“You cannot serve both God and money”

Real Marxists know Marx didn't morally condemn the rich. He wanted the workers to take hold of the productive forces created under capitalism and organize it under a rational basis.
- Yup. The great issue with capitalism, is that it wasn't formally designed to enrich society as a whole. It merely is an upgraded iteration of feudalism. You can give a pig a top hat and monocle, but it is still a pig.
  We will need a new Constitution, one built to acknowledge that Economics is power. The framers addressed politics and violence, but overlooked the fundamental impact that money has on society. Floors and ceilings on wealth should be implemented, so that the likes of Musk or Trump cannot exist.
  
  Well yes, the framers of the constitution were mostly from the merchant class. If you reframe the document with that in mind you can see that they wanted an almost libertarian system that allowed them to make money without being hindered by nobility or other rich white dudes. Except for Thomas Paine. Thomas Paine was cool.
- that's why it's ML, Marxist Leninism, and not just Marxism
  
  What are you trying to say? I think Lenin had useful insights and strategies, but Marxism is a bit broader.
  
  Rationalism sprinkled with authoritarianism, brutality and famine?

Jesus is the og communist

Jesus was a socialist
This is a reminder there is no such thing as a “Christian” just people who pretend to be so they have an excuse to act unchristian like towards anyone they envy.
- Jesus was a socialist
- I was raised conservative Christian and I lost my faith in university. You're 100% right but I sometimes feel a strong urge to "convert" back but only practice the cool parts. Like I'd one-up christians and quote Jesus' most socialist verses at them. Maybe start a Facebook page about how the NT has been corrupted in this modern day, conspiracy-theorist style, but the hidden message is just Marxism.
  I feel like somebody out there has embodied that, and I'd like to give them space to reclaim the word Christian for themself at least.
  
  My father in law is a member of the communist party and was a theology professor at a prestigious university, he's also a catholic and went to seminary (didn't become a priest though). Point is that there are absolutely leftist Christians out there. You can lead by example.
  But also keep in mind that there have been people out there spreading these words, the problem is that when they get too influential, they get disappeared or murdered
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hampton
  
  That is how most new branches of religion start. Instead maybe Christianity in its core is not what modern people think it is. The Bible itself is a collection and not a single written source. Think of it as a foss project that got forked early on, then a few people took parts of these forks and sample it into the versions we know today, which then also got forked with every translation.
  So if you decide to do what said you should consider checking other religions such as Islam and see what you like there as well.
  
  Please do this.
  
  Christianity is pretty much not about Christ at all, it's about leveraging him to confer authority over the words of certain people.
  
  I like imagining Jesus as a transgender man. Like, why would god have a Y chromosome?
  I do get a little spiritual enjoyment out of it - the idea of a Christ like me, that I can aspire to be like - when I’m really stoned I can almost believe it.
  
  You just need to ask yourself why you feel the need to add all the extra baggage of a "god" when you can do and believe all of those things without it?
- This is a reminder there is no such thing as a “Christian” just people who pretend to be so they have an excuse to act unchristian like towards anyone they envy.
  I swear they need to change the name of the "No True Scotsman" fallacy to "No True Christian"
  
  I don’t know about “true Christian”
  But no sane grown up believes in the magical Christian story. My opinion is that there is no such thing as a “Christian”
  No matter how much they claim to believe.
  They only say it to have “righteousness” and the moral high ground when they want to abuse or kill or oppress or steal from someone who is not a “true Christian” like they claim to be.
- no such thing as a “Christian”
  Huh?
  Another socialist Christian a little more recent than Jesus: you might remember Dr. King. Christianity deserves much more criticism and this is an absolutely correct criticism towards most people who profess to be Christians.
  But speaking so absolutely usually means you're wrong. There are plenty of Christians who actually follow Christ and are working to make the world better.
  
  There are plenty of Christians who actually follow Christ and are working to make the world better.
  Well... Maybe not plenty. Some. There really could be more.
  
  He broke the ten commandments tho
  
  If you believe in Christian magic, do I have an offer for you: a bridge for a low low cost of however much you have left after tithing
- Not all Christians follow American Christianity. But too many do.

