Not sure what I’m asking for here in terms of response, but maybe it’s an interesting story. Anyway, I follow Braver Angels podcasts and have done their workshops. Recently, their conservative podcaster asked the question; does the USA need more Jesus. He spoke about the progressive, loving Jesus and acknowledged other beliefs and non-belief in his talk. Some people responded with a resounding “no”, as you might expect in a group that is intended to bring many points of view into one forum.
So, then it hit their facebook page. It’s the “Leaders” page so I can’t link to it. But, as you might have guessed, the Christians weren’t happy that someone would be bothered at the mere suggestion of needing more Jesus. It was a pretty long, pretty upset, post. The argument was, they don’t shut down non-religious discussion, so shouldn’t non-Christians be respectful to them?
The one that really got me was near her conclusion, “It’s hard to comprehend someone that is afraid or offended by someone else’s thoughts or opinions”. I didn’t bother returning her rant with a rant, instead saying “I’m not surprised by some divisiveness (around the religion issue)”. A couple others continued with the line of emphasizing the “good Jesus”, the one who loves people. I’ve gone the route of bringing up persecution and burning witches in the past, but that is dismissed and considered more divisive, sending the conversation further into the heat, not the light.
Here’s the original podcast:
“Jesus wouldn’t spend 100 million making fascism seem benign”
Hits the nail on the head.
Right out the gate too many who wave the Jesus banner, don’t have an ounce of the Jesus Spirit within themselves, you know, love thy neighbor, share with the less fortunately, and all that jazz.
7:00 “America needs a deep embrace of the virtues of Christ”
I listen to the video and it seems to me he’s discussing what Jesus is supposed to represent - and that bringing the name of ‘Jesus’ into it brings unavoidable divisiveness from those of other faiths.
Agape love is love at the highest level. It’s so much more than we could ever dream or imagine. It is selfless, sacrificial love is spoken of over 200 times in the Bible.
What about a universal faith?
Or what about appreciating that all our gods come from within us and that we need an entirely different mindset to achieve the ideals religions are supposed to help us pursue.
Beyond that, seems to me, any faith, or frame of mind for that matter, that doesn’t make appreciation and love of Earth a central theme, is doomed to human pettiness.
This is the thing I’m saying. The people who believe that they know what Jesus intended, and express those intentions in loving terms just "can’t understand " why anyone would disagree with them. There’s no awareness of other beliefs of Jesus, which seems impossible to me, so it’s some other form of partitioning that knowledge in their brain, some belief that it’s a minority Christian sect that doesn’t count.
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