Information on working terriers, dogs, natural history, hunting, and the environment, with occasional political commentary as I see fit. This web log is associated with the Terrierman.com web site.
Thursday, November 16, 2017
Jesus Wept
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are pretty liberal. Of course you would have to read them to know that
Yeah, these Gospels are just so liberal, I mean, just to take Luke as a example, it says every first-born male is holy to god, but not females (2:23), any city who does not receive the followers of Christ will be destroyed and its inhabitants thrust down to hell (10:10-15), says that God is like a slave-owner who beats his slaves "with many stripes" and cuts them in pieces (12:46-47), say slaves should do what they're told (17:7-9), says that God is like an unjust king who takes what is not rightly his, reaps what he didn't sow, and has those who don't want to be ruled by him slaughtered in front of him, a parable that also says "Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds. (And they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds.) For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him" (19:12-27), and a lot of other lovely lessons, not only in this Gospel but in all the others. Calling them "pretty liberal" isn't just pushing it, it's nonsense.
Francis is a fraud. Accepting the reality of climate change and not hating gay people quite as much as most of his kind isn't enough to make him a liberal.
All religions are inherently conservative in that they are not going to salute quick change.
Part of their function, it can be argued, is not to run off with fads.
That said, the core message of the New Testament is "DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU" and to 'TURN THE OTHER CHEEK" rather than engage in an eye-for-an-eye battle to death as in the Old Testament.
The Old Testament is an Iron Age book with a God that was created by man in an attempt to describe flood, famine, feast, fire, disease, war, etc. The result is a passive-aggressive, petty, and vengeful God who is nearly psychotic if you think too much about him.
The New Testament is a book about the relationship of people to each other within society, rather than to natural and mysterious forces. It's a different message, and has a different God of (more or less) love.
Having said that, the Gospels are also the story about moving from the Iron Age Old Testament rules to the new ones delivered and defined by Jesus.
You start with a passage from Luke, but you KNOW that that passage references the fact that Jesus was born a Jew, lived a Jew, and died a Jew and so that the OLD law covered much of what he was born into and what he had to operate around and within for most of his life.
The Gospels are, of course, also a story about a religious cult (that's what Christianity was) starting off on the edge of society and finding its way as both business and organization, message, and messenger.
One can find and lift up the broken bits, which is fine, but the essential message is still the same: feed the poor, health care for the sick, take care of each other, pay your taxes, engage in charity, don't acquire wealth, etc.
Those are, in this world, very liberal values.
The New Testament says nothing about gays, does not mention abortions, does not forbid priests from marrying or being women, etc. All of that is Middle Ages stuff.
2 comments:
Yeah, these Gospels are just so liberal, I mean, just to take Luke as a example, it says every first-born male is holy to god, but not females (2:23), any city who does not receive the followers of Christ will be destroyed and its inhabitants thrust down to hell (10:10-15), says that God is like a slave-owner who beats his slaves "with many stripes" and cuts them in pieces (12:46-47), say slaves should do what they're told (17:7-9), says that God is like an unjust king who takes what is not rightly his, reaps what he didn't sow, and has those who don't want to be ruled by him slaughtered in front of him, a parable that also says "Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds. (And they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds.) For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him" (19:12-27), and a lot of other lovely lessons, not only in this Gospel but in all the others. Calling them "pretty liberal" isn't just pushing it, it's nonsense.
Francis is a fraud. Accepting the reality of climate change and not hating gay people quite as much as most of his kind isn't enough to make him a liberal.
All religions are inherently conservative in that they are not going to salute quick change.
Part of their function, it can be argued, is not to run off with fads.
That said, the core message of the New Testament is "DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU" and to 'TURN THE OTHER CHEEK" rather than engage in an eye-for-an-eye battle to death as in the Old Testament.
The Old Testament is an Iron Age book with a God that was created by man in an attempt to describe flood, famine, feast, fire, disease, war, etc. The result is a passive-aggressive, petty, and vengeful God who is nearly psychotic if you think too much about him.
The New Testament is a book about the relationship of people to each other within society, rather than to natural and mysterious forces. It's a different message, and has a different God of (more or less) love.
Having said that, the Gospels are also the story about moving from the Iron Age Old Testament rules to the new ones delivered and defined by Jesus.
You start with a passage from Luke, but you KNOW that that passage references the fact that Jesus was born a Jew, lived a Jew, and died a Jew and so that the OLD law covered much of what he was born into and what he had to operate around and within for most of his life.
The Gospels are, of course, also a story about a religious cult (that's what Christianity was) starting off on the edge of society and finding its way as both business and organization, message, and messenger.
One can find and lift up the broken bits, which is fine, but the essential message is still the same: feed the poor, health care for the sick, take care of each other, pay your taxes, engage in charity, don't acquire wealth, etc.
Those are, in this world, very liberal values.
The New Testament says nothing about gays, does not mention abortions, does not forbid priests from marrying or being women, etc. All of that is Middle Ages stuff.
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