The Beatitudes.

[coloradodem2005]

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Verse 3)
Blessed are the meek: for they shall posses the land. (Verse 4)
Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted. (Verse 5)
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill. (Verse 6)
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. (Verse 7)
Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God. (Verse 8)
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. (Verse 9)
Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Verse 10)


www.newadvent.org/cathen/02371a.htm

[LeftCoast]

1. What's the significance of these?

Are these blessings singled out for a particular reason? Genuinely curious.

[eleny]

2. Fundies are supposed to embrace Jesus

But they don't seem to embrace these Beatitudes which are his Sermon the Mount.

[LeftCoast]

4. Fundies do seem to cherry-pick the 'rules' they want to follow

I've always been interested in how they get past condeming homosexuality while wearing those tacky mixed-fiber suits. Not to mention all that shellfish and pork. :)

[coloradodem2005]

3. THe significance is to show that...

...our beloved "religious" right does not measure up to these beatitudes. Particularly the Beatitude about the peacemakers.

[LeftCoast]

5. It seems like mainstream Christian groups are finally

calling the RWers on their hypocrisy. Hope it continues!

[coloradodem2005]

8. How? What are some examples of this?

n/t

[LeftCoast]

9. I'm thinkin specifically of the UUC (?)

The church with the anti-exclusionary advertisements. I may have gotten the name of the church confused though...

[coloradodem2005]

11. UCC?

United Church of Christ?

[LeftCoast]

13. That's probably it

In any case, I hope to see other groups take similar action. Obviously, it was very effective considering how agitated some on the right got over it.

[coloradodem2005]

14. You don't think they are an evangelical church do you?

I have seen flyers etc. advertising for evangelical churches that talk about loving you and accepting you as you are, that is until you are more and more in and want to make you conform to their wishes.

[LeftCoast]

18. Not sure what you mean by 'evangelical'

I thought evangelical just meant a Christian church that 'evangalized' or promoted their faith?

[coloradodem2005]

20. Evangelical in the Christian conservative way.

Evangelicals.

[LeftCoast]

24. So they're engaging in a sort of religious bait and switch?

Hadn't really been aware of that, but all things considered, I guess it's not that surprising.

[wicket]

12. It will continue :)

My church (United Church of Christ) is only just getting started, check out some of the current actions: http://www.ucctakeaction.org/action/

[Just Me]

15. Yes. They are growing in strength and direction.

Methodists, Sojourners, Interfaith Alliance,...good grief,...there are so many!!! They will make their voices heard.

The Beatitudes are fabulous to pop on the fascist fundies, that radical group which has gotten way too much media attention and is spreading hatred, intolerance and division.

[coloradodem2005]

16. I know about sojourners. I get emails from them.

n/t

[bloom]

19. I think the fundies like verse 10

"Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "

My (fundy) brother sent me info about the poor persecuted "christians" who were convicted of felonies because they "read their Bibles" to people at a gay parade.

Somehow I don't think the "christians" were telling the whole story.

[wicket]

7. It's Jesus' Sermon on the Mount

And his words are routinely ignored by the "Christian"-right.

[Joe Chi Minh]

25. When I read them,

I feel a sense of immense gratitude on Christ's part, as he addresses the kind of people he was born into and grew up with, the "anawin", the pious poor, well, really the poor generally, as we come to realise as we read the Gospels.

Jesus seems to be thanking them for teaching *him* the true priorities in life, not by words, but by the very actions and attitudes that express their *truly* religious values, in the very hard and difficult circumstances of their daily lives; and also to encourage them, to let them know that the routine daily heroism of their lives was not going unobserved or unappreciated by God.

I read an astonishing thing about the portrayal of the Sermon on the Mount in a film on Jesus' life, directed by Zeffirelli. (To me, it seemed a chocolate-box version of the Gospels. The greatest film on Christ I have seen was The Gospel,of St Matthew by Pier Paolo Pasolini). Anyway, the actor portraying Christ was Jonathon Powell, I believe. And I was astonished to read something that seemed to me to really resonate with my belief regarding this pervasive spirit of gratitude I sensed being expressed by Jesus. Jonathon Powell said something to the effect that, when about to begin his speeech, and looking at these poor people playing the extras, he felt overcome by emotion. I can't remember the exact words of his I read in the newspaper, but it was something like that. In one of the descriptions of this beautiful episode in the Gospels, I like it that Jesus - if my memory serves me - is described as standing on a level spot and looking up at his listeners.

Since he was true God and true Man, he would have learned in the same we that we do, in the school room (whatever its form), experimentally, i.e by personal experience, and we are told, elsewhere, through suffering.

Of course, he would have been immensely more receptive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, which coordinates the strands of our intelligence, and can make a manual-working person man, very wise, and by default, an "intelligent" man, an utter fool.

This led to many hilarious passages in the Gospels, where Jesus evidently could not grasp the gulf between what he understood and what his disciples were able to. On one such occasion, he reproaches them for not understanding the basic nature of the Holy Trinity. "Philip" (or Thomas), when you see me, he once said, "you see the Father. The Father and I are one".

Well, it took the Church Fathers (ecclesiastical writers of the early centuries) three or four hundred years, I believe before they came to understand (in the simplest terms) and define the Holy Trinity; so the poor apostles - well, I suspect I'm just more frivolous - but I can't help wondering if, on such occasions, they kind of looked at each others with sidelong glances, as much as to say, "Hey oop, he's off again". I wonder how long it'll take for us to get a handle on that...". Though evidently, and understandably, they must have been in total awe of him, too respectful probably to even think of joking about it among themselves.

