Something recently came up on a forum when we were
discussing God and religion. Some were
so put off by religion because of the hatred and violence that some
people practice in the name of religion.
The following are excerpts from my response
"If you look at
what Jesus taught his first commandment was to Love your Lord and God with all
your strength, mind and heart and His second commandment was to love your
neighbour as yourself. He further taught that one shall not judge and also
showed by example by what he did with the prostitute--he rescued her from the
self -righteous judgers."...
"We have to learn to differentiate the deeds of people
from the religion they claim to follow. Christ has not called on anyone to do
the things people are doing in His name. What Christ has said is written
clearly in the bible--believer or not one could do well to read what he
actually said and asked mankind to do. May be startled by the
discrepancy!"
There I was feeling very nice in myself when a lil voice comes along and points out a
few things. I'm not sure whether I can C&P her words out of the forum so
I'll just recant the gist--She basically recounted the biblical passages in the
NT where Jesus says that he has come to bring the sword and not peace, and she
also mentioned that Jesus said that unbelievers would be thrown into hell
fire.Her worst offender in the Bible was the verse in the OT that goes
something like thou shalt not suffer a witch to live and the atrocities
committed in its name.
Okay--I am now continuing after a few days gap. Tried going
to the bible for a look --just spotted one or two parts of what my friend asked
me.
You shall not permit a female sorcerer to live--Exodus
22:v18
The sorcerer is considered as an evil person
-http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sorcerer
sorcerer sorceress
noun magician, witch, wizard, magus, warlock, mage
(archaic), enchanter, necromancer In voodoo the sorcerer manipulates the
victim's symbolic image.
A person who uses the dark arts to wreck havoc and trouble
onto others. It is in this context that such a commandment is given to the
descendants of Abraham. Much like a murderer or robber in our society such a
person was feared and abhorred because of the havoc she could wreck on others.
It is one rule
amongst many others that if we look closely are rules given for their normal
day to day life i.e social laws. I would be the first to acknowledge that this
law in the later years of christianity has been twisted to serve the vested
interests of many power groups--take for instance the story of Joan of Arc.
When Jesus was questioned about the old testament laws such
an eye for an eye he replies saying that these were laws given because of the
hardness of their hearts and that what actually a man should be doing is to not
seek retribution but offer the proverbial other cheek.
to be continued...
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