of fact and fiction so that the followers of each of the Churches that have arisen ever since that time can no longer differentiate between fact and fiction. Hence, our religious practices have evolved composed of certain known historical facts and crowded and covered with fantasy so that the modern day follower can no longer differentiate between the two components of fact and fiction of what has become the Christian Church of the 21st century!

A Precocious Boy Is Born

A ND NOW THE STORY OF the first boy who resulted in the