I found this today and thought it was a great definition of the Jesus I was introduced to at one time, before others made him mean and vindictive, and when I moved away from all of it.

This is a Jesus I would have felt at ease with.

Article by (Link to article below)
Bryan Patterson
Sunday, December 17, 2006 at 12:01am


SOME of the best, most compassionate people I know don’t believe in God. And some of the believers I’ve met don’t exhibit much kindness towards their fellow humans. Quite the opposite.

Spiritual belief is a complex thing. It doesn’t necessarily guarantee good manners, or a sense of compassion and justice.

Too often, religion is equated with close-mindedness. Too often, religion is seen as a set of rules promoted by the self-righteous rather than a way for all of us to survive this tough life.

In some quarters, Christianity has been warped to such an extent that even Jesus might not recognise it.

Jesus was a radical on Earth whose essential message to love one another totally and unconditionally.

There are plenty of so-called believers who stir up hatreds, divisions and wars in the name of the Prince of Peace who preached forgiveness and love. There is a soppy version of Christianity that merely supports the economic status quo and ignores the world’s injustices.
But surely God considers economic injustice a sin.

And surely God is more concerned with us helping the poor than in banning gays from communion services. Surely demanding justice for all, regardless of race, religion or sexual preference, is more important than the promotion of that popular but vague concept ``family values’’.

The philosopher Soren Keirkegaard said the established Church was far more dangerous to Christianity than any heresy or schism.
We play at Christianity, he said. And the churches are our theatres.
Isaac Newton noted Christ founded no church, created no state, passed no law, established no government. His purpose was to place the law of God in the hearts of people, to make them self-governing.
No teacher ever showed more belief in the capacity of the ordinary man to think rightly.

No man ever spoke as he did of peace, suffering, redemption against all odds, and love.

He cared for the ill and poor, wanted his followers to give to the less fortunate, railed against materialism and opened his arms to outcasts.
He wanted us to live faithfully, lovingly and responsibly in a temporal world he knew would generally reject him and his ideas.

We are defined, at least partly, by what we yearn for. If we yearn for rules, we will surely find live our lives governed by them.
The Pulitzer Prize winning writer Gary Wills, in his book What Jesus Meant, said some Christians did not understand Jesus’ startlingly radical message. They missed the point that Jesus ``walks through social barriers and taboos as if they were cobwebs’’ Christ, whoever or whatever he was, was certainly not a Christian,’’ wrote Wills.

We must ask what Jesus meant by his strange deeds and words.’’
Wills said we could learn what Jesus valued ``in the human drama’’ by his actions.

According to the gospels, he preferred the company of the lowly and despised to that of the rich and powerful. He crossed lines of ritual purity to deal with the unclean, with lepers, the possessed, the insane, with prostitutes and adulterers. He was called an ``agent of the devil’’.
He was an outcast among outcasts, sharing the lot of the destitute, the defiled and the despised. He was born homeless and lived homeless throughout his public life.

He chose his followers from the lower class. He wrote nothing but depended on his uneducated followers to express what he meant. He trusted they would follow the spirit. He was never respectable.
He continues to be scandalous, even to some of those who claim to follow him.

Thomas Jefferson was so offended by the stories of Jesus performing miracles, cursing demons and healing hearts that he created his more acceptable Jesus. His shortened New Testament, devoid of anything supernatural including the Resurrection and with any challenging statements removed, is a dull read.

Jefferson’s Jesus is a wishy-washy humanitarian. The real one was, and is, a radical.

Jesus was not and is not the kitchy, dimestore caricature to which modern day Christians have reduced him,’’ wrote Gary Wills.

Jesus was a radical who died because he challenged everything considered sacred at the time and, if he was alive today, he would be a radical challenging precisely those hypocrites who purport to speak in his name.’’

Article found here: http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/faithworks/index.php/heraldsun/comments/why_some_christians_are_annoying/

Thats very nice.Thank you for sharing that with us.

I love the article

If I lived at that time I would have ran away with Jesus to China to find refuge. Then we would study Buddhism together each day

With his understandings and the Eastern philosophies he would ground a new belief system called Jesuhism. Today there would have been over 4 billion followers if he stayed alive long enough.


Don't mind me. I am a nutcase with a odd sense of dry humor and a vivid imagination.

Very good article you scrapped up. Good job

Dang that link stretched the page out. Maybe the powers that be could fix that code to prevent that.

Anyway I saw a documentary or show whatever that talked about Jesus having studied with monks of the budist type for an extended amount of time. I think this jesus and the way he was described to me at one time was perfectly in tune with Eastern thought. Don't know if I said that right.

All I know is that I always thought of Jesus as a balanced hippy sort of..

As nutcases go, you are one fine nutcase. Happy to know you.. grin! Now I thought I told you to get out of the house? HUH?

Yes, thank you for this post.

Hahah good read. I love cynics!

absolutely. I have a new years resolution. To get out of the house more and never come back

No no, now.. no getting carried away...

Truer words were never spoken.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Jesus would not be down with what Christianity or its followers have become. Wouldn't it be funny if he did come back and he was angry with all of them? Thats why I dont worry so much about it. I figure the real Jesus would not be so silly as to be upset with any of the non-believers. After all, who can blame us? He might even be a little sympathetic.

That would make your mother very happy to have you finally out of her basement.

Backatcha. I agree.

Why always me?