F
Fullauto
Guest
This is a copy of what I just posted on my myspace... just figured it might be argument fodder...
Was w?rde Jesus tun?
(What would Jesus do)
Funny subject for me... As many of you may or may not know, I am exactly NOT a Xtian. But My son had me thinking along philosophical lines this last Saturday, and I would like to share my thoughts a little... Not that any of you care, but I can see that what I told him will help him, and if I can extend anything to help out there, I will... Again... Take it or leave it...
My son recently started Catholic school, and has a new found fascination with God, and especially with Jesus. He has SOOooo many questions about Je$u$, that it has me thinking about things and in ways that I haven't done in years because I had pretty much figured out my position earlier in life... Not much, but earlier none the less..
Funny thing was, this all came about because he found a copy of Jesus Christ Superstar in my CD collection, and his eyes lite up when I told him I had the movie... I put it on and he watched for a bit in total amazement... "why is the black man singing?", was his first reaction... Wacky Judas! Won't he ever learn!
So it came to be that instead of cleaning the 2 day old fruity pebbles from my kitchen sink trap, I would sit down with him to watch one of my very favorite musicals... He wanted me there to explain to him what they were talking about.. Being a child, he understands words well, but when they are sung, he only catches the really short ones... I get it, so I help...
So we watched the whole thing... He loved it! Then he hit me with it...
"Why do people worship Jesus?"
If you don't have kids, you won't understand how children can ask the most innocent question, and make you rethink your whole existence... Your entire life's worth can sometimes be summed up by your answer to a child's question... It's a very surreal thing... This was one of these moments for me...
I stopped, mid thought it seemed, and paused for a few seconds with that 'fork-in-the-road' look humans get when they are blindsided... Ethan, being the boy he is, apologized, and I told him there was no need and that he had just thrown daddy a curve ball... "Macaroni", I said to him... Which is our code word for daddy needs a 10 min break, and that he is not to interrupt me...
I went back into the kitchen and thought about it... "Why do people worship Jesus?" My first reaction was a 'programmed' reaction and can only be summed up by calling it a knee jerk dating back to where I had left off in life thinking seriously along these lines... Last time I had REALLY put effort into a question such as this, it was 1998! I was a card carrying liberal, and any effort, no matter how small, I could make to derail the established 'theocracy' as I called it, was worth it... No matter WHO, or how many people I had to crush to do it!
A lot has changed since than... Thank g0d...
I guess my son realized the gravity of my thought because for 2 hours he didn't say anything to me except, "can I have a snack?"
Then it hit me... and what I told him, and the way I told him, should stick with him for the rest of his life... I can only hope that he understands later in life, exactly how important a seed I planted in him, and that he passes that onto my grandchildren, even if I never get to meet them.
I will paraphrase as the emotions of the situation clouded my mind a bit...
"Ethan... as a Christian, you are taught that Jesus was the Son of God, and that he died for your sins. But many people, including myself, are not Christians. Your faith, and what you believe will always be your choice, and I will never stop you from believing in what you really need. I am not a christian, but I am happy that you are so excited to learn about Je$u$. Not because I think he was the son of god, but because he was, is, and will always be, a great example of what a man should be.
He was not perfect, nor did he claim to be, but he tried every day of his life to be... He accepted peoples' weaknesses, and encouraged them to keep trying... He was faithful, hardworking, and always tried to do what was best for his people. He was a good man... a great man... Nothing like the men of today...
He didn't fight when he could talk, he didn't run away from his responsibilities...
and IF history is true, and Jesus died on the cross like they said, than he did what almost no other man has done...
He Knew he was going to be beaten, and he knew he was going to die a horrible death... But he loved his children so much, that let them do it anyways, knowing that if he didn't, we would suffer... And that truly is the measure of a great man worthy of your worship, as well as mine and everyone... Christian or not, real or not"
He took that extremely well, as if he understood that what I was handing him was a verbal Faberge egg. He made me put on the movie again, which I did...
Later that night, he was telling me how he had been lying to mom about me letting him sleep in my room when he is here, and he asked me if she was going to be mad if he told her... I said probably, she would be more mad at me though... He told me he didn't want to tell her because he didn't want to get into trouble, but he didn't want to lie to her.
And that's when I said, "What would Je$u$ do?"
He stopped and thought, and said, "I'll tell her... Jesus wouldn't lie, even if he was gonna get punished..."
End Heartfelt Story Here... Read on if you want my editorial at your own risk...
-----------------Snip-----------------
My point is political, as usual, but I think very meaningful, especially these days of the most important and consequential elections to date in the nation... It really doesn't matter who we put in the Oval Office, We are pretty ed as a country, and even worse off as a nation. But as humans, we are constantly making spot decisions about the morals, and mood of the country our children live and grow in...
