Matthew 5:3-12, or why I consider myself a Christain Buddhist Jedi

[Melodybe]

Matthew 5:3-12:
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

For all you fundies out there, read this passage a 1000 times and then ask yourself why god would ever support an evil man like George W. Bull shit.

[Kire]

1. Especially, 5:11 the "for my sake" part.

When you tell me I'm anti-christian, you're really giving me a blessing. Thank you, Fundie.

[Wetzelbill]

2. ahh....the Beatitudes...Jesus' sermon on the Mount

nothing more important in all of the bible.

[TomClash]

14. This is so true

So much talk about the Stations of the Cross - what about the Beatitudes? If you're fixated on that, you can't exactly proceed to invade other countires.

[burythehatchet]

21. As a Hindu, I find the beatitudes one of the most beautiful

writings.

[DanCa]

3. How can anyone be a conservative and a christian

After readding that is beyond me. Allthought I consider myself more like a christo kryptonian elton john follower. Cmon just listen to the first few bars of yellow brick road and tell me the man is not channeling something divine :D

[renate]

4. people who call themselves Christian and conservative

are just brainwashed. Pure and simple.
I pity them, honestly. Can you imagine going through life like that?

[DanCa]

5. Lol renate I know what you mean

Unfortunately my sister selene is like that . Very hard nosed and conservative. She says to me all the time I shouldn't criticize the crawford coward because he signs my ssdi checks and I should be greatful. Yeah fundies revere the sacred heart because they dont use thiers.

[USA_1]

17. Bush suxx

the crawford coward because he signs my ssdi checks and I should be greatful


The difference is that you and I and everyone here pays for ssdi whereas Bush and his reich wing conspirators do not pay a cent in taxes.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

24. Unlike us ordinary people,

Bush doesn't pay FICA on the majority of what he earns from income and investments.

And having never received a check from the SSA, I don't know who signs them, but I doubt it's Bush.

[FreedomAngel82]

28. If you think about that

today's republicans/conservatives aren't the true one's (see Teddy Roosevelt).

[Warren DeMontague]

6. "What's so special about the Cheesemakers?"

"Well, it refers to any maker of.. dairy products"



Sorry, couldn't resist.

Yeah, Jesus had it goin' on. I personally think his aim, like Buddha's, was the liberation of the collective self, the reunification of consciousness with our true nature - whatever that means.

But it's most of his fan club, IMHO, that garbled the message.

[Melodybe]

7. yep

[DanCa]

8. Jesus Buddah Gandhi men of peace rock .

But you are right about Jesus fan club. I think Mother Terresah said it best "I don't fear god, just those that fear him."

[Tamyrlin79]

9. It means that...

the consciousness of individuals will know how they relate to one another in a collective, unified whole...

My interpretation, anyway.

[Hekate]

10. So little talk about posting the Beatitudes...

...so mucy blather about posting the Ten Commandments. Odd, from people claiming to be followers of this gentle man.

Also don't think the ultra-fundies would ever understand that Jesus is, in his own way, a bodhisattva.

namaste,

Hekate

[FreedomAngel82]

29. And even with the Ten Commandments

God told us to put them on our hearts and minds. Never did God say to put them everywhere in the government. :eyes:

[Hekate]

34. Right: Hearts, minds, doorposts, teach them to your children...

..."Remember all My mitzvot and do them." It's actually a beautiful passage, and a beautiful piece of the shabbat liturgy.

When people have "inscribed" the commandments and meritorious acts (mitzvah means both) on their hearts and have taught them to their kids, they don't need to install stone replicas in courthouses, much less use them to metaphorically bash other people and threaten them with damnation. (Simply inscribing them on the doorposts as instructed would involve slipping a tiny scroll in a tiny flat box and nailing it in place.)

That's a big part of my problem with the wingnut-Christians who want to hang the 10 Commandments in public places -- it is not a meritorious act on their part, it is a bullying tactic. And that, of course, is why I bring up the Beatitudes -- they are the antithesis of bullying.