So they rationalize it that god is money

Jesus Was a Communist

Remember that the louder the Christian the less Christian they actually are.
- “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
  Matthew 6:5
  
  Broken clock moment.
  Leviticus 24:16
  Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him.
  Plenty of other nice punishments for whatever. burning at the stake, hanging, and crucifixion.
  Or maybe some non-lethal whipping or wife beating.
  No thanks
- used to believe that. and that there was an elusive demographic of "Schroedenger's Christians" who were true believers and didn't want to hurt anyone. but at its core, that's just not the point. the tolerant christians are the outliers and as of ten years ago they may as well not exist
  
  ACAB
  
  Can't be a true believer in eternal damnation and suffering and "not want to hurt anyone"
  Our flawed brains simply can't truly comprehend eternity and the creator of said brains also wants to use eternity as punishment. Supporting a system that is so cruel and final is in itself an act of cruelty.
  
  Any Christian now who remains silent in the face of their peers white nationalist hatred partakes in that hatred.
  
  I'm not Christian but I doubt this, most people like to keep to themselves despite their religion.
  
  The first commandment being "I am thy God and though shalt have no other gods before me" (which implies the existence of other gods quite directly) before "thou shalt not kill" is pretty indicative or the actual attitude of the religion.
  "The intolerance of narrow monotheism is written in letters of blood across the history of man from the time when first the tribes of Israel burst into the land of Canaan. The worshippers of the one jealous God are egged on to aggressive wars against people of alien [beliefs and cultures]. They invoke divine sanction for the cruelties inflicted on the conquered. The spirit of old Israel is inherited by Christianity and Islam, and it might not be unreasonable to suggest that it would have been better for Western civilization if Greece had moulded it on this question rather than Palestine."
  — Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_monotheism
  
  10 years is super generous.
- Agreed, but I do feel like some sort of radical when I say to just read and follow Jesus's teachings.
  
  Well you'd be against any human ideology if you follow his teachings, so yeah. That's pretty radical

Relevant quote from St. Basil:
"Who is the covetous man? One for whom plenty is not enough. Who is the defrauder? One who takes away what belongs to everyone. And are not you covetous, are you not a defrauder, when you keep for private use what you were given for distribution? When some one strips a man of his clothes we call him a thief. And one who might clothe the naked and does not—should not he be given the same name?
The bread in your hoard belongs to the hungry; the cloak in your wardrobe belongs to the naked; the shoes you let rot belong to the barefoot; the money in your vaults belongs to the destitute. All you might help and do not—to all these you are doing wrong"
- "Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’
  Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
  I have always loved how simply Jesus spells it out.
  As a kid, I always felt it was so implausible that the Jews would kill Jesus. Yes he claims to be God, which is a no-no, but how can a message of peace and love be so divisive? As an adult, I've come to realize that it's divisive to people who are angry and filled with hate, to people who hate peace and love. The Pharisees of 30CE are the exact same as most Christians today. If you walked in to some Trump country Baptist church today and flipped over the collection plates and told everyone there they were going to hell because the want to deport immigrants instead of help them, you'd be shot for sure.
  
  you’d be shot for sure
  Do you think it's a coincidence that MLK was only shot once he started speaking out against the rich and unifying the lower class (of all races)? I'm not saying there was a conspiracy (though I wouldn't rule it out) or that MLK was the second coming or a prophet, but it's pretty clear he started making the ruling class nervous once he started talking about class war.
  
  I don't think it was the message of love that did it, more the implied message of "Jews are no longer the only people with the right to heaven and god - everyone is"
  The Jewish people who saw the value/truth of this message became Christians. The ones who didn't like the idea of not being The Chosen Folk anymore were the ones who called him a heretic
  
  I am sending this to all my neo-lib and conservative leaning friends who go to church every day while people are being imprisoned and having their lives and rights taken away.
  
