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stella40 -> RE: For those of a christian bent.... (6/5/2007 6:05:27 AM)
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I don't mean to cause anyone any offence, but here I have my own theory.
Jesus so far has been the only leader of a sect to take on mass organised religion and win. As a leader of a sect he was unbeatable, unstoppable, he could perform miracles, he could magic fish and bread out of thin air, he could cure sickness, and also turn water into wine. What with all that bread and wine Christians must have had a lot of fun, the Last Supper must have been such a party, you can see this just by looking at the paintings and you see them having to hold onto the table to keep their balance.
No other sect leader can ever hope to compete, Jesus was incredibly intelligent, he was a fantastic teacher, he had his head screwed on right, he WAS the example, and he spoke the truth. Now he could have just turned to his disciples and said 'hey guys, why don't we just cut the BS and give it to the people straight?' But he couldn't.
You see at the time you had King Herod, who from what I can gather was a bit dim and an advocate of taxation. You also had the Jews with their many gods, and not only that - just like today the Iraqis have to put up with US and British soldiers - they had the Romans to deal with. Jesus couldn't just come out with the line 'this is all BS, there is one God and you do it this way' or they would have had him much earlier.
And this is why Jesus spoke in Aramic, and also told stories and parables. The message was no longer straightforward, you had to think to get the message. This helped the authorities to perceive him as some sort of harmless religious nutter who went round, preached, performed miracles, and so on. But all the time he was preaching the message, 'there is but one God', he was converting people, he was pioneering what many perceive today to be modern religion. He was changing the way people looked at religion.
He never said (as far as I am aware) "BDSM is the way, the truth and the light, no one gets to heaven except by way of a munch."
He said, "I am the way, the truth and the light, and no one gets to heaven except through me."
And I'm sure he never said, "Husbands pick up Thy floggers and smite Thy wives whenever they show disobedience."
There is nothing which states that Jesus was into BDSM or not. Most likely he wasn't, it just didn't float his boat.
But not everyone agreed with Jesus. And he was getting popular, something of a real celebrity, and this worried his critics. It was starting to worry the Jews, because Jesus was about to show just how much crap they were talking, and so animosity towards him grew. Had Jesus had had access to television and the Internet he might have got the message across much quicker but we are talking 2,000 years ago. Jesus was becoming a threat to the Establishment. And so, when Judas took the cash and snitched on him, they took him and gave him a mock trial and executed him by crucifixion. But Jesus did foresee this, and he did tell people 'I am suffering for the sins of others'. (Some people have taken this to mean 'I am being killed just so you can sin' but I doubt this is what he really meant).Upon death on the cross Jesus Christ became God.
But maybe he intended to get round to writing the New Testament or getting others to write it. Who knows? He might have wanted to change the format of the Bible and give it to people straight. But it didn't happen that way. No, the Gospels were written in the form of stories, in the same format as Jesus told them, probably verbatim, and this formed the New Testament.
Now this is the way the Bible is - it is a collection of stories. It appears contradictory in many places, it requires reading and interpretation, and thinking. Now most Christians know this, they do think, and they have worked out the message which Jesus wanted and they base their lives on his values.
But many haven't. And this is where I have an issue with Christianity, as I have with Islam - they appear to be the only two major religions which still have an issue with the equality of the sexes and with modern society.
A Muslim husband has the right to chastise and punish his wife, for it is written in the Koran. We can also consider what happens to a Muslim woman if she decides to cheat on her husband in a Muslim country. We can also consider what happens if a Muslim man chooses to cheat on his wife in a Muslim country. We can also compare the significant difference between the two fates.
I view DD in Christianity in quite the same way. This is the big issue I have with both Christianity and Islam - too much is based on the books and not enough on the core values. Don't have to look hard to find someone prepared to quote the Bible to justify something. In fact quite regularly I receive long e-mails from a woman with extracts cut and pasted from the Bible telling me how I am so going to burn in Hell when I die.
Okay, so why don't I just judge everybody else on the basis of The Complete Works of Charles Dickens? Why not? It's full of stories like the Bible, it has a message just like the Bible. Even better, why don't we base our system of government on The Complete Works of Dickens?
It makes me laugh when I hear Christians telling me you don't have to believe everything, you can accept what you want and reject what you want. This appears to be so true it seems when it comes to the Ten Commandments. What is the deal here, 'Pick any five from ten'? And how does the Catholic Church manage to justify its attitude towards gays and lesbians when Jesus clearly said 'love thy neighbour'? Why, by quoting from the Bible of course.
And no doubt DD in Christianity is taken from the same source.. the Bible. Just as some may condemn people for practising BDSM.. because "it says in the Bible.." You can justify or condemn anything by quoting the Bible.
I am not anti-Christian. I am not a hypocrite. I was raised a Scottish Protestant, but since the age of 17 I have been a Theravada Buddhist, a liberal form of Buddhism with values not unlike the 15th Century Catholic Church, but obviously I adapt my beliefs to my life and modern society.
However I don't pick and choose the core values, I live my life according to the Five Buddhist Precepts, I tend to keep my religious beliefs to myself and I don't foist it on others. I don't go round quoting the Pali Canon, the Kama Sutra or the Dhammapada, I don't judge others and I don't condemn people for living or believing differently from me.
But what I have given here is MY interpretation, MY perception and MY view.
And my view is I take a dim view of anyone who perceives women to be inferior to men if it's justified on the grounds of religion and that belief is based on something which is written in a book.
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