"There is Zero Liberalism in either the Old or New Testament that is not used as a figure of evil. In fact the Bible defines conservatism and totally rejects and condemns Liberalism on nearly every page. "
Comment by I-RIGHT-I, January 4, 2006 @ 5:08 pm (copied from Comments section, www.Thinkprogress.org)
Who cares what someone's book says? All religions have some book that tells them what good is and what evil is and how to behave. Every religious person ooohs and aahhhs over some book and how you're not obeying it and they are, or whatever. Don't drop it, don't touch it, ooh, it's so holy... honestly.
This is America. I'm free. I'm not going to obey some damn book. I follow my conscience and the rule of law. In this great country that's enough. My religion is none of your damn business and don't wave yours around as if it meant you had morals or brains. It's just a book. How you behave is how I will judge you.
Screw your book. The first two-thirds of it (what Christians call the Old Testament and what Jews call The Holy Bible) is translated from the ancient Hebrew all wrong anyway. The Christians even rearranged the books to suit their motives. Want to read the real bible? Read the Jewish Publication Society bible. It's translated directly from the original ancient Hebrew, as Jesus himself read it and understood it, in the orginal order, by expert linguists who make understanding ancient languages their top priority. Christians decided what was in it then translated it accordingly to prove what they knew already.
In other words, the Christian translations are a fraud. Your priests and ministers know this but you've been indoctrinated and trained not to ask. Go ahead - ask a priest about the origins of the New Testament and the re-translation by Christians of the Old. They'll back me up.
There never was a Jesus. There was Y'shua - which translates to English as "Joshua." How did you arrive at "Jesus"? Go ask your scholars if you don't know, and shame on you for not knowing since you seem to think your book is the be all and end all of morality in the world. Never you mind that a billion Buddhists don't agree, or millions of Muslims, or thousands of Jews, to name but a few. In the meantime, just pay, pray, and obey. They didn't build the church for you to go inside and ask questions.
Using the bible to back up your assertions is a cheap, disingenuous, intellectually backward thing to do and you know it. What if I told you it's only gospel truth if it's in the Upanishads?
We don't need ancient books to follow the golden rule. We don't need religion, in fact, to get to God.
As far as politics go, it's the bottom of the barrel of intellectual life to assert that the book proves that "Republicans Are The Best!"
Was Martin Luther King not a Christian?
How about Jimmy Carter?
Christianity states that the poor and not the rich were Jesus' concern. How you get this perverse trickle-down, cruel, punishing supply-side Social Darwinist Saviour is beyond me.
And by the way, why is the Jesus on the cross in church completely free from body hair? Did Mary Magdalene splurge on an armpit wax for his "special day?" It has nothing to do with how this man lived or preached and entirely to do with the group's psychosexual unconscious hangups. I'm telling you: Jews in Judea were a hairy breed. Jesus had pubic hair, armpit hair, nostril hair... back hair too, most likey.
Go on and say it! JESUS HAD BACK HAIR!
Screw your book. Just behave yourself. This is America.
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
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4 comments:
I think you are missing the more important point about using the bible to back up one's political point of view- the bible is so long and so contradictory that a little research can usually dig up backing for ANY point of view. This is what makes biblical scholarship fun it seems to me (this is not to intimate that I am a bilical scholar).
Given the above, I don't think it's particularly relevant that Christians have strayed from the Hebrew Bible in their translation, and furthermore it's not a helpful point in convincing honest Christian conservatives to see the light and vote liberal. To me, the most powerful arguments to make when debating such people are those that point out how current conservative positions (support of capital punishment, lack of services for the poor, pre-emptive attacks on those who may or may not threaten us) are antithetical to Christian values. I guess this hasn't gotten us very far until now, but I am hopeful that honest Christians will start to look at the whole picture rather than just the abortion debate.
And a Happy New Year to you! GTL.
Ha! This was a great post! A bit on the angry side for one that seems to be on the middle path though. A billion Buddhists? You think?.. You may be right, but it seems a little high to me. Although there are many who practice the basics of Buddhism but are also dedicated to different denominations at the same time. The Buddhists don't mind. Respect for each others traditions is the key. The Dali Lama himself has spoken of his own relationship with a Catholic Monk, (Thomas Merton) that actually changed his own beliefs regarding Christians and Buddhists. I heard him speak of this at a lecture at Rutgers University this past summer. I have also read a great deal Thomas Merton and HH. If the Christians could let a little more Buddhism into their Ideology I think the world would start to lighten up a bit.
Thank you for the post GTL.
MoMetta
Your bible scholarship's a little fuzzy, but that doesn't really matter. Good post. Such a complex document, with so many varied authors should only be used as a mystical tool by individuals, not as justification for a political view.
"There's some wacky shit in the bible." - Me, just now.
Actually, the first time,the Bible was written down, it was written down in Greek, since an Egyptian pharoah wanted to have a copy in the Library of Alexandria. (Before the bafflement begins, Greek was that day's lingua franca.) It wasn't written down in Hebrew for nearly another millenium.
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