  Where I’ve come in regards to the Pharisees is that they were willing to make violent concessions for the sake of a tenuous status quo. Passover was often a flash point of rebellious activity in Jerusalem (which is why Pilate is there in the first place; to keep Jewish people suppressed and to put down any riots or revolutions from would-be messiahs). Violence was not infrequent at the time. And every time there was violence, Rome would take away more freedoms from Jews.
  So the Pharisees are put in a position to see Jesus as a potential catalyst for Roman violence. So they figure that if they help hand over another would-be messiah then they can have a quiet Passover. But this mentality winds up being a sort of Leopards-eating-faces situation because Rome destroys Jerusalem a few years later anyway (due to a would-be messiah—just one that the Pharisees thought might be the real deal this time).

That's not Jesus, that's Willem Dafriend.
- You know, I'm something of a saint myself
- Even better

Yeah but he also said to love each other, and people quickly realized that he was wrong.
- And then, one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change...
- Shut up!

Jesus is looking friendly, but also like he could totally go crazy and flip a money lenders table. It's hard to tell if he is dafriend or dafoe.

WWJD?
Get apprehended and sent to a gulag in El Salvador.
- It’s funny you mention that because as I was reading the story of Garcia yesterday I couldn’t help but see parallels to the whole back-and-forth that happens to Jesus after His arrest. An innocent man yanked around by an unjust system.

This is one of those shadow boxing christians threads. Yeah, maybe you all look cool in the mirror but they're going to wake up tomorrow with no idea you insulted their entire belief structure.
Don't get me wrong. I loved it when my dad asked, "when did you stop being christian" because I vehemently am against his every belief. I loved turning the tables on him and asking the same with regards to everything trump has said and done. End of the day though he'll just go back to his hidey hole, and myself too.
If you have religious friend you should try it. Call them on trumps shit and the when they invoke god, which they always do, ask, "who's god" because Jesus doesn't want this shit.

Capitalism makes us worship capital so we cannot worship God and then blames it on LGBT.
- You forgot the Orange Cult, but yeah. They blame it on DEI now though. Which means "anyone not a straight, white, male American who lives Trump." It's a very specific demographic that includes almost everyone on Earth.

You know, I'm something of a leftist myself.
- You never know when some lunatic will come along with a sadistic choice.
  
  And then there was a fire fight! rapturous dancing

There are no moral billionaires. Rich men do not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. There are no billionaires in Paradise. In the end, every last one of them burns.
- Unfortunately they’re doing their best to burn the rest of us in this life.
  
  They instinctively know where they belong, so they spend their entire lives trying to bring Hell to Earth.
- "It is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than it is to pass a camel through the eye of a needle."
  
  It's amazing to me what logical acrobatics people will go to in order to avoid the simple plain meaning of this passage. The truth is Jesus was a poor person who hung out with other poor people and social rejects of all kinds. He was canonically born in a barn...for Christ's sake! To me, the message of Christ is quite unambiguous. Rich people go to Hell, same as murderers, rapists, etc. Being rich is a mortal sin. If you hoard enough wealth for a thousand lifetimes, sorry, you're going to the Pit. There's no way you can obtain that wealth except through the mass exploitation of the work of others. If you're a billionaire, and if there is a Hell, you're going there.
- In the end, every last one of them burns.
  If there was a just god, they would all burn. But if there was a just god, they wouldn't get to be billionaires in the first place. Billionaires aren't worried about hell or the afterlife because most of them know deep down that there will be no repercussions for their unethical behavior.
  
  This line of logic never made sense to me. You could just as easily argue that, as god, the only way to prevent billionaires or people hoarding wealth/resources would be to get rid of free will, and that in a way is also immoral.
- Truth.
  Also, the predominant image of fire in the Bible is that of purification (not punishment). So the idea is that billionaires (or other such sinners) will not be simply burned away, but will be confronted with what their wealth hoarding has caused. They will have to endure the pain of being rid of their sinfulness in order come out on the other side. So there are no billionaires in Paradise in the sense that every person who is a billionaire in this life will one day be ridden of their wealth in order to enter said Paradise.
  This is precisely the image Jesus uses when He speaks of the “eye of the needle.” Tradition holds that this phrase is in reference to a small gate that required a camel (or other pack animal) laden with goods to be unencumbered in order to pass through. The rich must let go of their wealth in order to enter God’s kingdom in the same way because that wealth is like dross to them.
  
