Christian theology would be much better without theologians.

My favorite comment of the day

We make the hurricanes.

Since joining the Eastern Orthodox Church, I’ve found it interesting realizing that the Wrath of God concept wasn’t articulated until Martin Luther and has no place in Orthodox theology. Christian theology would be much better without theologians.

“I distrust those people who
know so well what God wants
because I notice it always coincides
with their own desires.”

BTW, do you ever wonder why people never blame the routine flooding of the Mississippi River on “God’s Wrath” against people in the region?

I think most self-proclaimed Christians, even liberal Christians, get Jesus wrong (down to what his name actually is – Yeshua the Messiah) and almost everyone who uses the bible to argue a point has an agenda, myself included.

Christianity in America is a competing marketplace of ideas full of entrepreneuers, kinda like a big giant God Supermarket. People like myself steer clear of the middle aisles that contain all of the shelf-stable, high in sugar, nutrionally suspect products and try to stick to the margins, where the whole foods are.

If we were to find James Hartline on one of the shelves, I think he’d be a sugar-frosted, Pop Tart (that’s gone rancid).

On Paul, I think scholarship is changing the perspective we’ve had about Paul for many centuries. Garry Wills has a book called “What Paul Meant” that attempts to salvage Paul’s reputation for liberal Christians, such as Paul not being mysogynistic whatsoever or totally hung up on sex.

We’ll never know what the early Church left out of the canon, what they changed, or what was written by Paul and what was attributed to Paul. But even if you consider Paul to have hijacked the Religion Of Jesus and perverted it into the Religion About Jesus as How Paul Interprets It, Paul’s observations about faith and community still contain valuable lessons.

He forgets the pack he runs with lives to act “holier than thou” – even towards their own. And they could care less about puppets like James.

Do these people even care about what Jesus had to say or do just make things up as they go along?

I can’t help but think that for many conservative Christians Jesus is a collossal pain in the ass.

Yeah, they’re glad he died, but couldn’t he have kept his mouth shut? I mean all that stuff about loving your neighbor and doing good and caring for the less fortunate, sheesh. And the 25th Chapter of Matthew.. ugh, get rid of it; in it Jesus says that being decent to others is more important than being all religious.

Now Paul, on the other hand. He’d make a perfectly good savior. He said all sorts of things that could interpreted as keeping women subjugated and slavery in place and maybe (if you squint) even telling gays to go straight.

You know what kind of Christian you’re dealing with when the only use they can find in Jesus is Christmas and Easter.

I have some familiarity with these nuts. My own mother thought Hurricane Katrina was a god’s punishment. I love her, but she’s a religious nut.

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13-14

Or perhaps this?

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’ Matthew 7:21-23