Acts Of Hate On Religion In The Autobiography Of Miss. Jane Pittman

We live in a world where people often constantly blame acts of hate on religion, so why is there a difference between ISIS and ‘Christians’ who slam people with hate speech or violent acts? In the Autobiography of Miss. Jane Pittman, Jane Pittman showed her faith in her God consistently. For example, the woman referred to as “the ornery Christian woman,” when she found Jane and Ned at her fence line asking for water, she told them,

“Don’t think I love niggers just because I’m giving y’all water, I hate y’all. Hate y’all with all my heart. Doing it because I’m a God-fearing Christian. I hate niggers with all my heart. Y’all cause of all this trouble, all this ravishing. Yankee and nigger soldiers all over the place stealing my hogs and chickens.

But they showed this faith and love in vastly different ways; Jane Pittman showed this by being tolerant and kind and used her faith as a way to manage the adversity she faced on a daily basis. The ornery Christian woman showed her faith by condemning children for nothing other than their race and threatening the same children with a senseless and brutally savage murder. She used her religion as a bolster to be horrifyingly rude to others. Not to mention that the only time religion was mentioned by this woman was when she was saying that she afraid of God and His wrath. This discredits any good this woman might do in the name of her God. Because when Jane might have done a simple task, just to be kind, the woman would have only done it because she was terrified of the punishment from her God if she did not. She showed her religion as an ominous thing, she took no solace in the love and tranquility Jane felt by following a religion so closely. On the other hand, Jane treated people well, not out of fear, but because of a genuine knowledge that religion was based off of treating people properly and being kind. Unlike the ornery woman, who seemed more like a shattered solider of Gods apocalyptic omniscience, than anyone who had experienced even a shallow pooling of

She was bitter and vengeful because her husband and her son had to go fight a war that she allowed herself to lose control of her life. She became such a cruel and vindictive woman that she had no problem threatening the lives of two little children. Throughout the book, Jane grows in her faith, she got to a point where she was going to church regularly and being a large positive part in her community. Although the ornery woman was not a character that was followed, it is hinted at that she did not do very well with being a positive and tolerant person within her community. Jane sometimes went to sit under a tree and talk to it, she appreciated the simple things in her life that would have been very easy for her to overlook. But she did not take these things for granted; she took them as reasons to be happy, kind and positive. Being kind was a very significant theme for Jane throughout her