  This is precisely the image Jesus uses when He speaks of the “eye of the needle.” Tradition holds that this phrase is in reference to a small gate that required a camel (or other pack animal) laden with goods to be unencumbered in order to pass through.
  There has never existed in all of history a gate in Jerusalem called the "eye of the needle." This interpretation was made up by some rich prick in the 11th century and repeated by other rich pricks through to the modern day in order to avoid the uncomfortable truth that Jesus said in no uncertain terms that they weren't getting into heaven.
  
  Tradition holds that this phrase is in reference to a small gate
  It's a fake tradition.
  
  We were taught no one ever escapes hell. It's eternal. No one is purified and comes out the other side ready for heaven.
  Good way to keep the ignorant peasants quiet, calm, and obedient.
- Who says that the bible is morally right?
  
  Christians

I don't know who Colin Bodayle is, but from the responses he got from his students I think he is located in the US. There is rot in the US culture that's too deep, Trump is just it surfacing. Greed, individualism and selfishness are considered virtues, I noticed it when talking to coworkers there through the years. If Jesus ever went to the US he'd be crucified that is if he wasn't arrested at the border by ICE for being a Palestinian. The US claims to be a Christian nation, yet it is the furthest from it. What good is your religion if it doesn't make you do good? What good is your religion if it doesn't make you overcome your selfishness and greed?
- Also worth noting that the US is not and never has been a "Christian nation." Not only did the Founding Fathers specifically separate church and state for that reason, but they also didn't declare a national religion and enshrined religious freedom as well for that same reason. Plus, half of them were agnostic or atheists. Anybody who says we're a "Christian nation" is just using religion as an excuse for bigotry.
  If God truly exists, he more so loves the atheist who questions the world around him than the Christian who blindly follows.
  -Thomas Jefferson
  
  I mean, the US has obviously become a "Christian" nation, it matters not if it was founded as one or not. Simply, like, look around.
- Yeah, it's the fruit of almost a century of anti-communist propaganda.
  
  To be fair over many many centuries, Christians aren't exactly very following of the ways of Christ.
- According to the internets, "Liberation Theology" is a Christian movement that started in Latin America in the 1960s, that preaches against oppression. They sound like the opposite of right-wing "Christians".
  
  As far as I've understood, that is precisely one of the reasons the current pope has such a strong base in Latin America and so many in that part of the world wanted to see him as pope.
  The Jesuit University System (SUJ) actively promotes liberation theology through curriculum in Mexico, and I would expect the Jesuits have similar structures and programs in other countries and parts of the world.
  
  Yeah the right wing Christians were training death squads to murder Liberation theology priests in Latin America.
- If Jesus came to the US he would smack the shit out of all of us
  
  Was Jesus a political man?
- There's a "block user" feature that I recommend you make use of. This is a post about Christianity, bringing up Jesus and the fact that he was Palestinian is on topic, it is additionally relevant as Palestinians are being targeted by the US government domestically and abroad.

"Watch me backflip onto this this market table to make space for the MAGA hats" - Jesus 'The Donald' Christ.

