In honor of Jesus dying for our sins (and I guess being dead for today only), I perused this this guy’s weblog. It helped reaffirm my religious conviction. Culturally, there are many things about me that are peculiar to the time and place of growing up in a large Boston Irish Catholic family. But, as God is my witness, I am not of or about the Catholic church. At the end of the day I am no more Catholic than, I don’t know, Senator Lieberman, maybe? Of course, my lack of belief in God probably doesn’t help with the religiousity.
I read through the article he mocks, and I remember the feeling my mother always had of exclusion from her church. I think Jesus would wash the feet of both men and women and would have given shit to the pompous windbags who stress the symbolism of the apostles and mirroring their gender. It is interesting the collection of judgments that are implied in the articles and discussions on the website I linked. I wonder how close God would see the modern Catholics as being to the Pharisees.
So, by the last couple of paragraphs, I have firmly entrenched myself in a path to hell, whee, so onto the mundane and materialistic. Here’s a tip for modern living, never acquiesce to a customer service agent for a credit card company. I have a Discover card that I use like American Express; I use it and pay it off every month. Pretty much it was the card of choice for my vacation in March, so I easily racked up some debt over a grand, no big deal, I can pay it (else I wouldn’t have gone on vacation). A minimum payment was due last week of $10, and oops I spaced and didn’t pay it, and they turned off my card. So today, online, I paid the whole balance, and I shot them a phone call seeing whether I’d be able to go buy a new Easter outfit today.
I point out my excellent history with them, the fact I regularly pay my entire balance, the reality that I just paid, the absurdity that I owed $10 but just paid $1,000 + (to her I didn’t mention the absurd part), and ask if my privileges to charge can please be turned back on today before the payment can actually clear. NO NO NO, she tells me. The payment must clear or I must increase my credit limit, she tells me. Wait, I am not even near my limit, I point out, she corrects and actually says, “it’s the same difference,” the payment must clear. Again pointing out my history, I ask if there is anyone who can grant exceptions, anything that can be done. No, no one. Nonchalantly without affect or attitude, I ask to speak to a supervisor anyway, since I want to ask about something else.
About a minute of hold time, she’s back on the line. Voila, my card has been cleared, I am ready to go.
They actually make a completely unrisky bit of cash from people like me who like to clear their debt, but more than occassionally space out on payments. Why wouldn’t the supervisor say “YES.”
Finally, from spiritual to material to corporeal, here is my tip for better living through diet. You gotta try the new line of Cheerios. Words cannot describe the excitement I feel in anticipation of a bowl of this magical treat. Orgasms pail in their wonderment of next to contemplating how did Cheerios do it. It’s fruit in the bowl dessicated through science and reinvigorated with milk.
That is the resurrection and the light, real blueberries, bananas, strawberries and rasperries. A fitting breakfast for Easter.
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You claim “I think Jesus would wash the feet of both men and women and would have given shit to the pompous windbags who stress the symbolism of the apostles and mirroring their gender.”
Why do you think that the good Lord would wash the feet of men and women when the Gospels clearly say that he only washed the feet of the male apostles?
If any person in the history of the world deserved to have their feet washed it was Mary His mother.
In the Gospel accounts of the washing He does not wash Mary’s feet. I’m betting that He didn’t just forget about His mother.
I’m guessing that the heart of the issue is that you don’t believe the Holy Scriptures are inspired by the Holy Spirit and thus you don’t really believe that Jesus was God almighty.
And if that is the case why do you care a lick about what Jesus “would” do because if He is not God He was surely crazy. You can’t claim to be God, not be God, and be sane.
Very amusing. This guy’s site and this thread made me laugh out loud.
I wonder if people know that their prayering for you is actually insulting/annoying if
you don’t have the same believe system.
Stop praying for goodness sake and show by example of yourself, your children, you church that
you are living what you believe in. Does praying for others get you into heaven if you continue to sin?
I would hope not! Saying a pray is easy, living a “righteous” life is the hard part.
ps… I’m remebering some vague notion that christ never said he was god, but “the way”. I thought it was the early church fathers that defied him.
Actually, Christ identified himself with the God of Israel at various times in each of the Gospels, but most obviously in John–see, e.g., John 8:58, where he appropriates for himself the name of the God of Israel. Then there’s “doubting Thomas'” confession in John 20:28. The other NT writings also proclaim it, sometimes quite overtly–e.g., Phillipians 2:5-11. The idea that the divinity of Christ was something invented during the patristic era is a popular one (Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code is one of many), but mistaken.
While I don’t discount prayer, I agree that those who do only that are guilty of having faith without works–Christians have to walk the walk, as it were. Which they don’t do often enough–myself included.
Just a picky point here…if there’s a claim in John that Jesus is divine, it’s not Jesus who’s claiming it, it’s John, who wrote well after Jesus’ death and wouldn’t have had first-hand knowledge of anything Jesus said.
—
Rev. Tim
Rev. Tim:
Well, if you accept certain hypotheses of critical scholarship, perhaps. Many (including scholars) don’t. I agree with the latter camp.
Even critical scholarship would be hesitant in asserting that John–a record *completed* (as opposed to written entirely) sixty years after the crucifixion would be devoid of either eyewitness recollections or accurate records of the words of Jesus.
Hi, Liz:
I am one of the people who posts on Dom’s site, and posted in that thread. I’d be touched if someone of another faith offered prayers or good wishes for me, not annoyed or insulted. And I’ll continue to pray for anyone who seems embittered, as so many who hate religion do, both for my own sake and for theirs. Will it get me into heaven? I don’t presume to know. I am fairly certain though that praying makes everyone who does it in earnest a better person, so I know I am better off praying than not praying, regardless of my soul’s ultimate destination. I’m puzzled as to why you think people should “stop” praying and “show by example.” The two are not mutually exclusive, and in fact complement each other.
As for prayer being the “easy part,” it’s not, especially if you try to do it consistently (like you need to do anything to see some effect from it), and also try to follow Christ’s directive to pray for even those who hate and insult you.
Take care-
Joanne
Liz – Why is it so insulting if someone from another belief system prays for you? Even if you’re an atheist, what’s the negative impact that you find insulting? Would it be insulting if someone prayed for you and you didn’t know about it. The results would likely be the same, the only difference is your knowledge of the act.
Hi –
It is akin to the Mormon’s
posthumous baptisms of Jews.
Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Out of respect, ask the person first.
And allow that he might say no.
I think you should ALL join me in praying for sunshine so the Red Sox can play today. We might disagree on theological matters, but I think we can all agree that the sooner they play, the sooner they win the World Series, and the sooner the 1000-year reign can begin.