[MD] Theocracy, Secularism, and Democracy

[John Carl]

Well Krimel, I do have a bumper sticker that says, "jesus was a commie" so
yeah, you know I basically agree with your whole overall point here.

Certainly nothin' "tough to swallow", as you call it.  Good eatin'!  In
fact.

I won't go into a lot of dispute or discussion here, but I just wanna say
you touched on one key issue for me right now, that I've been arguing with a
good friend of mine, over the book of Job and whether Job was really a
righteous man, upright and perfect in all his ways, as God brags about him
to Satan, or if Job was secretly guilty of self-righteousness, as my friend
claims.

See, he was rich, but was he self-righteous?  At the end, he repents of
something, admits he abhors himself and repents in dust and ashes.  But what
exactly did he do wrong?

I say if God says he was perfect, then that's as close to perfect as
counts.  But Christians claim no person can be perfect apart from life in
Christ.  So don't they contradict this part of the bible?

And don't forget, they're sabbath school whitewashings with me.  Not sunday
school.

My favorite tweaking of the learned and righteous,  is my personal take on
the episode following the "render unto ceaser's what is ceaser's" dodge,
where a guy later asks Peter if his master pays tribute, and Peter says
"yeah", probably thinking about the whole ceaser thing, and Jesus rebukes
him!  Says, the kings of the earth don't extract tribute from their sons, so
therefore "the sons" are free.  And then, to "keep from giving offense",
gives Peter a fishing tip whereby he pulls the magic trick of the coin outta
the fishes mouth .

I use this one to argue that Christians are exempt from taxation.





On Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 7:36 PM, Krimel <Krimel at krimel.com> wrote:

> John,
> I think it would be crystal clear to an unbiased reader that the practices
> of the church discussed in Acts are to communism as the figs that fell from
> their communal figs tree are to gravity. Jesus consistently sides with the
> poor and down trodden against the wealth and powerful. The communist
> slogan,
> "From each according to his ability to each according to his need," sounds
> like something out of Luke. But it is tough stuff for many to swallow and
> you get lots of Sunday school white washing like some of which you bring up
> below. Once that whitewash gets on you it is difficult to scrub away. But
> let me take two of your critiques as examples.
>



> [Krimel]
> The disciples ask Jesus about what the frickin' deal with that was. He
> tells
> them flat out, "Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to
> enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the
> eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And
> they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can
> be saved?"
>
> It isn't self righteousness that's the problem it is wealth.
>