Studying the Bible: liking Jesus, hating what has been done to his image

[greekspeak]

As a teacher of religion I find myself liking a certain peasant carpenter of early Roman palestine. According to the stories, he drifted around Palestine breaking down the walls social convention had so carefully built. He embraced women as real live human beings. He scornfully attacked the dogma of his own religion. He demanded the poor be cared for properly. He told parables whose heros were the poor, the disabled...the basically powerless. This man was a RADICAL in his day, and he suffered terribly for it.

Yet this man became an excuse for gay bashing, woman abasing, race segregating, greed justifying, killing, etc. How can so many who claim to follow his teachings today do just the opposite of what he taught? I have my theories, looking to history and basic human nature as models for bases. But on a more metaphysical level, I stare at the records of Jesus and what has been done in his name. I marvel at the discrepencies, the hypocracies. And I think... WWJD?

[DistressedAmerican]

1. Strongly Agreed!

[tavalon]

2. Pretty sad, eh?

WWJD? Probably hang his head in sadness and shame, wondering how they could have perverted his message so completely.

[ewagner]

3. It was a real

"whadda, whadda" moment for me when I read a quote that said that both The Buddha and Jesus would be shocked if they came back today and found that they were being worshipped by name.

When I actually stopped and thought about all I had learned through Church, Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, etc....it occured to me that I had unconsciously slipped into the trap.....

[greekspeak]

4. Reading the Bible, one cannot make it out of Acts without infighting

Paul's letters, Acts, Revelation, etc. are all full of infighting among Christians within a few generations of Jesus' passing. It is not even clear that there was "Christianity," outside of a Jewish sect, before the leaders were sweating the little stuff.