"Fastentuecher" "The Veils of Fasting"

I mentioned these "Veils of Fasting" or, as they are also called
the "Veils of Hunger" in my little story about the Vice Bishop of Gurk, below.
Although this custom was first known in the 11th Century, it is still in use
in certain areas of Austria and Bavaria.
In Austria, predominantely in the Provinces of Carinthia and the Tirol,
one may find, between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday, the Altar(s)
covered by these artistically decorated cloths.
The story tells of the Altar, containing the tabernacle, being hidden from the view
of all present, who, of course, were all Sinners (with a Capital S)...
and therefore had to be deprived of the view of the Holiest of Holies....
Originally a simple piece of sack cloth was used, to make the Mass-goers
"hunger" for the view of the Altar.
Later a finely woven piece of material was painted on by local artists,
depicting various scenes of the story of Christ
and some of the martered Saints.

 

What has always puzzled me is why is Religion (mostly Christianity)
always so full of pictures of torture and killing and mayhem?
Why does it always show the worst of "Man's Inhumanity to Men" ?
Why is it  always about the worst aspects of "mankind" ?
Rarely, almost never, is it  about Love! Why not?
Why do we never see Christ hugging one of the women in his life?
These are not questions about Christ..
They are questions of what we did to His teachings.
How we depict his life. And that's not His fault.

Christ, I believe, was a good man. He was even a Great Man.
The people after him, were  small, powerhungry, greedy men,
out to control the mass of His followers.
And how to best control people ?
Instil them with feelings of Guilt and Fear.
Christian Teachings (as opposed to Christ's Teachings)
is built on those two elements: Guilt and Fear.
And that's how I control you:
If you feel guilty about some imagined wrong you did,
"Original sin", "desire for, and actual sexual contact"
(how cleverly the second strongest impulse in the human make-up is used)
and
if you fear the consequences of such aledged "Sins"
(Purgatory and Hellfire)
then you are most easily controlled.
Then you are most easily severed from your worldly goods.
And if I swindle you out of your "worldly goods" I am no better than a thief.

Hear, hear, I have digressed from my original presentation:
That of the "Veil of Fasting" or the "Veil of Hunger".

Quick...somebody explain all of this to me
Bertstravels.