Hekate

[banjosareunderrated]

11. perhaps going over the line, but xtain rightys are nothing more than klans

(wo)men hiding behind a book. Like the idiots that couldn't figure out a Hardy Boy story, they're the morans that only read the first half and put it down claiming to be well read.

We as americans, and as a world's people, need to quit with the kid gloves and stop giving this hate group umbrella protection as a religion.

Maybe I'm not real clear on the nuances of our constitution, but in my little brain, freedom of religion doesn't mean that followers of said religion can use their faith to demean, belittle, ostracize, denounce, disenfranchise, or berate ANY other American. That means man or woman. 6th generation or naturalized citizen, christian or hindi, muslim or atheist, agnostic or detroiter. To use any faith, or lack thereof, to preach violence against any other American is in direct violation of our constitution. It is very clear. The freedom OF religion is also freedom FROM religion. And our constitution has NOT ONE WORD that can be used to apply different state or federal law to any man or woman, regardless of sexual orientation. Therefore, any state or federal law that recognizes the union of marriage only in cases of male and female union are, inherently, unconstitutional.

To use christianity as an argument against homosexual union, at least as the issue applies to state and federal law, in the United States of America, is treason.

"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court."

As homosexuality IS NOT and WiLL NOT be illegal, those people that call for any gay american citizen to be denied the rights of another because they are a homosexual--well those fucks are guilty of treason in the sense that they are engaged in a war against our fellow americans. And if you don't think that the xtian right is engaged in a literal war to violently get rid of homosexuals, you're naive. If you simply tolerate them, you are giving aid to an active enemy of our country. And you're just as guilty.

[FreedomAngel82]

30. That's what is really sad and scary

If you haven't I recommend the doc "Army of God."

[banjosareunderrated]

33. I've seen it. and been disturbed more than I care to think.

The ease of which the false religious use "God" as a reason to kill...

I know there are progressives on this board that believe in God but I couldn't care less if you get fucking huffy and offended that 'gasp', "my faith has just been questioned." The majority of Christians in this country are using their faith as an excuse to hate. To hate gays. To hate muslims. to hate themselves.

Perhaps Jesus died for our sins because he was 1/2 divine. And perhaps he knew that his followers would one day beat my younger brother within an inch of his life for being gay. I'm sure he's cool with that. After all, the OT says that it is a sin for a man to lie down with a man.

In a way, i guess it's ok for the slow minded to have something to hook their feeble minds to. Keep praying morans, i hope it makes you feel better. And just remember, the book upon which you place everything is the same book that 3 necks from Roseville, MI used to excuse their barbary against a young man that has never hurt a fly.

[evilqueen]

38. question authority

Perhaps if they spent more time questioning their own faith and the most vocal proponents of it, there would be less time spent questioning others' faiths (or lack thereof). Overall, I find that the more extremist the religionist, the less willing to question (anything) they are. (Broad generalization here, ymmv or other exceptions may apply.)

I will say, however, that imho pretty much every "holy" or sacred text ever written was written with an agenda in mind, and usually it has nothing to do with the Creator. Most are, in fact, not very inclusive to women (roughly half the world's population).

[markus]

39. Some are the Klan, some are the White Citizens Council

What troubles me is not the openly hate filled churches. They're almost as easy to identify as the skinheads. It's their fellow travelers and useful idiots, like the Catholic Church and its endorsement of the gay marriage amendment hear in North Dakota.

While that endorsement was the last straw for me, I'd had enough interaction with the local clergy to know that some of them were probablyu troubled by the new bishop's boisterous support. But you lay down with dogs, you get up with fleas. They will have to confront the issue that they have joined in with the open bigots, and explain themselves.

Again, the radical clerics are so selective in their reading of the Bible, that you could probably find any number of passages that preach against their ideology, and they will cheerfully find references from the old testmement or the back of the book to support their position.

