I love Jesus!

[Proletariat]

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[Paragon]

1. Could you explain your Buddhist crack?

Since you want respect for your your beliefs and all.

[BeFree]

2. Jesus

When one has knowledge of the things Jesus taught us, one can't help but begin to love Jesus. If one knows nothing of him or his teachings, how can one begin to have love?

Peace

[hexola]

3. I love Jesus, too

But I don't consider him my lord and saviour. One of my favorite prophets though...

Some of my close mid-thirties friends have recently become much more devout...You'd be suprised (or maybe you wouldn't) how much of the in-church hypocricy they see...they want god removed from the government...off the money...out of the courts...they don't want anything to do with the government...especially when it comes to thier religion.

I have to agree. Our legal and moral systems should be seperate. They will both be stronger that way...

They actually give me hope for greater X-tianity...

[harrison]

4. Well, all this talk about Christianity and religious beliefs has forced

me to think about a few things.

Jesus was a Jew and who is to say that Jesus was even about starting a new religion. I tend to think he was more of a radical seeking the reformation of Judaism in that point in time.

As a professor of mine in theology told the class one time, how do you even define the term "christian" these days. In the early days, christian actually meant "little Christ." Somehow, I have a hard time imagining Falwell as a "little Christ."

I think there is a distinct difference between Christianity and Christendom. Christendom, with all its concomitant doctrines, institutions, etc. have done most of the religious damage in the world. As some wag once observed, "Christianity must have a marvelously inherent power, else the churches would have killed it long ago."

I am also reminded of a conference that was held some years ago which included priests and mystics from different religions. Before the conference was concluded, all the priests from the different religions were arguing among themselves, but all the mystics from the different religions were finding agreement in their mystical experiences.

Finally, fundamentalists of any stripe or philosophy, be it Christianity or Islam, or the left or the right, are always the most dangerous because they leave no room for error. They think that they have all the truth, and if you don't believe the way they do, then you are to be vanquished.

It is very rare that liberal theologians who are much more tolerant of dissent show up on mainstream tv. Probably, their message of inclusiveness doesn't get good ratings.

Finally, I am reminded of two quotes. The first is by Miguel de Unamuno, a Spanish Philosopher who stood up to the fascists in the 1930's: "Those that believe that they believe in God, but without passion in their hearts, without anguish in mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, without an element of despair even in their consolation, believe only in the God idea, not God Himself."

The second is by theologian Reinhold Nierbuhr: "Politics of God is of the devil."