While I am not, and will never be a Christian, I would warn those who think a complete divorce from our founder's Deist values, modernly called our Judeo/Christian values, would be the best thing for our country...
I was born in 1976, but am a bit a a nerd when it comes to post WWII History. The slow but sure chilling of the marriage between our social values, and our Christian values started in the 1960's, and actually accelerated during the 90's... Many people think that this is a good thing, and only wish it could happen overnight... They call this movement progress, and are thus labeled secular progressives... I say, such a drastic death to a country's religion has been accomplished before, and it didn't turn out that well...look up the Russian Revolution and the resulting Pogroms...
That put me somewhere between Conservative, and Liberal, in an area I call reality. You can call me whatever you like...
I don't see the stripping of our religious values in this country as necessarily a good thing, considering that our Morals in this country have gone completely down the toilette since the 60's. What was called a secular movement has turned out to be a religion all in itself, complete with zealots, ministers, the high priests, and just as devoid of values as the idiots they are trying to replace!
We must make sure not to toss the good aspects of religion out the door, while we lemming forward with plans to destroy religion in any instance we encounter it...
In short, we should be sure not to throw the baby out with the bathwater... Christianity is not perfect... Nor is Judaism, an certainly not Islam... But every faith has a small bit of value, even if only in it's native nation... We must accept religion's roll in people's lives for what it is, along with it's flaws, and the many flaws of those who use it like a crutch or a weapon... If in taking it away from those who wield it for harm, we will deny it from those who use it for good...
and if we do that, The terrorists have won! ROFLMAO ! ! !
but seriously... As a great man, what would Je$u$ do?
I starting to think his archetype will lead us down a slightly more thoughtful path, regardless if we treat him like g0d, or just a benchmark for what we should try to be... and maybe, at the end of time, that's all he was meant to do anyways. All this crap about him being g0d, could have been just that... A giant fetid pile of ecclesiastical crap!
But, the enduring image of the father that died to save his children... The man that was faithful to his wife, friends, and family... The man who, in spite of the fact that he KNEW he would be beaten half to death, humiliated, and nailed to a ing tree, let it all happen ANYWAYS to save 'his children', should stick with us for eternity, and should not be scorned the very institutions that we elect to teach our children...
or at the very least, we should circulate it in the black community! LOL ! !
You can direct any hate mail to:
fullauto2012@cox.net... feel free to leave some hate replies here though
Was w?rde Jesus tun?
(What would Jesus do)
Funny subject for me... As many of you may or may not know, I am exactly NOT a Xtian. But My son had me thinking along philosophical lines this last Saturday, and I would like to share my thoughts a little... Not that any of you care, but I can see that what I told him will help him, and if I can extend anything to help out there, I will... Again... Take it or leave it...
My son recently started Catholic school, and has a new found fascination with God, and especially with Jesus. He has SOOooo many questions about Je$u$, that it has me thinking about things and in ways that I haven't done in years because I had pretty much figured out my position earlier in life... Not much, but earlier none the less..
Funny thing was, this all came about because he found a copy of Jesus Christ Superstar in my CD collection, and his eyes lite up when I told him I had the movie... I put it on and he watched for a bit in total amazement... "why is the black man singing?", was his first reaction... Wacky Judas! Won't he ever learn!
So it came to be that instead of cleaning the 2 day old fruity pebbles from my kitchen sink trap, I would sit down with him to watch one of my very favorite musicals... He wanted me there to explain to him what they were talking about.. Being a child, he understands words well, but when they are sung, he only catches the really short ones... I get it, so I help...
So we watched the whole thing... He loved it! Then he hit me with it...
"Why do people worship Jesus?"
If you don't have kids, you won't understand how children can ask the most innocent question, and make you rethink your whole existence... Your entire life's worth can sometimes be summed up by your answer to a child's question... It's a very surreal thing... This was one of these moments for me...
I stopped, mid thought it seemed, and paused for a few seconds with that 'fork-in-the-road' look humans get when they are blindsided... Ethan, being the boy he is, apologized, and I told him there was no need and that he had just thrown daddy a curve ball... "Macaroni", I said to him... Which is our code word for daddy needs a 10 min break, and that he is not to interrupt me...
I went back into the kitchen and thought about it... "Why do people worship Jesus?" My first reaction was a 'programmed' reaction and can only be summed up by calling it a knee jerk dating back to where I had left off in life thinking seriously along these lines... Last time I had REALLY put effort into a question such as this, it was 1998! I was a card carrying liberal, and any effort, no matter how small, I could make to derail the established 'theocracy' as I called it, was worth it... No matter WHO, or how many people I had to crush to do it!
A lot has changed since than... Thank g0d...