Jesus literally REFUSED to be dragged into ideological politics of his time (John 6:10-15)
He even defied those who tried to put him to test and force a political statement come from him against the current political leader, the Caesar, by trying to have him a forced position on taxes (Mark 12:13-17)
All this makes sense, as he himself said about himself and his followers that they are not part of this world (John 15:19)
He LITERALLY made his teaching revolve around god's kingdom, not any human ideology (Matthew 6:9, 10)
I mean FUCK, even Satan himself offered him to be the ruler of the whole FUCKING world and he rejected it flat out (John 14:30)
He did care about people, and alleviated the physical suffering of many, but he made clear his and his followers priority should be preaching and teaching God’s word (Mark 1:32-38)
And why wouldn't he, after all, part of his teachings are that all the world governments and ideologies are to be destroyed. (Revelation 16:14) Every. Single. one.
So anyone using his teachings to attack whoever and linking him to your ideology, calling him a representative of brand of collectivism, should get down from any high horse they think they are, it's not doing you or them any favor and they clearly don't know what they are talking about.
Case in point, people talking about a hell existing in the bible when there is none. That's basically all it takes
- This has got to be one of the most disturbing posts I've seen in a while. You're actively warping the Bible and trying to bend it to fit your narrative. You constantly leap to conclusions that are at best farfetched, or downright blasphemous...
  John 6:15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.
  This comes in the followup of the feeding of the 5000. The crowd, amazed at his power, looks to Jesus as a national savior - someone who will overthrow the Romans and restore Israel's power. Jesus shows very clearly that he does NOT want to seize worldly power - his mission is to change people's minds and hearts. Literally, his is an ideological mission, the opposite of what you wrote.
  Mark 12:17 Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” And they were amazed at him.
  Jesus doesn’t say politics don’t matter. He masterfully draws a line between what are worldly concerns, and divine allegiance. Paying taxes doesn’t threaten your relationship with God, but confusing political loyalty with spiritual devotion can.
  It pains me how the core of Jesus' message here is being missed: in Genesis, we are told that humans bear the image of God. What Jesus is saying is that the coin has Caesar’s image - give it to him. But WE bear God’s image - so we should give ourselves to God. The Pharisees and the Herodians understood this, and were amazed, and yet somehow the best we can do nowadays is to completely miss the beauty and the meaning in his message, and instead mistake it for "Jesus doesn't do politics".
  John 15:19 “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”
  Again, you disregard the context and you're try to make it sound like Jesus is arguing that him and his followers are not involved in the affairs of this world, when the very opposite is true. Jesus is speaking to his followers just before his arrest, so he is preparing them to face the persecution and hardships that are to come. They are very much a part of this world, and they want to change it - because of that, they will suffer greatly. What Jesus is telling them is to not compromise their values for the sake of fitting in; to be faithful even when they are criticized or mocked; that they are not without a tribe, but instead they are part of a very different one.
  Matthew 6:9, 10 “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’”
  Again you keep pushing your narrative that Jesus is talking about something other than human ideology, when your very quote says the opposite: "[Father's] will be done, on earth as it is in heaven". What this prayer says is we want Jesus' teaching to shape the world, and our lives, right now. This isn't some abstract wishful thinking, this is a pledge that we will work so that God's will be done through us, now, everyday, in the real world.
  Please, spend some time reflecting on the context of the words and why they were spoken. If you pull them out of context and mishmash them in the way you want, then sure, they may have come from the Bible, but they're are no longer God's word - they are your own, so don't misattribute them to Jesus.
  
  Man, I wish you'd offer bible courses
  
  Don't worry, blasphemy is just a way to control workers or peasants.
  Fuck jesus! Jesus is an asshole! God is evil!
  See, nothing happened...
- This is a lot of mental gymnastics going on here. Reading John 6:10 and Mark 12:13 as "Jesus wouldn't agree with Marx because Marx is of this world and Jesus is only about heaven" is a hell of a leap.
  Your analysis would come off slightly less disingenuous if not for the fact that you're a very active poster in the conservative groups and not once have you raised any objection to the religious right being neck-deep in the running of the country. Seems like "don't co-opt Jesus to push your politics" only applies to leftists in your world.
- You make Jesus sound like a socialist
  
  The Bible describes them as a good person. What you imagine as socialist is probably just bring a good person.
- He was absolutely not adverse to fucking some shit up when he wasn't happy either. Not big into Forex.
- Why would jesus even be swayed by satan if he is fucking god?
  Christians are so weird
  
  I presume the question was mostly rhetorical, but since it was asked, allow me to indulge myself:
  The point of the story was precisely that, to affirm Jesus identity as god. This story starts out when Jesus is baptized, and a voice from the heavens says "this is my son", and Satan then challenges his identity: "If you are the Son of God…".
  There's more nuance to how the Bible sets this up, for example there's the throwback to Adam, who was also tempted (the whole apple thing), but failed. Here Jesus is under much more strenuous circumstances yet resists, implying that he is not just a common mortal. However, this isn't asserted through magnificent displays of power, which would be the simplest way, but by being steadfast and humble. This aims to establish the kind of philosophy that Jesus will preach, which isn't about magic or ego or political control - just by resisting Satan, he defeats him.
  Arguably, this also aims to enshrine values like obedience, humility and trust in a higher power, and thereby establish the basis of the power that the Church wants to exert over humanity.
  The Bible is a remarkable work. Granted, the writing and analogies are a bit dated so it doesn't read as well as a modern book, but it's fascinating nonetheless.
- You cite Revelation, but I’m fairly sure Hell is described in Revelation. Otherwise decent addition
  
  I disagree strongly with it being a decent addition, and in fact argue (in a post here) that it's a horrible and very disingenuous misrepresentation of what the bible actually says.

