Eye Of A Needle
There is a quote attributed to Jesus that many have heard. The key words are rich man and camel. It is interpreted in many ways. One way to begin this discussion is to look at the King James Bible. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
16 And, behold, one came and said unto him,
Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good?
[there is] none good but one, [that is], G-d: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
18 He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder,
Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
19 Honor thy father and [thy] mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
20 The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go [and] sell that thou hast,
and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come [and] follow me.
22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you,
That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.
24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle,
than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
As with all quotes from the bible, a bit of thought is helpful. Was this said only one time, or was this a standard part of his teaching? Was the meaning changed in the transition from Aramaic to Greek to English? Had Jesus been taste testing the water and wine?
With the current vogue for “prosperity gospel”, many Jesusmongers have some splainin’ to do. Once, PG heard the redo blue preacher talking about this quote. His version was that there were caves in the desert where travelers would take a break on their journey. They would go in the cave, use the restroom, eat lunch, and then go on with their journey. The entrance to these caves was sometimes rather small, and it was tough to fit a camel inside.
Another version is about the local geography of Jerusalem. There was a gate in Jerusalem called the eye of the needle. It was a tight fit, and camels had a tough time getting through. Had Jesus been to Jerusalem at this point in his ministry?
According to Biblos.com, the Koran tells the same story. “The impious, who in his arrogance shall accuse our doctrine of falsity, shall find the gates of heaven shut: nor shall he enter there till a camel shall pass through the eye of a needle. It is thus that we shall recompense the wicked.” Al Koran. Surat vii. ver. 37.” (The home page of Biblos has an ad… “What investment is up 18% a year for the last 11 years? Click to see now”)
Whether this quote is fact or fiction, literal or symbolic, it can make for some funny stories. Once PG walked through a living room, while a religious tv show was on. The telepastor was in his church’s private studio, which was not cheap to build and equip. The man was wearing a beautiful preaching costume, which no doubt cost a pretty penny. By the standards of the world, the dude was filthy rich. During the few seconds that PG paid attention, the man on the tv said something about a camel.
Those who go For The Win should take heed of the last verse of Matthew 19.
“But many [that are] first shall be last; and the last [shall be] first.”
The Student And The Professor
Professor : You are a Christian, aren’t you, son ? Student : Yes, sir. Professor: So, you believe in G-d ? Student : Absolutely, sir. Professor : Is G-d good ? Student : Sure. Professor: Is G-d all powerful ? Student : Yes. Professor: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to G-d to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But G-d didn’t. How is this G-d good then? Hmm? (Student was silent.) Professor: You can’t answer, can you ? Let’s start again, young fella. Is G-d good? Student : Yes. Professor: Is satan good ? Student : No. Professor: Where does satan come from ? Student : From … G-d … Professor: That’s right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world? Student : Yes. Professor: Evil is everywhere, isn’t it ? And G-d did make everything. Correct? Student : Yes. Professor: So who created evil ? (Student did not answer.) Professor: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don’t they? Student : Yes, sir. Professor: So, who created them ? (Student had no answer.) Professor: Science says you have 5 Senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Tell me, son, have you ever seen G-d? Student : No, sir. Professor: Tell us if you have ever heard your G-d? Student : No , sir. Professor: Have you ever felt your G-d, tasted your G-d, smelt your G-d? Have you ever had any sensory perception of G-d for that matter? Student : No, sir. I’m afraid I haven’t. Professor: Yet you still believe in Him? Student : Yes. Professor : According to Empirical, Testable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says your G-d doesn’t exist. What do you say to that, son? Student : Nothing. I only have my faith. Professor: Yes, faith. And that is the problem Science has. Student : Professor, is there such a thing as heat? Professor: Yes. Student : And is there such a thing as cold? Professor: Yes. Student : No, sir. There isn’t. (The lecture theater became very quiet with this turn of events.) Student : Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don’t have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can’t go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it. (There was pin-drop silence in the lecture theater.) Student : What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness? Professor: Yes. What is night if there isn’t darkness? Student : You’re wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light. But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and its called darkness, isn’t it? In reality, darkness isn’t. If it is, well you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn’t you? Professor: So what is the point you are making, young man ? Student : Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed. Professor: Flawed ? Can you explain how? Student : Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good G-d and a bad G-d. You are viewing the concept of G-d as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, Science can’t even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it. Now tell me, Professor, do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey? Professor: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do. Student : Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir? (The Professor shook his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument was going.) Student : Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor. Are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher? (The class was in uproar.) Student : Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor’s brain? (The class broke out into laughter.) Student : Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor’s brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established Rules of Empirical, Stable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says that you have no brain, sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir? (The room was silent. The Professor stared at the student, his face unfathomable.) Professor: I guess you’ll have to take them on faith, son. Student : That is it sir … Exactly ! The link between man & G-d is FAITH. That is all that keeps things alive and moving. P.S. I believe you have enjoyed the conversation. And if so, you’ll probably want your friends / colleagues to enjoy the same, won’t you? Forward this to increase their knowledge … or FAITH. By the way, that student was EINSTEIN. // This incident was posted on Facebook. If the student was Albert Einstein, then this discussion took place in German. The comments below were posted about this story. // I hope the class got a refund on their tuition for that day. // This is