I guess my son realized the gravity of my thought because for 2 hours he didn't say anything to me except, "can I have a snack?"
Then it hit me... and what I told him, and the way I told him, should stick with him for the rest of his life... I can only hope that he understands later in life, exactly how important a seed I planted in him, and that he passes that onto my grandchildren, even if I never get to meet them.
I will paraphrase as the emotions of the situation clouded my mind a bit...
"Ethan... as a Christian, you are taught that Jesus was the Son of God, and that he died for your sins. But many people, including myself, are not Christians. Your faith, and what you believe will always be your choice, and I will never stop you from believing in what you really need. I am not a christian, but I am happy that you are so excited to learn about Je$u$. Not because I think he was the son of god, but because he was, is, and will always be, a great example of what a man should be.
He was not perfect, nor did he claim to be, but he tried every day of his life to be... He accepted peoples' weaknesses, and encouraged them to keep trying... He was faithful, hardworking, and always tried to do what was best for his people. He was a good man... a great man... Nothing like the men of today...
He didn't fight when he could talk, he didn't run away from his responsibilities...
and IF history is true, and Jesus died on the cross like they said, than he did what almost no other man has done...
He Knew he was going to be beaten, and he knew he was going to die a horrible death... But he loved his children so much, that let them do it anyways, knowing that if he didn't, we would suffer... And that truly is the measure of a great man worthy of your worship, as well as mine and everyone... Christian or not, real or not"
He took that extremely well, as if he understood that what I was handing him was a verbal Faberge egg. He made me put on the movie again, which I did...
Later that night, he was telling me how he had been lying to mom about me letting him sleep in my room when he is here, and he asked me if she was going to be mad if he told her... I said probably, she would be more mad at me though... He told me he didn't want to tell her because he didn't want to get into trouble, but he didn't want to lie to her.
And that's when I said, "What would Je$u$ do?"
He stopped and thought, and said, "I'll tell her... Jesus wouldn't lie, even if he was gonna get punished..."
End Heartfelt Story Here... Read on if you want my editorial at your own risk...
-----------------Snip-----------------
My point is political, as usual, but I think very meaningful, especially these days of the most important and consequential elections to date in the nation... It really doesn't matter who we put in the Oval Office, We are pretty ed as a country, and even worse off as a nation. But as humans, we are constantly making spot decisions about the morals, and mood of the country our children live and grow in...
While I am not, and will never be a Christian, I would warn those who think a complete divorce from our founder's Deist values, modernly called our Judeo/Christian values, would be the best thing for our country...
I was born in 1976, but am a bit a a nerd when it comes to post WWII History. The slow but sure chilling of the marriage between our social values, and our Christian values started in the 1960's, and actually accelerated during the 90's... Many people think that this is a good thing, and only wish it could happen overnight... They call this movement progress, and are thus labeled secular progressives... I say, such a drastic death to a country's religion has been accomplished before, and it didn't turn out that well...look up the Russian Revolution and the resulting Pogroms...
That put me somewhere between Conservative, and Liberal, in an area I call reality. You can call me whatever you like...
I don't see the stripping of our religious values in this country as necessarily a good thing, considering that our Morals in this country have gone completely down the toilette since the 60's. What was called a secular movement has turned out to be a religion all in itself, complete with zealots, ministers, the high priests, and just as devoid of values as the idiots they are trying to replace!
We must make sure not to toss the good aspects of religion out the door, while we lemming forward with plans to destroy religion in any instance we encounter it...
In short, we should be sure not to throw the baby out with the bathwater... Christianity is not perfect... Nor is Judaism, an certainly not Islam... But every faith has a small bit of value, even if only in it's native nation... We must accept religion's roll in people's lives for what it is, along with it's flaws, and the many flaws of those who use it like a crutch or a weapon... If in taking it away from those who wield it for harm, we will deny it from those who use it for good...
and if we do that, The terrorists have won! ROFLMAO ! ! !
but seriously... As a great man, what would Je$u$ do?
I starting to think his archetype will lead us down a slightly more thoughtful path, regardless if we treat him like g0d, or just a benchmark for what we should try to be... and maybe, at the end of time, that's all he was meant to do anyways. All this crap about him being g0d, could have been just that... A giant fetid pile of ecclesiastical crap!
But, the enduring image of the father that died to save his children... The man that was faithful to his wife, friends, and family... The man who, in spite of the fact that he KNEW he would be beaten half to death, humiliated, and nailed to a ing tree, let it all happen ANYWAYS to save 'his children', should stick with us for eternity, and should not be scorned the very institutions that we elect to teach our children...
or at the very least, we should circulate it in the black community! LOL ! !
You can direct any hate mail to:
fullauto2012@cox.net... feel free to leave some hate replies here though
