[continued from previous message]   
      
   Ultimately all political exploitation comes down to the economic level. Jesus   
   made it crystal clear that the Jews should pay the Roman taxes, no matter how   
   much they may be. What justification did Jesus give for supporting the dubious   
   right of an    
   aggressive imperial power to tax its conquered colonies? Well, according to   
   Jesus, if one looks at an old Italian coin such as was common in Israel under   
   the Roman occupation, then one would see the face of Caesar on it, and some   
   superscription, no doubt    
   referring to the Roman Empire. Obviously, said Jesus, these coins belong to   
   Caesar, and so they should be returned to him. [240] Is it not absurd? The   
   coins of New Zealand picture different animals and plants on them. Does that   
   mean then that we should    
   render these coins unto the kiwis and the ferns?   
      
   Christian Love   
   Religion and politics often merge. Both religious and political leaders demand   
   a steadfast loyalty from their followers, and both types of leaders usually   
   try to establish themselves by humiliating others. Jesus carried these   
   tendencies to an extreme    
   rarely found in the annals of history. According to Jesus, “If any man come to   
   me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren,   
   and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple”. [241] What   
   type of love is    
   that which demands a person must hate others – especially those nearest and   
   dearest – and, further, that the person must “hate... her or his own life   
   also”? Surely this is not love at all, but rather hypnosis or, in modern   
   jargon, brainwashing.   
      
   We will do well here to look more closely at the Christian concept of love.   
   According to Jesus, the essence of all Mosaic law, and of the teachings by the   
   prophets, could be summarized in two basic commands. The first command is to   
   love God with all one'   
   s heart, soul and mind; and the second command is to love one's neighbor as   
   oneself. [242] Even if we concede that this doctrine of Jesus was consistent   
   with the first of the Ten Commandments in its demand for an undiluted love of   
   God (though this is not    
   at all the case [243] ), still it remains an undeniable fact that Jesus   
   contradicted the second commandment time and time again. Jesus always equated   
   love of God with love for himself. But, according to Jesus, a proper love for   
   himself, as mentioned    
   above, required a hatred for everyone else. So how is it possible for anyone   
   to fulfill Jesus' second command, which requires love for one's neighbors?   
      
   This inconsistency can be resolved only if we assume that Jesus never did   
   intend any great love for all humanity. If one is to love one's neighbor as   
   oneself, what sort of love should a person have for her or his own self? The   
   answer here is required for    
   an understanding of what kind of love is expected for one's neighbors. With a   
   little careful thought, one must realize that no encouragement was ever given   
   by Jesus for a person to love herself or himself. If anything, Jesus   
   encouraged the exact opposite    
   of love by constantly reminding people that they were evil and faithless   
   sinners. [244] Hence, to love one's neighbor as oneself implied no great   
   amount of love to Jesus. And, if we study our history books, we must come to   
   the same conclusion about    
   Christian love in practice – that is, it never really amounted to much.   
      
   Toward the end of his mission, Jesus gave his disciples a new and additional   
   command, that they should love one another. [245] Unfortunately, by that time   
   it was too late for Jesus to modify his position on the subject of love; and,   
   in consequence, this    
   last instruction of his could never be realized. Even had this brotherly love   
   been observed, the love Jesus was encouraging extended only so far as the   
   boundaries of the Christian community. In other words, here again we find not   
   a pure and unselfish    
   love, but rather a cheap and self-serving socio-sentiment – the same sort of   
   divisive, jingoistic nonsense that has helped to fuel countless wars to date.   
      
   If we are to be complete in our discussion of Christian love, we must also   
   look at its black counterpart, Christian hate. According to Jesus, those who   
   followed him were the children of God, and those who did not follow him were   
   the children of Satan. [   
   246] Ideas like this took whatever tolerance that may have existed in Judaism   
   and threw it out the window along with the Jewish form of monotheism. John,   
   the so-called “Apostle of Love”, amplified this theme in his First General   
   Epistle. “He that    
   committeth sin is of the devil .... whosoever is born of God doth not commit   
   sin .... Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh   
   is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in   
   the flesh is not of God:   
    and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should   
   come, and even now already is it in the world.” [247] In other words,   
   according to John, anyone who has faith in Jesus is automatically a child of   
   God and, therefore, cannot sin    
   (though, presumably, s/he is somehow still a sinner); whereas anyone who does   
   not have faith in Jesus is not only of the devil and possessed by the   
   antichrist, but automatically and invariably is of a sinful nature as well.   
   What a dangerous philosophy    
   that is. In the not-so-distant past, it was primarily this dogma (occasionally   
   supported by a few other illogical dogmas like it) which provided the impetus   
   for such horrors as the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Pogroms, and the   
   Holocaust. And yet,    
   regrettably, the vast majority of Christians all around the world still give   
   credit to this unhealthy creed, for it is inextricably entwined with the   
   fiction known as Christian love.   
      
   An Empty Grave   
   Apostle John records that Jesus once declared, “I am the bread of life....   
   whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life: and I will   
   raise him up at the last day.” John also records that, as a direct consequence   
   of those teachings, many    
   of Jesus' disciples “went back and walked no more with him”. [248] Not just   
   the Jews were offended by these words, even the Romans at first dismissed   
   Christianity as nothing but an unnatural and cannibalistic cult. And, despite   
   nearly two thousand years    
   of the Holy Communion service the peculiar notion of Eucharist is still   
   difficult for many people to digest. Iii fact, it becomes more repugnant when   
   one considers the ghoulish fascination which so many Christians display for   
   the image of their beloved    
   Master, flayed, hung up and nailed to a tree. [249]   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)