mindless propaganda, pure and simple. First of all, there’s no way that Einstein was the student in question. Secondly, not only has evolution been observed in the past, but it’s actually still happening right now. Third, the professor seems to switch from being a philosopher to a science midway. This is a clear signal that this is a compilation of two different stories. Fourth, most of the student’s arguments are just plane stupid. Cold does exist. Science defines cold as the absence of movement. To say that absence doesn’t exist is silly and makes it sound like you think that everything is constantly moving or that the “student” doesn’t understand the difference between the word “cold” and the physical process that we call cold, that slows down the movement of things. I could keep going but almost every sentence of this thing is just dead wrong. // That doesn’t sound like Einstein at all, lol. // Lol @ evolution hasn’t been observed. Try some penicillin next time you get a staph infection. // “It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one.” wtf rofl . this is such a dumb copy pasta. also I don’t even like to let theists get into philosophical arguments about deities. I don’t have philosophical arguments about leprechauns or unicorns. The only arguments for actual proof of a deity just come from arguments of ignorance “i don’t know how something works, therefore G-d did it.” // Hmmm… I feel like the “heat/cold” argument is subjective in a way, hence the presentation by this “student”. I presume that the basis of the “evolution” argument was solely focused on events such as macro species (e.g. fish to frog, frog to lizard, etc.). I have seen some quotes accredited to Einstein which deal with G-d and support Einstein’s belief in some form of “G-d”. Whether this quote or these words (possibly paraphrased) are of Einstein is another matter (some citation might be nice). I’ve heard the argument “gravity is a theory” and I do feel that there is some degree of “faith” that we place into our scientific observations and conclusions on the world we perceive around us. I do see the idea of believing in a supreme being or even an interdimensional, omnipotent/-vox/-present/-scient being as believing in a theoretical conclusion, just the way I see holding to the conclusion of gravity as a theoretical conclusion. Does that justify some of the backwards ish that goes on in the name of religion (or “G-d”)? HECK NO. I do see the existence of a “G-d” and the idea of that G-d kickstarting a big bang or some other process as a possibility. As an observer and enthusiast of science, I encourage you to challenge or argue against that perspective if you feel inclined to do so. // having faith in gravity is different from having faith in a magical being. you have faith in gravity based on measurable evidence. having faith in a deity that “created” the big bang (whatever that means) is based solely on ignorance (not trying to be offensive but that’s the best word). We are all ignorant of a lot of things, but just because humanity can’t explain every single mystery in the observable universe doesn’t give any validation to the G-d argument. // the agnostic approach of “well i can’t prove it DOESNT exist” is a waste of time. there are an infinite amount of things that you can’t PROVE don’t exist, but the severe lack of evidence (none whatsoever) leads you to believe that they are false. // Christians who claim that macroevolution has never been observed are either completely ignorant or are intentionally trying to mislead others. No scientist has ever said that fish give birth to frogs or that a monkey ever gave birth to a human. Period. End of story. Macroevolution and microevolution are the exact same cthing and are composed of the exact same processes. Microevolution and speciation have both been observed in the modern era, thus evolution has been observed. That’s it. It’s over. As for the idea that “gravity is a theory”, this is just more ignorance of science. I challenge anyone that really believes that “gravity is a theory” to jump off the Empire State Building. If it’s just a “theory” it could be wrong…right? // I understand that there is measurable evidence for gravity; what I am saying is that it is possible that another explanation may be more valid for why that reaction occurs. Also, I am hecking out the dialogue on Gabrielle’s post. If this is indeed a misquote, then I find that to be a shame. :) Okay, let’s look at the Epicurus quote. I’ll cut to the chase; the last line is the one I agree with most, because it allows room for the existence of some “G-dlike” being or force, even if they (the being or force) lack the *agency* or means to expel all evil, which, at the very least, is a *possibility*. It does lack measurable evidence, yes. I hold that is is a possibility, which I feel deserves some consideration (science fantasy, ho!). // I’m taking this conversation in a different direction. Everyone is encouraged to address the previous subject or this one as they choose. I kind of have this idea of “G-d” as having a greater knowledge/power/ability than that of a human, only being held back by certain stipulations and “principles” (those self-defined and those imposed by other parties). As far as possibilities go, might this be an explanation to the questions presented by Epicurus? Maybe “G-d” as a title was convenient for some purposes (i.e., leading a (created) race of beings). Maybe a third party placed the title upon them. Maybe it was self-imposed even with the knowledge that it was, from another perspective(s), untrue. // Another explanation is always possible for everything. Why even bring that up. I mean, you think G-d created the universe but how do you know it wasn’t aliens? I mean, I’m not sayin’ it’s aliens,but…it’s aliens! I just want you to imagine having that conversation with someone. You’re talking about evidence and facts and their reply is, “yeah, but…aliens”. And as for the Epicurus thing, you’ve walked right into it, mayne. If G-d has limitations, then G-d isn’t all-powerful. And if G-d isn’t all-powerful and has claimed to be all-powerful (as the G-d in the Bible so obviously has) that means that G-d is a liar on top of not being omnipotent. So how exactly does that solve the Problem of Evil? And you begin this new conversation by saying that you don’t have any proof but you still think it’s a possibility? I mean, I’m not gonna say that aliens made you say that., but…it’s aliens. // Heehee. Hmmm. I sense there’s some sensitivity about this issue and I can understand the source of it in certain respects. I do like the idea of possibility, because I’m a science fantasy enthusiast. At the same time, I like the evidence basis of science, therefore, I welcome being challenged on my perspectives. I welcome you all to give me your feedback in the days to come on my ideas. ^^// This is propoganda, pure and simple. Notice the confrontational authority figure who attacks his student’s beliefs but is usurped by him. Also notice the completely fake attribution of the story to Einstein. And blatantly incorrect assertions like evolution being unobservable, a human brain being unobservable, that science doesn’t “understand” electricity and magnetism. I am not an atheist and my boyfriend is Catholic. Both of us detest this ignorant, manipulative articles that make science and faith look like they’re mortal enemies, or that rely entirely on the “G-d of the gaps”. // Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Organized, Boisterous, Overbearing
PG got the gang bang email. There were three pictures, which are included in this post. The text is below, with a reaction to follow. The black and white pictures are from The Library of Congress .