I say it's time to toss out the Old Testament and the glosses in the back, and just take the Gospel as the only really useful text. If I ever make my peace with Xianity again, it will be somewhere in that space.

[oscar111]

12. "the Cradle and Crucifiction", never what came between.

best summary of the flaw of RW fundies that i have seen.

Another sum-up is :

"they never preach about what Jesus said".

[Solomon]

13. That's right. Go to church and listen to the "sermons". They invoke

the name of Jesus, but they preach Paul. I guarantee you. Every sermon is about what Paul said.

[DoYouEverWonder]

18. If Saul hadn't become Paul

the whole world would probably have been better off.

Paul blended Jesus with his pagan god Mithras and Christianity has never been the same since. In the meantime, the followers of Paul began to do whatever they could to destroy and hide Jesus's true teachings. What most fundies practice today has little to do with anything that Christ was about.

When they're not quoting Paul, then they are quoting some of the worst parts of the Old Testament. Apparently, they never read the part about Jesus telling everyone that he was the fulfillment of the OT and that the old rules no longer applied.

Now 2000 years later the corruption is rampant. The fundies are definitely in need of some serious reprogramming.

[blindpig]

19. Let's not forget Calvin

Man, but the damage that anal pos did! The icing on the cake of christofascism.

[Swamp Rat]

35. Calvin rules dude!

Literally! :D

[Nobody]

36. Was he the one that started the whole predestination thing?

And if I understand predestination correctly, it goes like this:

When you're born, you're already assigned to either heaven or hell and nothing you do in life will change that.

If that's true, why bother? Why bother to do good when evil is so much more profitable? Why bother to obey all those silly rules? Why bother to tithe? Why bother to go to church? Why bother to do anything you don't have to? And yet, people DID bother. Why? This is the part I truly don't understand.

[blindpig]

41. what follows is what's really ugly

since it's all a done deal it's assumed that those who are "blessed" on Earth with wealth or power are of the elect, the poor are damned anyway.

Sounds like the operational assumption of the rich, at least the crowd currently in charge. Perfect for neocons.

[FreedomAngel82]

31. I have noticed that

All the people like James Dobson and Randall Terry etc. all never quote the gospel books which are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I go to a Church of Christ and my preacher usually has pretty good stuff to teach about that has something to do with our lives. He never preaches about hate or anything like that and he always refers back to one of the gospel books but he does reference to other Biblical scriptures in the Bible that go along with what he's talking about.

[TomClash]

15. I'm not so sure about the cradle part either

Joseph and Mary were too "homeless."

[DoYouEverWonder]

20. They were not homeless

Joseph was a carpenter (at least according to the legend) and had a home. They were in Bethlehem for the census and the place was packed. No one could get a room anywhere because all of the inns were already booked up. That was why they ended up spending the night in a manger/barn. After that they went home, but then Herod went nuts and decided to kill the first born male of every Jewish family so they fled to Egypt where they spent the next 12 years. They must have had some resources in order to be able to make a big move like that you would think?

[TomClash]

22. Fine I know all that

But on the night of Jesus' birth did they have a place to stay? What do you think the point of that is?

[DoYouEverWonder]

23. It's just another part of the Jesus myth

most of which could use some serious debunking.

[markus]

16. But the Radical Clerics only grok 6, 10, 11 and 12

And we all know what they're idea of righteousness is.

[Melodybe]

25. kick cause I like the discussion in this thread

[Melodybe]

26. kick

[Nobody]

37. Pharisees

That's exactly what they are. And Jesus railed against them throughout the whole gospels. This is why you don't hear Jesus' words through the noise of the Augustines, Aquinases, Calvins, and all others who would twist the original message. BEcuae they are the neoPharisees.

[FreedomAngel82]

27. In general the religion of Christianity is positive but

man have changed it so much over time and organized religion and personal agenda's and everything.

[DanCa]

32. Agreed

All the best laid plans of mice and men and all that.

[banjosareunderrated]

40. two-hooved kick

:kick: