I grew up Christian. I believed in Jesus as a miracle worker, a master teacher, a son of God. I treasured his three messages: whatever works you see me do, you can do as well, and even more; the kingdom of Heaven is all around you; whatever you do for each other, you do for God. It was pretty clear. We are already one with the Creator. We, too, can work miracles. And the best way to love God is by loving other people.
His parables all said the same things, with a slight shift in detail. The Good Samaritan, the adulteress being stoned, the laborers in the vineyard -- different stories, same lesson: treat all as you want to be treated. People were simple back then. Mostly illiterate. There were no stenographers following Jesus around. The first gospels about him weren't even written till 60 years after his death. (That's like your great-grandchild knowing verbatim what you said during your heyday. Think "Chinese telephone game.") So we have to go with the feel of his lessons. Having raised myself on the book "Imitation of Christ," my feel for what he meant was this: take care of each other.
If I had to say which three values he most stood for, I'd say compassion, justice, forgiveness. He was the Golden Rule in sandals, the human melting pot of spiritual truths, fulfilling not just the covenant with Abraham, but with Buddha, the Rig Vedas, the Tao. His was the consciousness of Oneness, the awareness of Infinity coursing through the finite. He was East meets West, Immortal meets mortal. He was a human whole enough, empty enough, dedicated enough to show us how to do it, to be the light we came here to be. He wasn't here for his glory, but for ours. He came with the keys to unlock our Godness, but they hang rusting on church doors while we hold him up as Lord and refuse to take our power.
Today I watch a processional of public figures debating on television over who is most Christian and not one of them ever says I am my brother's keeper. In fact, they would call that "an entitlement program" and quickly vote it down. As they woo the Christian vote, they vow to abandon the Samaritan, to stone the adulteress, to turn their backs on the Prodigal Son. There is no language of compassion, no moving toward the needy. The focus is never on the "we," but the "me." From all my years of growing up in the company of Jesus, I trust my judgment on one thing: Jesus was no conservative. He was a radical through and through -- radically committed to the poor, the prisoners, the outcasts. Radically intolerant of the rich, the ruling class, the aristocratic clerics.
He spoke of the public welfare because he was the public -- one cell in the body politic, one thought in the Mind of God. "If I can do this, you can do this," he said over and over, but they wouldn't step up. They wanted a Master, so they kept abdicating, except that once when Peter walked on the water for awhile till he doubted and sank.
No fundamentalist, Jesus was the future calling them forward, calling the people into their own greatness. He was not tethered to a past carved in stone. He was here to shape a new world full of light and joy and reverence -- a world of celebration and miracles and revelations of the powers in our hands to heal and help. That it what Jesus was up to, and were he running today for public office, you can be sure he would proclaim an end to war, a higher tax on the rich, an overhaul of the prison system, and a dedication of public funds for the children, the poor and the elderly. That is the Jesus I grew up with and the Jesus I continue to have as my teacher and guide.
You can tell the real Christians by their acts. They are the ones serving, the ones loving, the ones sharing whatever they have. They are withholding judgment, offering compassion, being that light they want to see in the world. They are the hands and the feet of God on earth, vessels of holiness, chalices of generosity. The next time someone calls himself a Christian, look for these qualities for the living proof.
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Getting carried away with one 's own rhetoric how quickly we forget "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's."
I do not understand how so many people in America can be so mean, subscribe to the rigid imposition of their bizarre reactionary and primative ignorance on the majority;have and not noticed the trgic impact of the return to Social Darwinism on the 99% (which includes most of the conservatives (as they are mistakenly called).
The right wingers - should be more properly referred to as WRONG WINGERS - who claim to be the real Chritsians, have descended into the Dark Ages - when religion ruled with a vengence, before leaching was the favored medicine, when the sun circled the earth - and witches were burned for one utterance the church did not like.
The other day CPAC attendees listened to a key note speaker well known for prejudice and hate - no one walked out, there was applause! This is not even the party of Goldwater, let alone Nixon or Eisenhauer.
Class warfare against the middle class. Read Swindled to see all the culprits and controlling issues, including why Samuel Johnson said, "religion is the last refuge of all scoundrels and liars." He must have known the WRONG WINGERS: www.howwegotswindled.com
I am an atheist also, but I subscribe no such liberal bourgeois value set.
Justice must be earned, often on the barricades, both intellectual and real.
Most successful revolutions-- American, French, Russian, Cuban, Protestant, Chinese-- came at the edge of the bayonet.
How about spiritual humanism. How successful were the Russian, Cuban and Chinese and what is the Protestant one?
So your lack of understanding my general comments - does not reflect on the atheists i know. Atheists do not resort to name calling - liberal means: for flexibility of thought, for humanity and against prejudice - so are you not liberal? And what's the bourgeois stuff - read Steppenwolf - so what are your values - automatic weapons, war. And Justice is an intellectual, philosophical concept, and i do not understand your idea of having to earn a value. It sounds like justice must be earned from a vengeful god - the law holds out it's objective as justice - which often is not the rule, but to earn it or be condemned to hell - is that your non atheist point.
If you find tyranny or oppression, rest assured the atheist or the Christian living like an atheist has brought it to you.
Prove it.
1. be for caring of the needy or poor
2. NOT be for right wing war's $$$$$
3. NOT be for Stealing elections....Florida, Ohio, etc...
4. Dislike a propaganda station like Fox that tells
lie's and wants war
5. Be for fair taxes.....like for Exxon and GE
6. Be for worker's rights.....like unions !
etc. etc. etc....and I'm very religious, a Christian who
does not need a church.....[ and let's throw out the Old Test...
killing kids to take land, etc.....that's the old way of thinking...! ]
I don't know what the author is beyond his claims of being an "Artist, Author, Workshop Facilitator": however, I know one thing he isn't, and that is versed in an understanding of either Jesus or first century Judaism. Jesus was an observant Jew, extremely conservative, and totally committed to Mosaic Law. What the author fails to know is that those ideals for which he credits Jesus as being a "radical" are all basic tenets of Judaism, esp. of the Pharisees ( of which Jesus was surely , or a sect thereof, despite the hatchet job done on the Pharisees by the Gospels and Paul ). Go to the OT, check out the Mosaic Law, you will find all of those "radical" concepts embodied as commandments from YHWH.
The hypocracy needs to be called out!
From a Christian believer.
Taking care of one's brother through forcing another person to steal from yet a third person to give to a fourth is hardly the message Christ taught. Establishing an uncaring bureaucracy to deny the poor the right to work for the aid of their siblings in Christ is evil. In extreme conditions it may be the lesser evil, but it is not the ideal.
The ideal is reaching out in love to aid your loved ones directly by working hard and following the path of justice. Admittedly few achieve the ideal, but that doesn't mean it's not there.
Christ was not a conservative, but He wasn't a liberal either. He was closer to the Catholic Worker Anarchist movement. This is similar to non-Marxist communism. Communism through love, not force.
Right or left, I've never seen a politician who came close.