Chamblee54

About a year ago, Chamblee54 published Jesus and Mr. Gandhi. 1805 words were devoted to a reputed quote from Mohandas Gandhi. The subject is worth revisiting, but with fewer words. There is something about religion that opens the verbal floodgates. This is a problem for people who do not agree, or share your passion for the subject.
The quote is “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” It is regarded as suspect. Mr. Gandhi gave many speeches, and spoke to the press many times. There is a massive archive of his words. If the quote about Christ and Christians, is real, then there is probably a source.
In the 1800 word piece, a bigtime Christian writer denounces the quote. Apparently, this man assumes the quote is real. The concept is that Mr. Gandhi does not “know” the “real Christ”.
The writer gets his information about Jesus from the Bible. The reputed words of Jesus were said in Aramaic. They were quoted, after his death, by scribes who never met Jesus. The New Testament was written in Greek. These texts were copied by hand, and compiled into a canon for the Catholic church. This canon was translated into contemporary languages. This version of the Jesus story is regarded as the verbatim, inerrant truth.
Christianity is a religion based on beliefs, rather than practices. The believer accepts, without questioning, an ancient text as the source of these beliefs. Evidently, this willingness to accept hearsay as truth extends to bumper stickers.
Another problem is using the word “Christ”. This was an honorific title, and not the name of Jesus. (Some say that the name was closer to Joshua. It was probably an Aramaic name that we would find difficult to pronounce.) There are many people who say that Jesus might not be the Christ.The two names are not synonymous, nor is Christ the last name of Jesus.
Who/what was the real Jesus? The light skinned Jesus of velvet paintings looks little like the real thing. Even critics of the church, who like to talk about what “Jesus really taught”, are relying on the product of a Catholic committee. The truth is, we don’t know very much about the historic Jesus. We fill in the blanks to suit whatever the current agenda is. What you think about Jesus says more about you than it does about Jesus.
PG has been forced to have an opinion about Jesus. This has often been painful, with selfish people forcing their loud, vulgar thoughts on everyone present. There were two forces known as Jesus. One was the historic figure, whose life was partially recorded in the bible.
The second Jesus was a spirit, living in the hearts of those who believe in him. The present day spirit Jesus has little in common with the historic Jesus, other than the name. The best way to know Jesus is through the words and deeds of his believers.
Getting back to the writer … This Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible, would have rebuked Gandhi as he rebuked the Jewish leaders of his day, the people who led people walking behind them on the road to hell. Like them, he was convinced of his own goodness, his own worthiness. There are two good reasons to stop using this quote: Gandhi liked only the Christ of his own making and he believed that he was worthy of the favor of this Christ. On both accounts he was wrong; dead wrong.
Pictures are courtesy of Gwinnett County.