Statue Of A Homeless Jesus Startles A Wealthy Community

[Swede Atlanta]

11. This is the nature of the total disconnect between Christ and his followers......

Most of the followers of Jesus' teachings over time have been poor and outcast. Of course there have been the very privileged clergy and church bureaucrats that have lived a life of luxury. But if you look back over the last 2000 years that is the case.

Today, however, we have secular communities of very wealthy individuals who attempt to justify their wealth through the concept of the prosperity Gospel. This is at least in some part the same community that used the Bible to justify slavery, child labor and certainly today homophobia.

These people have, no doubt, some form of religious faith. There are some like most of the televangelists who I believe are secretly agnostic or atheists but they see an opportunity to milk the meek and stupid of their money. But these with money have some form of faith...and I will give them that this is sincere.

The problem is they read, or don't read, the words of the New Testament and freak out. What? Jesus says it is easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter heaven? Jesus, their idol, hung out with prostitutes, the poor and hungry, the outcasts of society. What? That can't be right.

So they build a fantasy of cherry picking from the Old and New Testaments to justify their bigotry and practices of engaging in business practices that harm others.