Blog 2- Religion

One big issue in the story The Sledding Hill is religion. In this small town there are two main groups of people. One is the Red Brick Church group who follow a Reverend whose name is Stanford Tarter. And the second group is all the people who are smart enough to figure out that Tarter is full of crap.

This story follows a young boy named Eddie Proffit whose family never really went to church, that is until his father died and then his mother found some much needed support in the church. Now both Eddie’s mother and Reverend Tarter want him to get baptized. His mother believes that this will help him stay sane (because currently in the story she is very worried about his heath); where as Tarter believes that Eddie being baptized will help his grieving and might even solve his muteness problem. Eddie finally decides to get baptized, but this means that he will have to attend some bible study classes first.

The thing is that Eddie is not doing very well in these classes. With out his father or his best friend Billy (both of then died recently) for support Eddie has stopped talking what so ever (this really frustrates Tarter). Eddie also doesn't agree with everything that Reverend Tarter is saying in the classes. Eddies biggest issue is what Tarter says about the mark of Cain, and what it means.

The mark of Cain is a biblical story from the chapter of Genesis. It is about Adam and Eve’s two sons Cain and Abel. Cain was jealous of Abel because he believed that both his parents and God liked Abel better than him. So one day when Cain couldn’t take it anymore and he murdered his younger brother Able. As Tarter tells the story, God was so mad a Cain that he gave him a mark that everyone could see, so that everyone would know the terrible thing that he had done. (This doesn’t even really make any sense in the first place because there are supposedly only the four of them on the earth so everyone would already know who had done it.) When asked what kind of mark, the Reverend replies, “It's dark skin…, African Americans wear the mark of Cain.” (Crutcher 68)

Eddie defiantly does not agree with this. Their may not be many black people in Bear Creek to challenge Tarter but Eddie defiantly knows that Tarter has crossed a line. So he just simply stands up and walks right out of class. I defiantly agree with what Eddie did. Really, isn’t a pastor supposed to be teaching respect and stuff like that? I think that what Eddie did makes perfect sense and is what every other person in that class should have done.