What Jesus Wouldn't Do

From AlterNet:

Christ instructs us to love our enemies, which does not mean a submission to their hostile agendas or domination, but does mean treating them as human beings also created in the image of God and respecting their human rights as adversaries and even as prisoners. The words of Jesus are either authoritative for Christians, or they are not. And they are not set aside by the very real threats of terrorism. The threat of terrorism does not overturn Christian ethics.

Click here for the rest.

This is, of course, the one thing that drives me absolutely bonkers about fundamentalist Christians: they preach love, but they live hate. The point made in the excerpt above was actully addressed during the run up to the Iraq invasion in a sermon by Dr. Ed Young at Houston Second Baptist Church (which, I might add, has just taken over Forest Cove Baptist Church in my old neighborhood Kingwood): apparently, Jesus was only talking about individual relationships, not war; Young didn't offer any explanation for this, no Bible verses--he simply declared it to be so. In an instant, Young changed "love your enemies" to "love your friends, but kill your enemies," and, poof, suddenly it was okay for Christians to cheer on the upcoming turkey shoot.

Jesus was a progressive leftist; there's no doubt about that. But conservative Christians are simply not rational. They don't even stick to their own rules about literally interpreting the Bible. Really, fundamentalists, in their rejection of reason and empiricism, exhibit cult-like behavior on a daily basis. How do you talk to lunatic cult members?

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