Just back from a week in the lower ninth ward in New Orleans, trying to help clear a little rubble with the awesome folks at lowernine.org. There were no hot spots, viable businesses, beer retail locations or anything else for that matter, so blogging has been impossible. I love my iPhone, and it’s great for email and almost everything much, but an entire rant would take a weekend. If either of my readers’ feathers were in any way ruffled, I apologize.
So this one is too good to take a pass on, but maybe it’s been overplayed in the blogosphere already.
Seven new deadly sins? Without even being specific, how the hell do you call something unchangeable and perfect and then change it? So, were indulgences a good idea or not? The Spanish Inquisition? How about the Crusades? Supporting Hitler and Mussolini? I mean honestly, this stuff just writes itself. Please imagine that I have as well.
3 comments:
Thanks for helping make this a little bit of a better world. Sacrificially too!
I have mucked about cleaning and building and doing in very rustic places, but the only time I consider it truly sacrificial is if I am not within walking distance of a cold one come quitting time. And that has not happened to me yet, whether on the border of Uganda and The Congo, or anywhere in Central America. I heard things were tough there in the 9th, but had no idea!
Regarding changing eternal issues. It seems to me as far as what laws are important (and I guess, which sins are worst), even with 2000 years to change it, the modern bibles still have Jesus saying this:
Luk 10:25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
Luk 10:26 He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How do you read it?"
Luk 10:27 And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."
Luk 10:28 And he said to him, "You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live."
Luk 10:29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
Luk 10:30 Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.
Luk 10:31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.
Luk 10:32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
Luk 10:33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.
Luk 10:34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.
Luk 10:35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.'
Luk 10:36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?"
Luk 10:37 He said, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise."
You know what is the only reason Jesus is not rolling over in his grave when people do this nonsense in his name? ( Hint: We celebrate it using the name of the Babylonian Goddess of fertility, and eggs and rabbits)
I'll pay for the billboard space to put that next to a lot of mega-churches, but it must contain the bold lettered footnote, "Be nice to strangers; Mexican, Iraqi, Iranian, Gay, Atheist, Communist, Prostitute, Abortion Provider, Drug Addict or Criminal."
And note that he doesn't call for punishment, imprisonment or death for the the robbers. Try to get a handle on mercy, y'all.
yeah. His words about judging [e.g. call for punishment] went something like this:
Mat 7:1 "Judge not, that you be not judged.
Mat 7:2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.
Mat 7:3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
Mat 7:4 Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye?
Mat 7:5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
Some people have misread or spun those first two verses to say that if you judge, God will judge you, but I don't think it says that...Once again, Jesus was explaining quite plainly the irony of a judgemental person's tendency to be foisted on its own petard, so to speak. The proof of that is in the puddingheads who have crafted a huge emchanism of judgement and marginilizing the very people Jesus lifted up.
I guess that makes me a Pharisee of the Pharisees. Paul called himself that. I get this sense that modern day pharisees are people who judge others yet are blind to their own guilt. I judge them...making me twice as bad, i guess!
God have Mercy ! Otherwise, I have no hope from being free from this crazy person I am!
Jesus also spoke of the Job requirements for carrying out punishment:
Joh 8:3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst
Joh 8:4 they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.
Joh 8:5 Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?"
Joh 8:6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
Joh 8:7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her."
Joh 8:8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground.
Joh 8:9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
Joh 8:10 Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
Joh 8:11 She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more."]]
Joh 8:12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
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