When 2nd Lt. James Cathey’s body arrived at the Reno Airport , Marines climbed into the cargo hold of the plane and draped the flag over his casket as passengers watched the family gather on the tarmac. During the arrival of another Marine’s casket last year at Denver International Airport , Major Steve Beck described the scene as so powerful: ‘See the people in the windows? They sat right there in the plane, watching those Marines. You gotta wonder what’s going through their minds, knowing that they’re on the plane that brought him home,’ he said. ‘They will remember being on that plane for the rest of their lives. They’re going to remember bringing that Marine home. And they should.’
The night before the burial of her husband’s body, Katherine Cathey refused to leave the casket, asking to sleep next to his body for the last time. The Marines made a bed for her, tucking in the sheets below the flag. Before she fell asleep, she opened her laptop computer and played songs that reminded her of ‘Cat,’ and one of the Marines asked if she wanted them to continue standing watch as she slept. ‘I think it would be kind of nice if you kept doing it,’ she said. ‘I think that’s what he would have wanted’.
Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing blue every Friday. The reason? Americans who support our troops used to be called the ‘silent majority.’ We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for G-d, country and home in record breaking numbers. We are not organized, boisterous or overbearing. Many Americans, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to recognize that the vast majority of America supports our troops.
Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday — and continues each and every Friday until the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that every red-blooded American who supports our men and women afar, will wear something blue. By word of mouth, press, TV — let’s make the United States on every Friday a sea of blue much like a homecoming football game in the bleachers. If every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, coworkers, friends, and family, it will not be long before the USA is covered in BLUE and it will let our troops know the once ‘silent’ majority is on their side more than ever. The first thing a soldier says when asked ‘What can we do to make things better for you?’ is: ‘We need your support and your prayers.’ Let’s get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example, and wear something blue every Friday.
IF YOU AGREE — THEN SEND THIS ON.
IF YOU COULDN’T CARE LESS — THEN HIT THE DELETE BUTTON.
Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you:
1. Jesus Christ 2. The American G. I.
One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.
YOU MIGHT WANT TO PASS THIS ON, AS MANY SEEM TO FORGET BOTH OF THEM.
PG would like to forget about Jesus, who had been the source of untold misery. The trouble is Jesus worshipers. They are organized, boisterous and overbearing. They have so much fun with their Jesus party, they don’t notice the pain of their neighbor. Even if they did notice, they would not care.
Jesus may, or may not, be the Christ. He was killed because the authorities were angry with him. The death of Jesus has nothing to do with what happens to PG when he dies. If Jesus wants to do something “For your soul”, he would tell his organized, boisterous and overbearing believers to make less noise.
It is tough to see how the death of a single soldier in Afghanistan helps ensure our freedom. The war is a disaster. We have gotten our revenge for 911. It is time to bring the troops home now. This is the best way to support the troops.
Every person in these three photographs is caucasian. (We do not know who is in either coffin.) There are no pictures of an Afghani boy, who father was killed by a drone when he went to a funeral. There is no picture of a Pashtun wife, whose husband was arrested in a night raid, after being ratted out by a neighbor. Pictures only tell part of the story.
The phrase “silent majority” was coined during the Vietnam war. This war was fought by an army of conscripted soldiers, who had no choice but to go and die. America lost 59,000 soldiers, while the two Vietnams lost untold millions. Eventually, the people turned against this war. Maybe it was not a majority that opposed the Vietnam war, but it was a large enough minority to force the government to accept a worthless peace treaty.
IF YOU AGREE — THEN SEND THIS ON.
IF YOU COULDN’T CARE LESS — THEN HIT THE DELETE BUTTON.
There is a third option. If your heart is sick from the wasted lives, both American soldiers and Afghani men, women, and children, speak up. If your soul cries out from the pain of having Jesus shoved down your throat, write something. You might not be a majority, but you do have a voice. Being organized, boisterous, and overbearing is optional. Please don’t write in all caps.
Jesus And Mr. Gandhi
One day, PG is going to learn not to read facebook first thing in the morning. He was scrolling along, minding his own business, when he found this comment: “Are you kidding me. Judge NOT least you are JUDGE. You have NO right nor do I as a Christain to interpet one man’s thought or opinion or idea of whom our CHRIST is to HIM (Ghandi) or to you or myself. Self judging of other people or life styles was one the things that really ticked Christ off. Til we accept that and stop be so judgmental we are no better than the Devil himself.” PG had a reply: “1-When you have religion shoved in your face, you need to make a judgement… do I agree with this, or not agree? If the religion was not forced upon us, we would not have to make this judgement. 2- When you say I am the devil, you say more about yourself than you do about me.”
