Where Do We Get the Notion that Jesus was Religious?

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"life lessons", "son of god", behavior, conviction, devout, God, humanize, Jesus, Jesus-ism, man, religion

This has been a crazy day. With the budget on hold and the possibility of the government shutdown looming in the evening hours haze, and the “grown-up” bickering all over the media. A body can only handle so much recess behavior. So, I’m jumping topics!

There is a huge ambiguous lake around the meaning of the word “religion,” but this is not so to everyone. For clarity, the link to dictionary.com’s list of definitions for the word is posted below. There are many Americans (and others) who are very, very religious. That is to say they devoutly, routinely follow a set of rules and/or beliefs. They go through the motions, kneeling, folding hands, bowing heads, fingering beads, and repeating common phrases or prayers. These things have meaning but they are not necessarily Jesus-ism.

Very simply said, Jesus was anything BUT religious. In fact, he put down, “cursed,” argued with, and ignored the religious leaders of his time. Those of us who wish to be His followers are compelled to FOLLOW in his footsteps. For centuries since He walked the earth, men have attempted to organize, pasteurize, and homogenize the words and actions of Jesus. In short, we have tried to “humanize” him.

If he is who he claimed to be – the Son of God – it is an unattainable feat to squeeze all of God into human comprehension.

If he is NOT who he claimed to be – the Son of God – he is by far the singly most evil, conniving, deceptive human being ever born. The only other possible option is severe mental illness.

In this case, it’s one or the other. It cannot be some ambiguous third “polite” option. He claimed to be the very Son of God. He’s either nuts, a great liar, or … Logic dictates!

Walking on Water by Ric Berry

religion:

Stop Teaching Kids to Bully! Lead by Example!

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"Buffalo Springfield", "life lessons", American Moral Character, behavior, bullies, bully, bullying, children, compassion, differences, empathy, teach, values

Bullying is not a new thing. Kids have always sought the solitary differences among them to ridicule. We dealt with it and eventually learned to fight back … nicely, of course. Problem is, the culture in the 50’s, and early 60’s was a bit gentler than today, even with the unwanted war actions.

Kids learn to bully … somewhere?

Let me ask you this: What do our children learn from TV/movies/video games … the NEWS? (Not, what do they watch) What is shown to them? Do we teach them to appreciate the differences of others? Or do we teach “If you don’t believe like me, you’re WRONG!” ?

Left v Right

Republican v Democrat,

Union, v Non-Union,

North v South,

Christian v Islam,

Male v Female

… and on and on we go in our dichotomic world. Why are there only two choices? When there are but two choices, if you don’t agree completely with me, you must be wrong. I mean, who believes the wrong thing by choice???

Grown ups must start acting like adults, and stop teaching our children to bully!

“Battle lines being drawn. Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong!

Buffalo Springfield – For What It’s Worth 1967

Our children learn what we teach them. More specifically, children learn what they SEE and HEAR routinely. WE teach our children to either embrace the differences of others or question them. We teach our children to judge others even as we tell them not to because we teach with our behavior. When we scoff at the fat man across the street, or the short person struggling to get onto the bus, or the person who doesn’t appear as “handsome” as we might wish, we are teaching our children the ideology the produces bullying. When we sneer at the “sinner” across the parking lot of the church, synagogue or mosque we just left, are we displaying the compassion ALL major religions preach or the judgment condemned in all holy writings? It doesn’t have to be a sexuality issue! Kids have always been just plain mean! They find ANY difference reason enough to bully! Sounds kinda like our politicians, doesn’t it? Uh, behavior has to be learned some place!

Someday, just for fun, we should try to APPRECIATE our differences … just for fun, mind you! 😉 It might be too productive, I understand. We might learn to value other perspectives and maybe, just maybe, learn a thing or two. Maybe!