I don't know where that candid jesus image is from but it has so much Dicaprio Raising Drink energy that if it hasn't been memed already then it should
- Pretty sure that is Willem Dafoe from The Last Temptation of Christ.
  And yeah, it has Buddy Christ energy.
  
  He's something of a messiah, himself.
  
  Precisely from the scene where the disciples realize that the water has been changed to wine at the wedding. John looks over at Jesus and sees that image. Jesus also gives a wink iirc. As one devoted to our Savior I feel like that shot absolutely captures what Jesus was like when He walked our earth.
  
  I know there were a lot of things about Last Temptation that were very difficult for a lot of people to cope with, but to me the most challenging thing is Willem Defoe as Jesus H. Christ.
- Ready for that
  
  It's a pretty funny scene, too.
  "There's not enough wine!"
  "What's in there?"
  "That's water, I put it there myself."
  "Look again."
  [Checks. It's wine.]
  [Jesus delivers face above]

I would have gone sideways and said "Willem Dafoe"!

I’m going to say this as a priest ordained in Christ’s One, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church (Episcopal branch): that choice of Jesus image is chef’s kiss
- You got me in the first half, but you forgot "evangelical” 😇.
  One of my professor, Gérard Siegwalt, a liberal Lutheran, wrote a “Dogmatics for the evangelical catholicity” and I always loved the title.
  Signed: an ordained pastor of the Lutheran-Reformed branch.

Oh man! I want that presentation for an Easter dinner I have coming up!
- Original (requires X account) · Nitter (doesn't)
  Embed:
  
  "Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court?" (James 2:6)
  
  "Do not rob the poor" (Proverbs 22:22)
  
  "The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender." (Proverbs 22:7)
  
  "But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction." (1 Timothy 6:9)
  Finally, I used the "Who said it: Jesus or Marx?" image specifically to introduce Luke 6:20-26
  
  This is awesome!

Does anyone have that slide deck? Asking for a friend
- Original (requires X account) · Nitter (doesn't)
  Embed:
  
  Finally, I used the "Who said it: Jesus or Marx?" image specifically to introduce Luke 6:20-26

of course not. god goes with red wine. money goes with white wine.
- White "whine"

Christ's teachings were an inspiration to Marx
- Yes, in the same way that Marx’s teachings were an inspiration to Hitler — as a convenient source for plagiarism and fertile grounds for the delusion that each of them had found the one piece of the puzzle that everyone before them missed: that if only you went and killed all the Pharisees, the Kingdom of God would materialize on earth without all that annoying and painful self-sacrifice.
  
  Not at all, Marx thought Jesus' idea of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and tending to the sick was a good goal and envisioned a pathway to achieve that IRL.

don't care. destroy all religion for the future of humanity.
- Will never happen, there's a sucker born every day.
  
  that's why we have to be proactive and regulate our society.

Weird how kings re-writing the Bible over and over again for thousands of years got rid of all the good stuff and left all the horrible shit....
- I mean, it still has the good stuff. Churches just focus on the parts that blame the working class.
  I started going to a progressive church (mainly bc my dad made me lol) and it's SO INTERESTING learning about how the Bible is literally just the most basic "be nice to each other, you dumbasses" and people will take it and start beating each other over it
  A few weeks ago they had the head of the local mosque to talk about Palestine along with an Activist that visited there. It was mainly educational where you could ask questions and stuff.
  I personally am not particularly religious in the idea that God personally effects everything but it's damn neat once you stop nitpicking every little thing like other churches and look with an open mind.
  For example, the first depiction of a baptism in the new testament was someone who didn't fit in the binary man/woman social standards. He (iirc) had his balls removed for religious reasons. The proper 'old testament' way of getting baptized wouldn't let him in, so they went to a river instead. Most churches tell it like this, but you can interpret it as the new testament is open to people outside the social rules (specifically gender) and is saying to accept all.
  Probably not 100% accurate as I'm telling a retelling that I forgot part of (thanks, ADHD) but that's just an example.
  I really don't feel too strongly about religion though. I don't want to sound like a full Bible supporter in every way, ethics and just being nice are way more important than what an old book says to me.
  I was essentially shoved through a normal church and learned to shut it all out as... trans ..., but it's been super cool to learn about how its not what conservatives say it is.
  