The first comment was made by a former supervisor of PG. “Wildman” was the store manager when PG was tormented by the Professional Jesus Worshiper (PJW). During this crucible, PG was forced to re-examine his opinions about Jesus. This was not easy for PG, as Jesus had long been a painful presence in his life.
PG decided that 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.
The initial comment was made to a post at Christianity.com. Apparently, the comment was automatically posted to facebook. The post, Gandhi Doesn’t Like Us, was written by Tim Challies. He is a popular Jesus worship blogger, and is much admired at blogs where PG is banned from commenting. The page is sponsored by Christians United For Israel. They are distributing a free ebook, Israel 101, with the slogan “Defend the land Jesus walked.”
Mr. Challies is a competent writer. He crafts an opening to the post which states the points he is going to make. “How many times have you come across this quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi? “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” I must have read it a hundred times in books, magazines, articles, tweets. It is used by believers and unbelievers to point to the hypocrisy of Christians and to call us to more and to better. Our inability to live what we preach is driving the multitudes away. Or so we are told. After all, that’s what Gandhi said.
We need to stop using this quote and I’m going to give you two good reasons to do so. In the first place, Gandhi was hardly an authority on Jesus. When he says, “I like your Christ” he is referring to a Jesus of his own making, a Jesus plucked haphazardly from the pages of Scripture, a Jeffersonian kind of Jesus, picked and chosen from the accounts of his life. “
PG agrees with Mr. Challies, but for different reasons. To begin with, no one seems to have a source for this quote. What was the context? What language was it said in? This quote is the best answer Mr. Google can supply:
“A 1926 review by the Reverend W.P. King (then pastor of the First Methodist Church of Gainesville, Georgia) of E. Stanley Jones’s The Christ of the Indian Road (published in 1925 by The Abington Press, New York City) includes the following: Dr. Jones says that the greatest hindrance to the Christian gospel in India is a dislike for western domination, western snobbery, the western theological system, western militarism and western race prejudice. Gandhi, the great prophet of India, said, “I love your Christ, but I dislike your Christianity.” The embarrassing fact is that India judges us by our own professed standard. In reply to a question of Dr. Jones as to how it would be possible to bring India to Christ, Gandhi replied: First, I would suggest that all of you Christians live more like Jesus Christ. Second, I would suggest that you practice your Christianity without adulterating it. The anomalous situation is that most of us would be equally shocked to see Christianity doubted or put into practice. Third, I would suggest that you put more emphasis on love, for love is the soul and center of Christianity. Fourth, I would suggest that you study the non-Christian religions more sympathetically in order to find the good that is in them.”
The quote is less than 100 years old, and it is disputed. The reputed words of Jesus were said in Aramaic. They were quoted, after his death, by scribes who never met Jesus, in Greek. These texts were copied by hand and compiled into a canon for the Catholic church. This canon was translated into contemporary languages. And yet, this record of the teachings of Jesus is regarded as the verbatim, inerrant truth.
Another problem with the quote is the use of 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.
Mr. Gandhi had some name issues as well. His birth name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Many today refer to him as Mahatma Gandhi. “The word Mahatma, while often mistaken for Gandhi’s given name in the West, is taken from the Sanskrit words maha (meaning Great) and atma (meaning Soul). Rabindranath Tagore is said to have accorded the title to Gandhi. In his autobiography, Gandhi nevertheless explains that he never valued the title, and was often pained by it.”
Mr. Gandhi went to school in England, and worked as a barrister in South Africa. He was a smart man. If you want to put a quote from Mr. Gandhi on your vehicle, here are a few options:
“G-d has no religion”
“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”
“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
“Whenever you are confronted with an opponent. Conquer him with love.”
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
“One who has any faith in G-d should be ashamed to worry about anything ”
As we said earlier, Gandhi Doesn’t Like Us offers two reasons to not use the quote by Mr. Gandhi. Lets take a look. “Whatever Jesus Gandhi liked was certainly not the Jesus of the Bible. Why then should we care if we do not attain to this falsified version of Jesus? I would be ashamed to have any appearance to the kind of Jesus that Gandhi would deem good and acceptable and worthy of emulation. That Jesus would, of course, have to look an awful lot like Gandhi. So there is one good reason to stop using this quote: because Gandhi fabricated a Jesus of his own making and declared his affection only for this fictional character. He never liked the real thing”.
Arguably, this is what the contemporary church does. 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.
Here’s a second reason. Gandhi had a fundamental misunderstanding of himself and of the rest of humanity. Gandhi no doubt loved the way that Jesus related to the downtrodden and disadvantages and assumed that he himself was a leper or Samaritan, when really he was a Pharisee. … Perhaps he might even have deigned to put himself in the place of the Prodigal Son, a man who had gone astray but then found hope and redemption. Whatever the case, the Jesus he liked must have been a Jesus who would love and accept him just as he was and not a Jesus who declared that even a man as good as he was an enemy of G-d.
