“I am constantly amazed by man's inhumanity to man.”
― Primo Levi, If This Is a Man • The Truce
Auschwitz by https://unsplash.com/@lasmaa
I was watching a documentary about a religious group who excommunicate those who leave. Not those who commit serious Biblical sins like adultery, theft murder and the like, but those who simply leave to protect their mental health from unloving fellow worshippers. Cut off from former friends and family they travel a lonely path. Some resort to suicide.
Primo Levi in his book The Drowned and the Save wrote of the “grey zone” in Auschwitz. It would seem that the prison camp life would easily be divided into two blocs: the persecuted and the enemy. He wrote, “At least for the solidarity of one’s companions in misfortune” would offer some relief. But no, the camp was divided by multiple divisions and the enemy was everywhere. “The enemy was all around but inside as well”, he wrote.
"Nevertheless, even many of the rulers believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they didn’t confess it, so that they wouldn’t be put out of the synagogue" John 12:42