A Culture of Sacrifice

I came across a culture in my studies  once that deeply disturbed me.

As in ancient days, and the worship of Baal, this culture and its people worshiped a god called Fles. Fles taught that freedom, riches, and success were the keys to happiness, and anything was permitted in order to gain them.

Despite the freedom given to pursue happiness by any means, If one should find themselves unhappy, poor, or unsuccessful they were encouraged to sacrifice their children to the god Fles.  Children were known to have great powers over the life of an individual. The power that a single child held could change a life drastically for the better or for the worse.  The god Fles was pleased by nothing more than the offering of a child, who if sacrificed assured a happy and successful life.

Ritual sacrifices were held daily by the hundreds in ceremonies wherein the sacrificial priest, donned in priestly robes, face covered, tore the infant children away from the mother while she lay ceremoniously beneath the priest on a cold table, surrounded by unfamiliar instruments of sacrifice. The infant, unlike those sacrificed to the god Baal, were not burned alive in a golden ox as the parents sang and danced in the valley below.  Instead, the parents brought offerings of money to the sanctuary for the privilege of sacrificing their babies to the god Fles.  Their offerings bought a quiet, gruesome sacrifice of torn limbs and shredded bodies.  There was no dancing, no singing.

Other worshipers in this culture were known to bring offerings to the sanctuaries in exchange for the bodies of sacrificed babies.  Some used the bodies to create life saving potions, some for salves thought to beautify, others were studied; other times the bodies were simply burned unceremoniously outside of the temple.

It was thought in this culture that to sacrifice children was a great privilege and right.  And many offered up their babies to the god Fles to find, or to sustain happiness and success.

Those who did not serve the god Fles were aghast as those around them praised and worshiped and danced around the mothers who came to sacrifice their children on the alter of Fles.  They plead with the women, with those shouting supporters, only to be faced with fierce anger and hatred.  Many even begged the women for their babies, to save them from the death that awaited them.  Yet still, they were met with hatred.

Because Fles was not satisfied merely with the sacrifice of a child.  Simply giving up a child would never satiate the appetite of Fles.

Only death.

And the mad voice of those worshipers of Fles continue to cry "freedom".