In a September 13 comment, Lisa said,
“The thing about the Bible for Christians is that the story of Jesus is the NEW Testament, Jesus said he was bringing in a NEW covenant. ‘This is a NEW Jack City, baby!’"
To which I say:
FIRST, I agree -- Jesus is a rung up from his daddy. But Jesus gets dragged down by that crazy old man Jehovah. I’ve never met a Christian yet willing to give up that ugly, ratty old boy. The one who wants them to burn their children to a crisp (just to see if they’ll do it). The one dedicated to whipping them into war with the guys down the street who won’t “obey.” The one who says disabled folks give him the willies ("The LORD said to Moses, 17 '… none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God. 18 No man who has any defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; 19 no man with a crippled foot or hand, 20 or who is hunchbacked or dwarfed, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles….'” Leviticus 21:16-20 [New International Version])(Thnx to The Raving Atheist for this last). I could go on and on. If Jehovah tried to walk the streets today, he’d be pitched into solitary overnight, and/or committed to a mental institution the next morning.
SECOND, Even Jesus, as improved as he is over his daddy, is still deadly. Check out the New Testament. How often do you get details about a big basic of being human – our bodies? Our sexuality? Our five senses? Our sense of humor? Why is Jesus humorless? Take any verse in the New Testament and I’ll show you an arid desert lacking smells, tastes, most sounds, most sights and ALL humor. Anything human is stripped away like so much awful offal.
We never question this because we’ve never known anything different. But don't you have to wonder what it does to us to have gods who see our basic humanity as so much trash?
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Thnx to Jell96 and Stock.xchng for the foto
6 comments:
Not to be rude, but how much of the history of ancient Judaism and Christianity are you aware of? Of course it's great to know about ancient matristic and goddess-centered socieities so we can learn from them and try to emulate them, but doesn't it also help to understand the "enemy" and how and why it got that way?
Why is Jesus humorless?
Same reason Morgaine's blog always sounds so angry: Jesus was a Jew in Palestine under military rule by the Romans! The archeological evidence shows that thousands of Jews were crucified right before, during and after the life of Jesus. Paul's letters were written right before the Jewish War of 70 CE, and the Gospels just after it. Their sacred sites and ceremonies where mocked for centuries and finally, their great Temple was leveled and desecrated again, this time far beyond repair.
These people were pissed, just like feminists are today, because they felt oppressed. Jews aren't allowed to charge Jews interest on loans, and this new Roman way of business was so callous and unethical, you could really sue someone for their last article of clothing. Romans had no laws concerning the rights of women in marriage even, and would try to basically buy pretty Jewish women to impregnate with their seed as an affront to the conquered people. This might be why Jesus was humorless.
Would you ask Malcolm X to lighten up? Jesus wasn't considered something to be worshipped by his followers until a century or so after Paul and the gospel writers composed their work, when the Roman aristocracy finally agreed on a politically advantageous theological bent. Until then, being a follower of Jesus was much like wearing your Che Guevara t shirt- a social protest.
Looking for uplifting spiritual discourse, you won't find it in the canonical books of the New Testament, but as we are all so familiar with the truths that come from studying archeological evidence, we now know those weren't the only viewpoints and tracts. Read Thunder, Perfect Mind and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene and Pistis Sophia and you will find discussions of the beauty of life and existence. Of course it's there, you just can't stop at the official story, the history that white upper-middle class fundementalist Christians want to spoon feed you.
oh, and for the Leviticus passage, did goddess temples have no requirements for their priestesses, the ones who'd offer sacrifices?
As usual, Lisa, you’ve brought up multiple points. A major one seems to be that Jesus was humorless because he had a hard life.
To which I respond:
FIRST, Jesus didn’t exist. There was no man “Jesus Christ.” He is a Fig Newton of the Christian imagination. I hope your Dartmouth professors aren't telling you otherwise; I'd certainly question them if they are.
SECOND, Jesus is one of an all-male, Christian pantheon that includes Yahweh, Satan/Devil/Lucifer, and several male “angels.”
THIRD, You are heavily invested, in terms of time, money and personal integrity, in Christian theology, as are your professors. So I ask you: how much do *you* really know about the history of ancient Judaism and Christianity? If you thought Jesus was an actual person, I’m beginning to have my doubts….
FOURTH, why do you think those who’ve had hard lives are excused from maintaining senses of humor? Some of our most talented comedians have had particularly ugly lives. Humor is a gift to help alleviate sorrows. What makes you think people with humor have had lives of bliss and only angry people have had rough lives? You alone determine what kind of face you put on each day –- negative or positive. But deities help. Deities are our role-models. They teach us what it means to be a “good” human. Yahweh teaches death, hatred, and punishment, Jesus teaches better, and Goddess is universes ahead of them both.