Anyway, I believe it is one part of Christian Scripture, the sublime beauty of which no-one has denied, but all have recognised. "Christianity", as Chesterton once observed, "has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found hard, and left untried". One day the Church we are able to constitute may be built upon those principles, and that will be some day.

PS: I found the site given by ColoradoDem2005 at the foot of his post (which I have just read) very interesting and instructive. But one thing I would suggest is that in the Fourth Beatitude, the hungering and thirsting for justice seems to me likely to refer to the establishment of universal justice, justice for all, as well as personal growth in holiness.

[ET Awful]

6. Odd, I don't see a "Blessed are the arrogant, hate-filled, warmongering,

puppets of the neocon death-cult."

[coda]

22. LOL nt

[BlueRogue447]

10. Taking the bible

It is most sad that most of the religious right only take some of the bible to quote and not the good stuff like this. They should be more focused on this stuff and not the stuff in the old testment as much.

[Mz Pip]

17. Maybe what we need to do

is get state wide petitions going for a constituional ammendment to have the Beatitudes placed in all public buildings.

The God of the Old Testament was a vengeful and jealous God. He seemed to mellow out over the years as is reflected in the New Testament.

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[bloom]

21. um, no...eom

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

26. I agree...

and in fact, pay very little attention to the old Testament. After all, someone who call themselves a Christian ought be following the life and teachings of Christ, should they not?
Since the New testament is defined as starting with the birth of Christ,who really cares about what happened prior to that? I sure don't.
Otherwise, why not refer to themselves as Old Testamenters?

[JohnOneillsMemory]

23. Bingo. Republicans support EUGENICS. Out them with PROPER-GANDA

I hope this makes sense to the many new DU-ers who are only just starting to try and understand why so many good people embrace terrible things and call it 'morality' and what to do about it.

Psychology is the most important tool for understanding how we got into this mess and why.

Left, Right, Center comprise a FALSE VOCABULARY TO CONFUSE THE ISSUE
OF KILLING PEOPLE FOR MONEY.

Some people get the scam and some don't and enable it creating a very confused American public
1) Those who kill people for money and hide the evidence
2) Those who don't and fight to expose the evidence

This polarity of awareness within the two main political parties alienates some who choose to sit between murder and justice and call this 'Centrism.' But denying justice is not moderation, it is STILL INJUSTICE.

"Because I don't trust the 'radical fringe' who want to either
1) throw all the Jews in the oven (right wing)
OR
2) throw none of the Jews in the oven." (left wing)

"Yes, all things in moderation. So the right answer is in the middle.See? Politics is all about...compromise.
-Compromising your values." (DLC/DNC)

The Tactic We Must Deal With Or Die:
Psy-ops culture war tactics of Orwellification-
'Weaponize the good, demonize the outraged liberals who protest this.'

This is the way the domestic culture war (psy-ops propaganda to intentionally stir people up and chill dissent) works:

Take something, like the US government, do terrible things with it.

Then, when liberals criticize the terrible things, claim they are criticizing the good part and so 'liberals must be bad.'

"They hate us for our freedom."
"They are jealous of our virtue because they are sooooo bad."
Amazingly, this really resonates in A MASTER RACE MENTALITY!

OR:

Neo-cons put a baby in hot water.
Liberals accuse them of abuse.
Neo-cons claim that 'liberals hate babies.'

Christmas has been weaponized the exact same way.

Neo-cons use religion to kill people with the New Crusades.
Liberals cite First Amendment separation of church and state.
Neo-cons claim that 'liberals hate God, Jesus, Santa, etc.'

Neo-cons use our children as troops to kill for oil.
Liberals scream bloody murder.
Neo-cons claim 'liberals hate our troops.'

That last one is the most dangerous because it will lead to a Tienanmin Square situation where our own troops will be called in to stomp on 'enemies of the state' or PROTESTERS.
http://museums.cnd.org/June4th/massacre.html
(Photos of Tienanmin Square Massacre of Protesters)

The Inaugaral parade will see Bush* literally hiding behind our troops so that the hostility of the protesters will be used to claim that liberals are against the troops 'just like the Fallujan insurgents.'

Unh-oh. Orwellification of 'save our troops from war' into 'kill our troops by not supporting the war.'

January 20, 2005 is the next big psy-op event to create a Brown Shirt movement in this heavily armed and polarized country.

SO...

Re-Orwellification OR Flipping the Polarity on Evil Back to Good:

The Master Race mentality of American Exceptionalism Saving the World and the Christian-Inanity of being the wrathful smiting 'Chosen Few' are the binary agents of American Fascism.

There's no time to back up 358 degrees to explain to the public how the democratic humanity of 'We the People'+'All God's Children' has been perverted into American fascist 'Divine King Stomping out Satanic Infidels.'

SO FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE! CHANNEL THE PASSION FOR VENGEANCE INTO
A PASSION FOR JUSTICE! People WANT to be part of a dramatic movement in their lives which TV has turned into a movie script starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Indiana Jones, and Mel Gibson fighting evil.

Fight propaganda with...PROPER-GANDA!!!
I recommend pushing forward just 2 degrees USING those so so deeply entrenched-through-propaganda attitudes with a campaign of renewed reverence for

1) The Bill of Rights and US Constitution
2) Jesus' teachings about caring for the poor and needy.

These are the tenets of The American Revolution AND Jesus Christ AND liberalism!!

We must flip the polarity of these ideas back to caring for ALL people instead of Republican Eugenics that justifies death by both poverty and war as being necessary 'collateral damage' for the greater good of the herd.