Jesus was a manual laborer who became homeless to travel and preach his message. He made a point to spend time with lepers and the dregs of society, tax collectors being the worse of them all, because they served the occupying army.
His message was for everyone to love each other. It wasn’t open to interpretation. He made no exceptions. The less fortunate and oppressed were even more deserving of love and support from individuals and from the community.
Thats what happens when people decide to interpret. Suddenly Jedus is white, despite that making NO sense, and the bible gets a sequal full of contradictions.
This isnt entirely true. In the fundie circles i grew up in, it was heavily encouraged to ready the bible cover to cover as many times as possible, on top of that required to memorize entire chapters. They know whats in there and they dont care. Thats even scarier imo.
You know how the Romans collected taxes in there less “Roman” providences? They have rich guys a contract to basically raise taxes and the rich guys payed up front what was owed for their division of it. Then they were allowed to collect taxes beyond what they paid the Romans to make a profit. This is mainly why they were hated so much. Many people might imagine some official going around and collecting taxes fairly, but the reality was they were operating much more like a Mafia extorting protection money out of people, and taking more then most people owed, often to peoples ruin or near ruin. You can also imagine how nepotic this becomes. People who have loyalty to the dominant ruling class would often catch a break, while those disfavored by the dominant faction would often be harassed.
It’s also the origin of some anti-semitic tropes. After Christianity rose to prominence in the Roman Empire, Christians considered lending money with interest to be a sin, so they were forbidden from working related jobs. This resulted in Jews, who were forbidden from owning land and many other professions, taking up the role of merchants, money lenders, and tax collectors. In the Christian view of the time, they were doing the “dirty work” because they were immoral and sinful, and the nature of the work made them easy scapegoats for many of society’s ills. The reputation has followed Jews into modernity.
You know Christianity is an offshoot of Judaism, right? How early roman christians viewed and treated Jewish people is reasonable context to include in a conversation about the history.
Sure it is, in the same way that Satanism is an offshoot of Christianity, I guess.
Perhaps that is not how it is practiced these days, but that IS how Christ intended it to be. Just read Matthew 23 in case you have any doubts. If that is not a scathing repudiation of any Rabbinic teaching that was around at the time, then IDK what is. If you can find a more eloquent way to say “shove all this crap up your own ass and die from it”, I can’t wait to hear it.
Remember, they had the guy killed just for saying that.
It was open to interpretation from the very beginning. Exemplified in the fact that the four canonically approved gospels (we will ignore all the non-canon gospels) are contradicting each other in various ways.
Fine if you choose the interpretation in your comment, but perhaps it would be even better not to let your life be ruled by what random persons made up in their fan fiction 2000 years ago?
I mean if you believe in God knowing everything and everything is happening because of his will, then that gives you the ability to rationalize everything, doesn’t it?
Oh you have cancer? God gave it to you, if you didn’t deserve it he’d have cured it. Done, use that everywhere: poor, homeless, immigrant, race, sick, traffic, lightening, flood, airplane crash, school shooting, …
That’s why blind faith is dangerous. And the idea of afterlife because they just do whatever now.
Jesus was a manual laborer who became homeless to travel and preach his message. He made a point to spend time with lepers and the dregs of society, tax collectors being the worse of them all, because they served the occupying army.
His message was for everyone to love each other. It wasn’t open to interpretation. He made no exceptions. The less fortunate and oppressed were even more deserving of love and support from individuals and from the community.
And yet, 2000 years later, here we are.
Thats what happens when people decide to interpret. Suddenly Jedus is white, despite that making NO sense, and the bible gets a sequal full of contradictions.
Jedus Chrisp
The problem is that you actually read the Bible. These “Christians” never have. They interpret all right but read…nah.
This isnt entirely true. In the fundie circles i grew up in, it was heavily encouraged to ready the bible cover to cover as many times as possible, on top of that required to memorize entire chapters. They know whats in there and they dont care. Thats even scarier imo.
Apparently they even have apps now that will pull out random quotes from their Bible to justify their attitudes.
You know how the Romans collected taxes in there less “Roman” providences? They have rich guys a contract to basically raise taxes and the rich guys payed up front what was owed for their division of it. Then they were allowed to collect taxes beyond what they paid the Romans to make a profit. This is mainly why they were hated so much. Many people might imagine some official going around and collecting taxes fairly, but the reality was they were operating much more like a Mafia extorting protection money out of people, and taking more then most people owed, often to peoples ruin or near ruin. You can also imagine how nepotic this becomes. People who have loyalty to the dominant ruling class would often catch a break, while those disfavored by the dominant faction would often be harassed.
Well that would certainly explain why the tax collectors get such a bad rap in the Gospels.
It’s also the origin of some anti-semitic tropes. After Christianity rose to prominence in the Roman Empire, Christians considered lending money with interest to be a sin, so they were forbidden from working related jobs. This resulted in Jews, who were forbidden from owning land and many other professions, taking up the role of merchants, money lenders, and tax collectors. In the Christian view of the time, they were doing the “dirty work” because they were immoral and sinful, and the nature of the work made them easy scapegoats for many of society’s ills. The reputation has followed Jews into modernity.
I’m honestly not sure how you’re helping defeat any stereotypes here because no one was even talking about Jews until you brought it up.
You know Christianity is an offshoot of Judaism, right? How early roman christians viewed and treated Jewish people is reasonable context to include in a conversation about the history.
Sure it is, in the same way that Satanism is an offshoot of Christianity, I guess.
Perhaps that is not how it is practiced these days, but that IS how Christ intended it to be. Just read Matthew 23 in case you have any doubts. If that is not a scathing repudiation of any Rabbinic teaching that was around at the time, then IDK what is. If you can find a more eloquent way to say “shove all this crap up your own ass and die from it”, I can’t wait to hear it.
Remember, they had the guy killed just for saying that.
It was open to interpretation from the very beginning. Exemplified in the fact that the four canonically approved gospels (we will ignore all the non-canon gospels) are contradicting each other in various ways.
Fine if you choose the interpretation in your comment, but perhaps it would be even better not to let your life be ruled by what random persons made up in their fan fiction 2000 years ago?
I’m sorry but in which one of the “canonical” Gospels does Jesus say fuck the poor and love yourself more than anyone else?
I mean if you believe in God knowing everything and everything is happening because of his will, then that gives you the ability to rationalize everything, doesn’t it?
Oh you have cancer? God gave it to you, if you didn’t deserve it he’d have cured it. Done, use that everywhere: poor, homeless, immigrant, race, sick, traffic, lightening, flood, airplane crash, school shooting, …
That’s why blind faith is dangerous. And the idea of afterlife because they just do whatever now.
All to true.
None of the four gospels are in contradiction at all with what Nobody@anarchist.nexus said. Not sure what your point is