Jesus spoke kind words and did great deeds; he comforted and healed and gave hope and a future. But not to everyone. Jesus reserved the harshest of words for the religious elite, those who declared that they were holy, that they understood the nature of G-d, that they had achieved some kind of enlightenment. Jesus had no love for such people. It was such people who received the sharpest of his rebukes and the most brutal of his “Woes!” They were the whitewashed tombs, the broods of vipers, the blind guides. Such men did not love Jesus. They may have loved Gandhi’s fabricated Christ but they hated the real one.
Who is the “religious elite” elite of today? Perhaps it is someone who publishes on a slick website, with an ad supporting the abuse of the Palestinian people. Perhaps it is the preacher in Lithonia who uses Jesus to lure teenage boys into his bedroom. Perhaps it is the PJW who conducted a vulgar ministry while working on the clock for redo blue. This PJW ended a tirade with the words, What you see is Jesus changing my life. Perhaps it is those who use Jesus to hurt people. The list goes on and on.
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 today are from The Library of Congress. They are Union soldiers, from the War Between the States. Both sides in this conflict believed that Jesus supported them.
Karen Handel At Patrick Henry University
Karen Handel made an appearance recently at Patrick Henry College. The show is embedded above, or you can read part of it here. There were few surprises, except maybe towards the end where Mrs. Handel said something that PG agreed with… “Not every aspect of a moral society can be legislated. You have to create a moral society.”
The Komen foundation appears to be naive. They were surprised by the reaction to the decision to curtail funding to Planned Parenthood. The events of last February were a textbook study in bad damage control. It also appears that the SGK foundation had made a few enemies over the years, and they were happy to get revenge. Meanwhile, Mrs. Handel whines “Komen was simply a breast cancer organization facing Mafia-style shakedown tactics by Planned Parenthood holding Komen hostage. Komen did not have the bandwidth to fight that. “
The issue of abortion, for better or worse, is heavily politicized. Whether this political activity saves the lives of babies is a good question. Mrs. Handel said that the reaction to the SGK foundation “was political, and it was about their pro abortion agenda, and thats a fact.”
It is reasonable to say that the anti abortion crowd chose political activism as a tactic in their struggle. For them to politicize an issue, and then complain about the other side playing politics, is laughable. When you sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind.
One thing that Mrs. Handel says is that SGK had one person to work on social media. “Komen has one person who does social media. One. We are a breast cancer organization, not a social media organization.” SGK does have a lobbying department. This is one of the things that leaked out during the February firestorm. As Chamblee54 wrote at the time:
There have been unflattering things about the SGK foundation coming to the public’s attention. Many of the people who have donated money to the pink cause are surprised to find out what their money is going for. Rawstory has a feature, Komen Foundation ousted their Democratic lobbyist just before hiring Karen Handel , that is just downright fascinating.
“It wasn’t until 2008 that the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, a 501(c)3, founded the Susan G. Komen For The Cure Advocacy Alliance, a 501(c)4 non-profit that, under IRS rules, can spend unlimited donor funds on lobbying. It’s that arm of the Komen Foundation that former Secretary of State and failed gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel (R-GA) was hired to run in April 2011, … She’d been serving “as a consultant” to the organization since January 2011… Finally, in 2009, Komen hired Jennifer Luray to run it’s advocacy shop directly and be their top lobbyist in Washington…. When picked to head Komen’s political arm, she was working as a lobbyist for Abbott Pharmaceuticals, a drug and device company that, among its many products, offers a breast cancer screening protocol. … But, according to lobbying disclosure records filed with the House of Representatives, Luray ended her tenure as a lobbyist with Komen in the third quarter of 2010, joining pharmaceutical device manufacturers Becton, Dickinson & Co. instead. IRS filings by Komen indicate she was given a $134,000 severance package upon her departure, which was almost a full year’s salary. “
So, while SGK has one person doing social media, they have a lobbyist getting a $134,000 severance package. Maybe they are a lobbying organization, not a breast cancer organization.
Mrs. Handel discussed her run for Governor of Georgia. She said that someone went on TV and said that she “was a barren, desperate woman. The $93,000 visit from Sarah Palin is not mentioned. Mrs. Handel got a personal endorsement from the most popular politician in America, and lost.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
HT to Peach Pundit.
Revelations Revealed
When a new book about religion comes out, the author inevitably pays tribute to mammon. The text must be promoted. Talk shows, print interviews, bookstore appearances… it is part of the game. You render unto Caesar, even when you say Julius is one of the seven beasts. Which is what Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation says.
Elaine Pagels is a professor at Princeton University. She appeared on “Fresh Air”, an NPR show hosted by Terry Gross. The web broadcast of the interview is sponsored by America’s Natural Gas Alliance. The listener is encouraged to go to a website, and hear the good news about fracking.
As you might guess from the title, the book is about Revelations. The last book in the New Testament, Revelations is a favorite of those who claim to see the future. According to Dr. Pagels, the book is about the past. .
GROSS:So what do we know about who wrote Revelation and when it was written?
PAGELS:(spell check suggestions:PANELS, PAGERS, BAGELS) Most people who look at this history think that the author – he calls himself John of Patmos, that’s his name – that John was a refugee from the Jewish war that had just destroyed his homeland, Judea. And the center of that whole territory, which was Jerusalem, the Temple of Jerusalem, had been utterly leveled by the Romans in response to a Jewish rebellion against the Roman Empire. So I don’t think we understand this book until we realize that it’s wartime literature. It comes out of that war, and it comes out of people who have been destroyed by war.
As you might imagine, John of Patmos is not fond of the Romans. They sent 60,000 soldiers to his home, and tore up the place.
GROSS: You consider the book of Revelation anti-Roman propaganda. Would you explain why?
PAGELS: Yes, the book of Revelation speaks about the great scarlet beast with seven heads and seven crowns, but it’s a very thinly disguised metaphor or image for the ruling power of Rome, and probably the seven heads of the beast, most people think, represent the emperors from the dynasty of Julius Caesar, Augustus and Tiberius, Claudius and so forth, up to the time John was writing at the end of the first century. So this is – on one level it’s anti-Roman propaganda that’s drawn from the language of Israel’s prophets to say that God is going to avenge the nations that destroy his people.
GROSS: So 666, the name of the beast – many scholars, including you, think that that refers to Nero, the emperor, the Roman emperor. What would the connection be?
PAGELS: Yes, John says that the beast, whose identity he doesn’t say explicitly, perhaps because it’s quite dangerous to speak openly against Rome, he says the beast has a human number, and the number is 666. And this is a reference to the technique of calculating numbers and letters so that you can take anyone’s name and you have a numerical value of each letter. You add those up, or you multiply them in complicated ways, and you find out what the name is that’s represented by that mysterious number. Many people have worked it out that it could well be the imperial name of Nero, who was notoriously thought of as the worst emperor. Or it could be the name of Domitian, who was actually ruling when John was writing. John would have wanted his readers to understand that – that that number, which is couched in that kind of mysterious code, would be understood to his readers as the name of one of those emperors who had destroyed his people.
John of Patmos has other issues. In the early days of Christianity, there were disputes about the direction of the new religion. (Arguably, Christianity did not exist when Revelations was written.) Some wanted to new movement to stay within Judaism, and follow the laws of that religion. Others wanted to spread the “good news” to gentiles, and not be picky about what they ate. John of Patmos seems to be in the Jews only camp. This might explain some of his stories.
The book of Revelations included in the Bible was controversial. As the Roman Empire converted to Christianity, some of the prophecies were thought to have not taken place. As Dr. Pagels tells the story, an influential cleric liked Revelations. The decision was made to include it in the Bible, and to leave other books of prophecy out.
PAGELS: The Revelation of Zostrianos talks about a young man who is in despair because he can’t find any understanding of reality, he can’t make any sense of the world. He goes into depression and despair, decides to kill himself, and goes out to do it. And suddenly a divine being, a blazing light appears and says, have you gone crazy? And then he says he received internally a revelation. He says that I realized that the light within me was greater than the darkness.
Dr. Pagels has one possible explanation for the continued popularity of Revelations.
GROSS: So no matter what you’re doing, you can see yourself as the force of good and your opponent as the force of evil.
PAGELS:` Of course, because if you read it as John intended you to read it, you think God is on our side, we of course are on the side of good. Now, we could be, say, Lutherans fighting against the Catholic Church, we could be Catholics fighting against Lutherans. This is, you know, 1,500 years later. It could be people fighting against Muslims. It could be Muslims contending against, you know, the great Satan of the West. Those images have proved enormously powerful. What I found so remarkable, Terry, is the way that people on both sides of a conflict could read that same book against each other. For example, in the Civil War, people in the North were reading John’s prophecies, they’re reading the Civil War with the terrible destruction of that war as God’s judgment for America’s sin of slavery. “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” resounds with all of those imageries of the book of Revelation. People on the South, in the Confederacy, were also using the book of Revelation, seeing the war as the battle of Armageddon at the end time and using it against the North. And that’s the way it was read in World War II. That’s the way it was read even in the war in Iraq.
Jesus has inspired both sides in many conflicts. Joseph Kony and Invisible Children both draw inspiration from Jesus, who is probably embarrassed.
Dr. Pagels says Christians frequently think she is misguided. One example of this would be saintbubba. (spell check suggestion:paintbrush) He wrote his amazon book review after hearing the NPR interview.
Just heard her on NPR, March 7, 2012 saintbubba
I just finished listening to the author on NPR discussing this book, for a person who is a professor of religious studies I don’t know if she has even read or understood any of the new testament…in her discussion she stated that it was the apostle Paul that came up with the idea of preaching and accepting non-Jews (gentiles) to the church…Jesus clearly preaches and accepts the woman at the well who was not a professing Jew…and was by her own admission living outside of the will of God…she pushes the idea that there was a Gospel according to Paul, a Gospel according to John and a Gospel according to Jesus…the fact is that all of the Gospels and the people who wrote them agree with one another…which is amazing because they were written at different times and locations….if the opinions of the author were true the Bible would have been refuted a thousand years ago…on the subject of the book of revelation I think there is much to be learned and discussed about it…but I don’t see the value of reading something with such a difficult topic when the author doesn’t seem to even have a clear understanding of the basics of the Bible..too bad because the subject manner is interesting…
Pictures today are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”
Ride The Long Black Train
PG was riding back home on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, and decided to check out the radio. The country station had a song about riding a long black train, and it had a good sound.
Then the singer started his next verse. “There is victory in the lord, yes there is, there is victory in the lord”. PG shut the radio off. While it did not ruin his day, it made him enjoy it a bit less.
There are a lot of Jesus worshipers who like to talk about victory. Only trouble is, their victory is a defeat for someone else. PG has been humiliated for Jesus many times, and knows about defeat for the lord.
How can a G-d of love take pleasure in the humiliation of his children? Just because your ideas about life after death are different from someone else’s. Or because that person is having problems, and covers for them by starting a fight with someone else, using Jesus as a weapon. Is this victory in the lord?
When Buddha talked of the three poisons, he meant anger, greed, and ignorance. When PG sees Jesus, through his believers today, all three of those poisons are on display. Maybe what we need is compassion, generosity, and knowledge. And a truce for the lord. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Ten Things You Cannot Say
There is a post at listserve today about the ten items you should never discuss on the internet. PG is going to take this as a challenge, and try to say something rude about all ten. Today is International Mens Day, and we all know that real men have lots of opinions.
01 Religion On the day PG was born, his father called the church choir director, at 6am, to sign PG up. The choir director, a gentleman named Ray Smathers, went back to sleep. PG thinks that Mr. Smathers had the right idea.
02 Origins of Man Gorillas and chimpanzees are embarrassed by people.
03 Politics A man is drowning fifty feet offshore. A democrat throws seventy five feet of rope, and then doesn’t tie it to anything. A republican throws twenty five feet of rope, and says that swimming to the rope will build character.
04 The Holocaust What Hitler did sixty five years ago does not justify dropping white phosphorous on children in Gaza today.
05 Gun Control A prominent politician in Georgia recently took some pills, and called his mother. The prominent politician said he was killing himself. If the prominent politician had used a gun, he would have succeeded.
06 Abortion PG has never had an abortion.
07 Race Relations PG does not like people who do not like PG.
08 Jesus Christ What Jesus worshipers call Jesus is a man made spirit, that has little in common with the historic figure. We know little about the man in Palestine two thousand years ago. The spirit called Jesus is a source of misery to PG.
09 Homosexuality If you have to ask, do you really need to know?
10 The Middle East If there was no oil there, would anyone care?
A Limit Of Belief
PG left a comment at TwentyTwoWords in August, and thought about it later. Today, after he got back from the river, he set out to find the thread. Looking for a comment at a popular blog can be an act of faith, with no guarantee of results. PG was lucky, and found his comment fairly quickly.
TwentyTwoWords is a regular stop for PG. The idea is to say what you need to say in 22 words or less. The owner of the blog does not enforce this rule, and few commenters practice it. PG tries to be the exception.
The opening serve of this thread was “Do difficult times make you more or less empathetic? For me the answer is both. Some struggles I’ve faced make me more understanding of others. But sometimes I feel like: “I got over it; why can’t you?” (36 words). The comments took on the colors of Jesus Worship, which is to be expected at TwentyTwoWords.
The first Chamblee54 entry was comment number 7. “I feel that way about life after death obsessed Jesus Worshipers. Is there an etymological link between arrogant and air head?”
Christen replied “Speaking of life after death, I’m just starting Randy Alcorn’s book Heaven and very convinced on the importance of being much more focused on our life after death. What did you mean by that, Chamblee?”
chamblee54 says: “I feel the emphasis placed on life after death is mistaken. I disagree with the Jesus worship beliefs on life after death.”
christen says: “Thanks for the reply, chamblee. I think I’m either inexperienced in “the emphasis placed on life after death” debate/issue (?) and “Jesus worship beliefs” or just don’t understand what you’re saying. Either way, I know I can’t wait to be in that place with that person !”
At this point, PG saw the dialog spinning off topic. This was his fault, to a degree, and he felt a responsibility to bring it back into line. The suspicion was that Christen was a Jesus Worshiper, who had never questioned a set of beliefs handed to her. A key portion of this was the life after death issue, which to PG is a fundamental flaw with Jesus Worship Religion. ( PG disagrees with the concept of attaining life after death through holding certain beliefs about Jesus. PG also disagrees with the emphasis place on life after death in Jesus Worship.)
The answer PG came up with was “This is starting to get off topic. I suspect you have never questioned the concept of acquiring life after death through beliefs.” That clocks in at precisely 22 words. The original comment was about acquiring life after death through belief in Jesus.
To bring the comment under the 22 word limit, PG decided to eliminate the reference to Jesus. And there was a realization that the fundamental meaning of the comment was not changed. If the status of one’s soul post mortem can be changed by a belief during life…a highly suspect concept to PG…does it really matter what the belief is?
Violated Part Two
That rascal joemyg-d has a weekly feature that looks at crimes with a religious connection. Often, the way the story is told says as much as the story itself. In this review of a review, we will look at both the story, and how the story is told.
This weeks winner takes place in Michigan. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) claims that some diocese did not do enough to stop a wayward priest. It seems as though Joseph Skelton left seminary, after being accused of entertaining a teenage boy in his room. A few years later, he was ordained as a priest at the Diocese of Tagbilaran, in the Philippines.
This story is reported in Catholicculture.org, which is copyrighted by something called Trinity Consulting. Trinity has an ad above the priest story, where they claim to offer “Truth Based Business Services”.
In Savannah, Georgia, WTOC reports on a man who received a four million dollar settlement from the Catholic Church there. The story is that a priest molested him, more than thirty years ago. Next to this story is an animated ad. It shows a baby in a car seat shaking his head, while the headline says that 9/10 homeowners do not refinance their homes.
In Alabama, a minister got in trouble over a camping trip. In the details, AP reports:(Original spelling is copied.) “Most of the counts involved possession of obsence material. District Attorney Greg Gambril said there were three counts each of sodomy and sexual torture, which he said involved a sex toy.” An ad on this Fox News page offers readers a chance to read “Ann Coulter – Free. Be among the first to read her column each week, right from your inbox. http://www.HumanEvents.com/AnnCoulter.”
Another fox news report is about Michael Joy in Wyandotte County, Missouri. He was a church youth minister, who behaved badly with those underage. The funny part of this story is that Mr. Joy was in prison for child molestation in the eighties. A quote… “Stony Point Baptist Church Pastor Thomas Hamilton said he spoke openly with his congregation about the incident involving one of the church’s youth leaders at services on Sunday. He said Joy confessed he’d been in prison before but lied about why. State records show Joy was convicted of eight counts of child molestation in the late 80s. Hamilton said he feels betrayed and now he and his congregation are working together to move forward and heal.”
The Associated Baptist Press has a tasteful story about the Senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Jay, Oklahoma. He had a private service with a fifteen year old girl every sunday for over a year. The site has an ad for “Passport :Summer Camp with a Mission”.
You cannot have a sex crimes roundup without a California story. The pastor of the Koinenia Christ Community Church in Tracy,California, is accused of doing naughty things with underage girls. A fuzzy picture of the accused is displayed, across from an ad for a real estate firm. The realtors display two men, three women, and two dogs. No word is given on which one sells the most.
Down under in Australia, the CathNews has a story to tell, underneath an ad for Office Max. It seems like a young lady, referred to as the “alleged victim”, was abused by a priest. The playmate were recruited by “the nuns”. The attorney of the “alleged victim” has sent a letter to all of the Catholic churches in Victoria, with a request to read the letter to the congregation.
The Archbishop of Melbourne does not want the letter read to the flock. He says that the abuse did not take place in Melbourne, and has been dealt with “under the national protocol”. The Bishop of Ballarat, where the incident was alleged to have happened, said, with certainty, that no assault took place. The “alleged victim” recieved a $12,000 settlement in 2006.
Before anyone thinks that men of the cloth are a bunch of sex crazed perverts, the Belfast Telegraph has this uplifting tale: “Father Norbert Jedrusinski, 37, fled with a £900 haul after threatening staff with a knife at the bank in Szamotuly, Poland, but was arrested when he tried to flee on a bus.” The story was next to an ad from classmates.com.
Violation
PG was waddling through the kitchen, enjoying a quiet time change sunday morning. PG tries to call Uzi before noon, lest PG be considered slack. Today, the G-ds of time standards had given him an hour of technical slack time .
As PG put the leftover potatoes on the pan, there was a faint knock on the door. PG looked in the peep hole and saw a figure standing. Knowing it could be a psycho killer, PG bravely opened the door.
He saw two African Americans with books. It was invading Jesus Worshipers. The lady said ” How are you doing?” PG replied ” In no mood to talk to you” and shut the door.
PG felt anger. The peace of sunday morning had been violated. It was one more reason to know that Jesus hates PG.
The War Prayer
One hundred and four years ago, the United States was involved in a war, that did not want to end. This conflict was in the Philippines. Although there had been an official end to the war, guerrillas continued to fight the Americans. The war was a nasty affair, with many atrocities.
The War against the Philippine people was a souvenir of the Spanish American War. There had been a rebellion against Spanish rule in the islands. After the American forces routed the Spanish, the rebellion shifted to the American occupiers. It was a war stumbled into, and difficult to end.
Mark Twain was horrified. He wrote a story, The War Prayer. As Lew Rockwell tells the tale
“Twain wrote The War Prayer during the US war on the Philippines. It was submitted for publication, but on March 22, 1905, Harper’s Bazaar rejected it as “not quite suited to a woman’s magazine.” Eight days later, Twain wrote to his friend Dan Beard, to whom he had read the story, “I don’t think the prayer will be published in my time. None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth.” Because he had an exclusive contract with Harper & Brothers, Mark Twain could not publish “The War Prayer” elsewhere and it remained unpublished until 1923.”
HT to David Crosby and his autobiography, “Since Then“. A book report is forthcoming.
Getting back to “A War Prayer“, the story starts in a church. A war has started, and is popular. The troops leave for glory the next day. The preacher has an emotional prayer to send them on their way. Unknown to the minister, there is a visitor. “An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher’s side and stood there, waiting.
With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal,” Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!”
The stranger motioned to the preacher to step aside. The stranger stepped into the pulpit, and claimed to have a message for the worshipers, sent directly from G-d. The preacher’s message was for support in time of war, and implied that G-d and the preacher support the same side in this conflict. There is an unspoken part to a prayer like this. This unspoken part was what the stranger was going to put into words.
“”O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle – be Thou near them! With them, in spirit, we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe.
O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it-
for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet!
We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.”
Chamblee54 
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