I wasn't going to post anything today, due to lack of energy. Then I saw this tweet on Jim Wright's Facebook page. Here's an expanded version of my commentary there, just 'cause this shit pisses me off something fierce.
So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ~John 2:15.
If Jesus was back among us, he probably wouldn't give a shit about Man's Law (and God's law is not the same.) He would rightly call out the Police. Were He to pick up a weapon they might be surprised who He would fire it at, and Joe Walsh would then tweet "Crucify Him!!" which would then be retweeted by all too many of the Republican and Trumpist followers.
Jesus would also automatically understand that December 25th was a Pagan holiday because back in His day that's precisely what it was.
Jesus would call bullshit on Joe Walsh, because that's what Jesus did, and does. If your God isn't calling you out...then you need to make sure you have a real God and not just your own vain imaginings.
...And that's why they'd want to kill Him, Again.
I would like to point something out, right the fuck now. Years ago, when I was a kid and later a teenager, my Grandparents had this neighbor named Mr. Trim, who I never really talked to much until I was older and did work for them with my Grandpa. His wife was the religious one, not him so far as I know. He was a Korean War veteran and GM retiree. But, on the front of first their AMC Eagle, then their white 1992 4-door Chevy Blazer, there was this license plate.
It said "My boss is a Jewish Carpenter."
For anybody who knows anything, that's an obvious reference to Jesus, and His original religion and trade. But that's not the point.
The point is, "MY boss..."
I was raised Christian, I went to Christian schools, I was usually in church multiple times per week as a general rule. I was given to understand that YOU were supposed to be like Jesus, rather than trying to make Jesus be like you.
Oh yeah, every so often you'd see a picture of Jesus in some group's attire. I spent my early years in Michigan, mostly, with fair amounts of time in Arizona and California, and I've been around the country and around the world a little bit too.
I've seen Jesus painted as a Middle Easterner, I've seen Jesus statues that were in the style of carvings that Pacific Islanders use. Hell I once went to a church in Canada where there was a painting of Jesus in Native American garb on the back wall, and where the service was conducted in the Ojibwe language, with an English translator. Hell, I've been to a Pentecostal church in Jamaica where somebody had drawn a picture of a Black Jesus.
It is natural to want to see oneself in the image of God. The Bible says Mankind is created in His Image. That makes sense.
But, Joe Walsh isn't talking about outward appearances, not at all. Joe is saying things that go directly against what the Word says about the character and the conduct of Jesus. Jesus didn't have much use for Man's Law as the verse I used as a header points out.
Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. ~Matthew 26:52
Doesn't sound like a guy who'd likely be a gun owner, does it?
Don't get me wrong, Jesus was a carpenter, so in His day that likely made him a powerful man. Jesus was ALSO a Rabbi, which meant that physical strength was paired with a powerful intellect. I've done my share of carpentry work, working with my late grandfather. A lot of my friends and more than one of my Pastors down through the years have also been carpenters. More than one of those had also been a Sailor...and I am here to tell you that Sailors swear a lot. So do a great many Seminary graduates...including Jewish ones. Most Carpenters that I know, living the places I've lived, also deer hunt, a decent number were in the military at some point, Like Jesus with His whip...pretty much every carpenter I've ever known was decent at handling and using a weapon.
I've no issues with that, or with imagining a modern version of Jesus having a lot of these traits. If not all of them.
However, as somebody who spent most of his life as a Christian, I have all type of issues with appropriating Jesus as the Messiah of modern "Conservatism." (the quotes are there for a reason, there's not one damned thing conservative about most modern right-wingers, let alone the fucking Nazis.)
Go ahead, get out a Bible or just pull up http://biblehub.com/ and compare the teachings of Jesus Christ with the conduct and platform of the modern Republican Party, let alone Donald Trump. I'll wait, I've got all night. Read it for yourself, particularly the four Gospels, and then tell me what you think, but be prepared to show your work.
Understand this:
The Republican Jesus is Dead, and she was on Medicare and Social Security when she died.
Her name was Ayn Rand, and her own bullshit didn't even work for her.
Don't take my word for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhbE8NDTY0c
The link is to a video done by Chuck Colson in 2011.
Jesus wasn't a conservative, Jesus wasn't a liberal. Jesus was Jesus, and He kept His own counsel on political matters.
But He asks His followers to follow His ways.
...And more than a few Republicans are on record saying they prefer Trump to Jesus.
Jesus Christ asks us to die to Self, to sell all we have and give the money to the poor, and pick up our Cross and follow Him.
We can't even get Trump to sell all he has that he may obey the Constitution before he assumes the most powerful political office in the world.
Do you really want to take anything these Republicans are saying about Jesus seriously?
I know I don't. They'd call my [understanding of] Jesus a Terrorist.
If the real Jesus showed up, He could preach His Message right out of the Bible as written in it In the King James Version...and the right-wingers would shout "Crucify Him!" in the streets.
Isaiah 53King James Version (KJV)
53 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Can you really imagine *That* guy carrying a gun? Can you?
'Cause I can't.
...And something in my brain asks "Why would God need a gun?"
If you're not asking that...you should be.
...And if you have a problem with that statement then I have no problem calling YOU part of the problem.
If your understanding of God doesn't call bullshit on your bullshit, get a new one. Don't comfort me, tell me the Truth.
That's what I was taught. We are but travelers here.
Where we go in the next world depends on our actions in This life.
You can pick up your cross and follow Jesus, or you can pick up your gun and follow Joe Walsh.
But you ain't gonna end up in the same place either way. One of these things is not like the other one.
...
...And that, right there, is the Truth.
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