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Jesus, and his religious right rivals couldn't have been more different! |
[ The Scriptures are set apart by the color maroon and indentation.]
First, if there's one behavior that Jesus couldn't abide, it was sinners playing down their own sins while playing up someone else's. In this instance, the sin of one party (the adulteress) was being used by a second party (the even more sinful religious right hypocrites), to bring harm on a guilt-free third party (Jesus himself). Then, there's a point so obvious that Jesus may not have felt it even necessary to emphasize. But, as the father of seven daughters, I wish Jesus had asked these sanctimonious male accusers explicitly, "Was this woman alone at the time of this adultery?" And finally, there's the magnificent way in which Jesus turns the table on the hypocrites doing the accusing, and puts the judges themselves on trial : Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, sir." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again." In order to condemn those whose consciences do not condemn them for living life as gay, lesbian or transgendered people, some Christian clergy and enthusiasts feel compelled to quote and enforce little known passages of the Bible, whose meaning is far from clear. Likewise, in order to condemn those whose consciences do not condemn them for practicing birth control and/or aborting pregnancies prematurely, Conservative or Fundamentalist Christians cannot even find any clear passages, but instead "read between the lines" of the Bible, in order to pretend they know God's will, when nothing has been revealed about that will on these matters. And while these latter day experts in the law are pouring over the their bibles, trying to read between the lines to see what they can condemn in others, they can't seem to read all the passages right there on the lines, in which Jesus himself explicity condemns them, and spells out their many sins! 
There are over 80 passages in which Jesus himself finds fault with those who were thought to be God's representatives in his day: the priests, the "experts in the law", the "scribes", the Pharisees and the Sadducees. How amazing it is to see the contortions that so many Conservative clergy, bible scholars and enthusiasts will go through to avoid having these scriptures (all referenced below) pointed at them! They seem to believe the scriptures were designed to be weapons which only they can use, and only for attacking others! Take the following. for example: "You would think these religious leaders and these Pharisees were Moses, the way they keep making up so many laws! . . . It may be all right to do what they say, but above anything else, don't follow their example. For they don't do what they tell you to do. They load you with impossible demands that they themselves don't even try to keep." (This wouldn't have to do with things like birth-control, masturbation, abortion, clerical celibacy, perpetuating male dominance over women, would it? ). . . "Everything they do is done for show. . . They act holy by wearing on their arms little prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside, and by lengthening the memorial fringes of their robes. And how they love to sit at the head table at banquets and in the reserved pews in the synagogue! How they enjoy the deference paid them on the streets and to be called 'Teacher' and 'Master'! Don't ever let anyone call you that. For only God is your Teacher and all of you are on the same level, as brothers. And don't address anyone here on earth as 'Father,' for only God in heaven should be addressed like that. And don't be called 'Master,' for only one is your master, even the Messiah. . . Woe to you, Pharisees, and you other religious leaders. Hypocrites! For you won't let others enter the Kingdom of Heaven and won't go in yourselves." So how can today's "princes of the church" treat these words of Jesus as nothing but a quaint "dead letter", now that they their houses of worship "churches", instead of "synagogues", and "reserved pews in the synagogue" have been superseded by ornate thrones in basilicas and cathedrals?  How can anyone read Jesus' demands that his disciples shun titles of honor, and never suspect that if Jesus considered "Father" and "Teacher" objectionable, he must really be upset with "Monsignor" (which is French for "My Lord"), "Your Excellency", "Your Eminence", "Your Holiness", "The Holy Father", "Supreme Pontiff", and perhaps most presumptuous of all, "Vicar of (i.e. stand-in for) Christ", the equivalent of "Vice-Messiah" ! The entire Roman Catholic structure is based on the idea that Christ planned to establish a tightly organized structure run by a hierarchy of priests headed by a single Pope, beginning with one of his first disciples, Peter, who spent the last years of his life in Rome. This is based on the flimsiest of evidence, the most formidable piece of which by far is this one passage, recorded by only one of the four evangelists: He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah." Isn't it amazing how seriously Roman Catholics take one verse and how little attention they pay to others no more than an inch away ? |
"Early in the morning he came again to the temple.
All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them.
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery;
and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, "Teacher, this woman
was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses
commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?"
They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to
bring against him.
For those interested in what Jesus taught, as opposed to
what has been handed down from one person, to another,
to another, to another, and on and on and on, for two
thousand years, why not go back to the source himself?
In his quest to determine what Jesus himself considered
of greatest eternal consequence, the following is what
one Christian pastor learned by reading and re-reading
all four Gospels,
with the sole purpose of taking note of what kind of behavior,
on the part of which people, concerned Jesus.
To his surprise he found that Jesus hardly ever worried
about the Devil, or about personal sexual sin. Jesus
preached mostly to and/or about religious leaders.
Is it to distract attention from themselves that so many
preachers rant and rave about abortion, birth control,
masturbation and homosexuality, which Jesus never
mentioned, instead of attending to their own sins,
about which Jesus preached constantly ?
Beginning with the people and topics about which Jesus preached least, (the Devil), the catalogue below progresses eventually to a whole host of sins that Jesus condemned in the "men of God" of his day. (Only the first pertinent verse is indicated for each reference, so read on as need be. Oftentimes, a single event is covered by several of the four gospel writers, so that a single instance in Jesus' preaching can generate two or three references. All 7 groups are listed simply to illustrate the significance of the size and scope of 7th the group.)
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Contact  Ray@LiberalsLikeChrist.Org There is much more where this came from at  See why you may already be one of us ! |