FIFTH, this figment of your imagination, this “Jesu Christos,” he had a hard life? So? Does that give him leave to go around acting like an angry, bodiless head? If you’re going to make up deities to give my human brothers and sisters role models, come up with something better than a bodiless head!!! Come on, Lisa, I took you for someone who sees straight. A clear thinker. On the other hand, I can understand that you have pressure – lots of establishment adults who stand between you and a degree, a diploma, and a job.
FOURTH, why do you think those who’ve had hard lives are excused from maintaining senses of humor? Some of our most talented comedians have had particularly ugly lives. Humor is a gift to help alleviate sorrows. What makes you think people with humor have had lives of bliss and only angry people have had rough lives? You alone determine what kind of face you put on each day –- negative or positive.
Seems as though I was just asking this question lately, why your's and Morgaine's blogs are always so pissed sounding... Never got an answer. And no response to the suggestion in this post of non-canonical gospels and texts having more uplifting content either of course.
A major one seems to be that Jesus was humorless because he had a hard life.
See, that wasn't a point I made. My point was that the people who wrote about a Jewish nationalist generations after he was put to death by an oppressive regime, used his notariety to write schorching political tracts against the ruling regime. (Much like your post about Awful Offal, or whenever you use Bushlet, Shrub, etc?)
Come on, Lisa, I took you for someone who sees straight. A clear thinker. On the other hand, I can understand that you have pressure – lots of establishment adults who stand between you and a degree, a diploma, and a job.
Lol, don't lie! (And please don't be so patronizing!) My posts are never read in their entirety, because I'll say one less-than-feminazi thing and it is then assumed the rest must be patriarchal establishment oppressed drivel. You have never seemed to think of me as a clear thinker, but as an unenlightened potential feminist that needs to be coaxed. Actually, I am a Feminist with my own mind that reads for herself and draws her own conclusions instead of repeating feminist dogma.
So I ask you: how much do *you* really know about the history of ancient Judaism and Christianity? If you thought Jesus was an actual person, I’m beginning to have my doubts….
So because the later Roman pagans who learned about the Jewish nationalist ascribed Dionysian qualities to him, we have to assume that he was always a Dionysian offshoot and never an actual person? What about George Washington and all the myths around him? Because the cherry tree story is BS we have to assume America's first president didn't exist? The fact is that there is archeological evidence from extra-biblical sources that says a guy named Yeshua caused trouble and was put to death at that time. Most everything else I will agree is horse shit.
I became a relgion major to study how the world religions got so big from such meeger roots, because I wanted to know if there was anything useful for Neo-Pagans, Wiccans and Goddess-worhsippers to learn, whether to emulate or stay away from. The Goddess is too important to me to not learn from other peoples' mistakes, which is why I may seem at times "so invested" in Christian theology and thealogy.
And that crack about me and my "Dartmouth professors." So to react to elitist intelligentsia, the trick is to devalue university education simply because it is? Nevermind that these people can actually read cuneiform and are the people that Diane Wolkstein goes to for help re-interpreting texts on Inanna? Stop assuming I go to some Cracker college in the Bible Belt or some crusty Ivy that's totally oppressed by tradition and alumni, or that I can't see when my professors aren't acknowledging feminist scholarship.
Looks like I'm about to step in the middle of a cat fight. I should know better but I just wanted to reinforce what Athana said in her blog.
{Athana}...don't you have to wonder what it does to us to have gods who see our basic humanity as so much trash?
I have had quite a bit of difficulty understanding why people would follow christianity. I have sat in churches and heard the sermons.
The philosophy gleaned from the texts by the religious powers that be over the last two thousands years propogates the notion that humanity is worth less than the dirt they walk on. They tell us to be like Christ except the bits about healing, resurrection (which I have heard was not originally written by any of the apostles), bi-location, walking on water, or turning water into wine. It seems instead that christianity would have us be good little sheep that grazed on grass all day and led blissfully into slaughter (war) in the name of God.
I also have difficulty understanding why the world lets 17 million Jews cause so much havoc. They bitch and moan about how rough they've had it through history and the present (this is not to trivialize the Holocaust which was a truly horrific event). The atrocities that the Romans commited on them were the sort of things Romans did to all conquered peoples. Before Caligula Ceasar, Roma bent over backwards to make sure Judea was happy. They let them keep their god, their laws, and their currency. No other subjugant received such luxury.
The trouble seemed to stem from the appointment of Herod, a very unpopular monarch and tyrrant, as vassal of Judea, and that fiercely arrogant people hate to be occupied by foreigners.
Looks like I'm about to step in the middle of a cat fight. I should know better but...
Cat fight? Because we're females? No, call it what it is, lol, a good ol' patriarchal pissing contest! I guess no matter how evolved we think we've gotten, we're still subject to thinking and acting under patriarchal influence... So, whose penis is bigger, mine or Athana's?
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