  A lot of the last half of the New Testament (the books that are "A letter to [the churtch at]
  <place>
  " ) spends a decent amount of time on "don't trust someone just because they say they are holy" and "please stop trying to police other people's faith and behavior".
  Nothing will make you more frustrated with self-righteous Christians, especially Republican/right-wing christians, than reading the Bible.
  
  I love that story about the first New Testament baptismal. It's so weird to think that that person was (after a fashion) Nonbin. It conjures this weird scene to me where Jesus is in some kind of board room and the Apostles are bringing him polling data.
  "Jesus, I know we have a mission statement. I know, I know. "Love thy neighbour" "Love everyone" "We're all Gods children". No, totally love that, very cutting edge. No, we're so onboard. I just think we really need to consider not loving some specific groups. Like, Nonbins, or Trans people, or the Gays. First century Judea is just not very progressive and some of these demographics are..."
  Jesus flips whole fucking boardroom table
  "What THE FUCK, Paul!? Are we going to have this fight every Dad-damned week? Listen to me. Listen. It's core to the brand. Do you understand me? The whole brand! We don't love SOME people. We don't love JUST the Hebrews, or JUST the Romans. EVERYBODY. If it's not EVERYBODY, then what the fuck are we doing here? Seriously.
  It's the whole goddamn brand. I promised a "New Way". You want to take my vision - my divine purpose- and make it just like every other religion on the block. Totally dilute our entire brand image. Why would anyone choose the son of a carpenter, if I was going to be picky? Ok? That's the core question here. We are doing this for EVERYBODY.
  No. No, of course I forgive you. I always forgive you. Just... get the fuck out and lay off the Queers."
- You can read Codex Sinaiticus online, it's from around 400 AD.
- The good tidbits are there. The bad was always there. Even early christians thought so.
  Before the religion organized into a hierarchical orthodoxy, communities distant from the emerging establishment (not particularly attached to jewish traditions) in places like Alexandria were left to their own devices to figure out christianity: they formed loose households & study circles to interpret texts in the context of their own traditions & culture, and they drew their own conclusions.
  Reading the older jewish scriptures & newer texts quite literally, they concluded there were 2 deities. 1 of whom, the unhidden Demiurge (Yahweh of the old testament) who had created the material universe, was a vengeful and ignorant deity inimical to human welfare. Consequently, material existence is flawed & evil, and they must escape that realm by seeking personal knowledge of the other, hidden deity: the transcendent spiritual entity, the Silent Depth (or the Monad), who briefly inhabited Jesus with that revelatory wisdom or logos found in the newer texts. In other words, there's cool god (Jesus's god) & evil genocidal god (Yahweh).
  Moreover, they concluded that church authority isn't needed: Jesus had awoken a spark of divinity in matter that would find its way back to its transcendent source with little need of episcopal authority or sacramental practice.
  This interpretation became known as gnosticism.
  Sticklers with the evil trash god of older jewish scriptures didn't like this idea, became early church authorities, denounced it as heresy, & purged all the texts they could of it. Nonetheless, early christians thought there was bad in those texts & tried to handle it.
- Theologists pretty much agree that the Bible remains quite unchanged since it was first compiled (centuries after supposed New Testament events). Of course, the religions that use it have since become quite selective in what parts they read and preach.

There is a specter haunting the Galilee

why is jesus white in this pic. are we whitewashing ancient history? pick a struggle my dude.
- Because Willem Dafoe is white.
- Check out "Little Buddha" sometime. Keanu Reeves in blackface staring as Siddhartha Gautama " Buddha "