A very Happy Easter to all readers.
This weekend (or next weekend in the Orthodox Church), we commemorate the resurrection of the man correctly described by Hugo Chavez as the 'greatest socialist in history'.
If Jesus came back to earth today with his radical anti-materialist message and his championing of the poor and downtrodden, he'd once again be mercilessly attacked by the rich and powerful. In the words of the late, great George Lansbury:
"Keep in mind the fact that the Son of Man, the Christ who lived and was executed by the government of His day, was a great leader, and a leader of the common people.
It was his great message of Love and Brotherhood which brought him to his death. He knew the poor of the earth were oppressed by the rich and the wealthy, and in scathing terms denounced the money changers and all those who defiled the Temple and brought suffering to humanity"
3 comments:
It's one of the redeeming features of European civilisation that the core symbol of our culture is a man who hung out with prostitutes and beggars (the underclass) and was executed with thiefs, signifying that worth is nothing to do with wealth or status. One could take a contrarian view, like an alien in one of Kurt Vonnegut's novels who opined (loosely) " I like the Jesus stories, but there's one big problem with them - Jesus knew all along that he was the son of the most powerful being in the universe...". Still, the Jesus stories are a big step forward from the tales of the genocidal, petulant smiter of the Old Testament; it's a pity they tend to come in a 2-for-1 deal still. And it's a pity that the uses the powerful have made of the Jesus stories illustrate the infinite inventiveness of evil. But let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater - the stories are a powerful and enduring symbol and message. Whether or not one believes in an omipotent god (I'm agnostic), the central message of Jesus, " Love your fellow man as yourself" is a commandment for this life. This does not say that we must passively endure evil for a reward in the next life ( as the powerful have always interpreted it), but is an injunction to live a life based on solidarity and compassion, to fight for good. Those self-styled leftists (and there's a lot of them) who disparage the 'lumpen proletariat'(the underclass) would do well to meditate on the Jesus stories.
As a last word, why do evangelical fundamentalists get so exercised about homosexuality, but not about eating pork? Jesus never said a word about homosexuality, and the Old Testament only mentions it once, whereas the proscription agains pork is repeated over and over again. Why is it so hard to imagine splits in the church over bacon-eaters becoming bishops?
That was Thought For the Day, from Chief Rabbi Jonathan McTrousers.
Coming back from the actual physical dead didn't happen. Most of the other extraordinary stories were made up. Most of the old Testament was fromthe words of people who had bi-polar. other religious texts are from the same sources.
And yet we feel we want to believe.
Happy Easter everyone, and happy Orthodox Easter this Sunday. And happy tax day today to everyone in the US.
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