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cleanhippie

(19,705 posts)
Sun May 25, 2014, 12:19 PM May 2014

Why Jesus Would Have Hated Most Modern Day Religion

A leper came to Jesus and said, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” If Jesus had been a good religious Jew, he would have said, “Be healed,” and just walked away. Instead, he stretched out his hand and touched the leper, saying, “I do choose. Be made clean,” even though he was breaking the specific rules of Leviticus. Two chapters teach that anyone touching a person with leprosy is contaminated.

Jesus certainly was not a “Bible believer,” as we use that term in the post Billy Graham era of American fundamentalist religiosity that’s used as a trade-marked product to sell religion. Jesus didn’t take the Jewish scriptures at face value. In fundamentalist terms, Jesus was a rule-breaking relativist who wasn’t even “saved,” according to evangelical standards. Evangelicals insist that you have to believe very specific interpretations of the Bible to be saved. Jesus didn’t. He undercut the scriptures.

The stories about Jesus that survived the bigots, opportunists and delusional fanatics who wrote the New Testament contain powerful and enlightened truths that would someday prove the undoing of the Church built in his name. Like a futurist vindicated by events as yet undreamed, Jesus’ message of love was far more powerful than the magical thinking of the writers of the book he’s trapped in. In Jesus’ day the institutions of religion, state, misogyny and myth were so deeply ingrained that the ultimate dangerousness of his life example could not be imagined. For example his feminism, probably viewed as an eccentricity in his day, would prove transformational.

Jesus believed in God rather than in a book about God. The message of Jesus’ life is an intervention in and an acceleration of the evolution of empathy. Consider this story from the book of Matthew: “A woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, ‘If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.’ Jesus turned and saw her. ‘Take heart, daughter,’ he said, ‘your faith has healed you.’ And the woman was healed at that moment.”

http://www.alternet.org/why-jesus-would-have-hated-most-modern-day-religion
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Why Jesus Would Have Hated Most Modern Day Religion (Original Post) cleanhippie May 2014 OP
Gandhi said it best PumpkinAle May 2014 #1
I do hope the rest of the article is not as full of bullshit as Leontius May 2014 #2
No fuller than your response. cleanhippie May 2014 #3
You could fucking read it and find out. Act_of_Reparation May 2014 #4
That would require effort, and that's just silly! cleanhippie May 2014 #5
And the truly hilarious part is... Act_of_Reparation May 2014 #6
No this is the kind of article that no matter who posts it Leontius May 2014 #7
On the content of the article, I do not disagree. Act_of_Reparation May 2014 #8
I know what you're talking about Leontius May 2014 #9
Yeah, it is called "hyperbole" Act_of_Reparation May 2014 #10
Hmm trotsky May 2014 #11
Or maybe Late Roman Empire Leontius May 2014 #12

PumpkinAle

(1,210 posts)
1. Gandhi said it best
Sun May 25, 2014, 12:47 PM
May 2014

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

The "modern" evangelical right wing Christians are full of hypocrisy, bigotry, hate and lack of any compassion whatsoever - definitely Jesus would hate what they stand for and what they preach about.

Great article thanks for posting cleanhippie.

Act_of_Reparation

(9,116 posts)
6. And the truly hilarious part is...
Tue May 27, 2014, 08:44 AM
May 2014

...that is the kind of article that, had it been posted by somebody else, would have legions of liberal believers fawning all over it, deriding all of those "fake Christians" who "give Christianity a bad name". But, since you posted it, it is clearly bullshit.

Clearly.

 

Leontius

(2,270 posts)
7. No this is the kind of article that no matter who posts it
Tue May 27, 2014, 03:56 PM
May 2014

still would have the same bullshit in it. The second page in no way redeems the first it does attempt to try and provide a shiny cover for it but fails.

Act_of_Reparation

(9,116 posts)
8. On the content of the article, I do not disagree.
Tue May 27, 2014, 11:36 PM
May 2014

It is complete and utter bullshit.

But that's not really what I'm talking about.



 

Leontius

(2,270 posts)
9. I know what you're talking about
Wed May 28, 2014, 03:58 PM
May 2014

And sorry that's sorta bullshit too. Maybe a couple would do as you claim but "legions" come on.

Act_of_Reparation

(9,116 posts)
10. Yeah, it is called "hyperbole"
Wed May 28, 2014, 05:04 PM
May 2014

Or did you think I literally meant to imply 5,400 Roman soldiers take to the forums to fawn over such posts whenever they are made?

trotsky

(49,533 posts)
11. Hmm
Wed May 28, 2014, 05:16 PM
May 2014

cbayer has said it's fine to accuse other DUers of promoting genocide under the classification of "hyperbole," so you should be OK here.

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