Re: hope to start a church here


"DocTCW" <doctcw@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:m89825xjcm.ln2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
OR--

I think you are on the right track, but have it backward. If Jesus were
alive today he would be aghast and appalled at what was being said in his
name. I'm no Christian, but the teachings of Jesus are much more laudable
than what is being vomited out by modern "Christians."

I agree completely, so I fail to see what I have backward.

The tenets of Christianity are the same old saws that have served every
society since the dawn of time. Nothing new was espoused, except the
railing against the established Jewish religious and Roman political order.
Even the itinerant conjurer and guru claiming to be a god or a son of god or
a prophet of god wasn't new; in fact there have been untold numbers of such
people throughout history. In fact, I'm reading a bio of Joseph Smith
right now and its a great example of how a religion springs from a single
idea in the head of a treasure hunting, indebted, semi-wandering, forever
dreaming, unbalanced nut and grows like wildfire once someone begins to
attach a legend and myth to the enterprise.

What made Christianity take off was the social and political context of the
time and of course the man turning into a flying holy ghost thing, which was
relentlessly proclaimed by his band of followers who were desperate to
continue in their beliefs. Ignorant people of all parts of the world
throughout all time have fallen for magical flying ghost stories. Plus its
like a game of telephone; something real happens and is exaggerated a bit by
the first guy, a bit more by the second, and in a hundred years or so you
have a complete religious system complete with a hierarchy, rules, and books
written to support the system. With the Mormons it took only a few years,
thanks to the printing press, stagecoaches, and a local rural NY state
society obssessed with Indian mounds and hidden Indian gold and that was
unhinged from a failed Puritan religious order and was casting about for
some answers. Those answers were provided by hundreds of revivalist
preachers and wandering prohets of god, making it quite simple for a man of
Smith's intelligence, creativity, and vigor to take advantage of.

And yes, today many Christians, especially those of the backwoods / TV
preacher evangelical variety, seem to have totally forgotten some of those
old historical saws Jesus re-treaded and preached. Charity. Peace. Love.
Turn the other cheek. The meek shall inherit the earth.

Christians like that Trout person and GW Bush seem to adhere more to less
civilized beliefs, valuing revenge, war, "victory", and making sure that
anyone who does anything they disagree with is severely punished.

I call these types the American Taliban. Name a teddy bear Mohammed in the
Sudan and these people become apoplectic at the sentence given to
bear-naming teacher. Yet try to burn a piece of cloth with some stripes on
it here in the US and the reaction is the same as the reaction of the
Islamic fruitcakes in the Sudan. Jail the ***! Just try to play
some online poker legally in this country. Nope, banned by American
Taliban. Try to relieve some pain by smoking a medicinal herb and nope,
we'll throw your drug using granny into the pokey. Try to marry someone of
the same sex and we'll send the police after you!

Its a western version of Saudi Arabia with these people. They can't see
that they are only different in degree from the Vice and Virtue Police.
And they want to spread their beliefs around the world via force, to remake
a Muslim nation into Iowa or Kansas, just as crazy Muslims want to remake
the west into a primitive Islamic theocracy.

But like most people in other states of the US, people in foreign countries
don't want to be like Iowa or Kansas. They have their own absurd religious
fantasies to fight and die for.

And so it goes.............

OR






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