Gnats And Camels

[poliphilo]

Judy sent me an article about Pat Robertson's mining interests and how his charities stand to make money out of Katrina. I understand that the man's sailed pretty close to the wind in the past, mixing God's business with his own.

When I was studying the Bible the thing that really stood out for me (and made me feel extremely uncomfortable) was the bit about how hard it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I wasn't exactly rich back then, but I was comfortably middle-class and it gnawed at me that I wasn't poor enough to satisfy God. It was reading the Bible that made me a socialist (of sorts.) I didn't (and don't) see how a serious Christian can jump any other way.

You have to go through the Bible with a fine tooth-comb to find (debatable)texts condemning homosexuality, but the ones condemning the rich are lying about on the surface in plain view. The New Testament says that people who concentrate on obscure, fiddly bits of doctrine and miss the bleeding obvious, are "straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel." If Pat read the Bible as closely as he says he does he wouldn't be mining diamonds. He really wouldn't. A wealthy evangelist- it's a contradiction in terms.

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

People bring their existing prejudices to church and only hear what they want to hear.

Another example of the same thing is that people are convinced (on the strength of having seen a number of bad, sentimental paintings) that Jesus was a soft, gentle, winsome type when the picture you actually get from the gospels is of a man in a ferociously bad temper who goes round thundering at people.

[saskia139.livejournal.com]

I am always amused at the Church's insistence that Jesus was obedient and submissive and always did The Will of His Father when it's obvious that, to the people around him, it looked like he did exactly what he damn well pleased, and too bad if it pissed people off. Including his mum. *g*

Same with Therese of Lisieux, actually. Stubborn little bitch who told the Pope he ought to let her into the convent early.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's a popular fallacy that holiness equates with niceness. Most saints and prophets are "perfectly frightful" people.