The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> Born-Again Fucker Gives it a Try

Posted by pancho (Moderator) - Sunday, February 26 2012, 13:56:41 (UTC)
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...a new attempt to sugarcoat the bible...you can always, I mean always, know that what these guys are supposedly against, is really what they're for...in the title you think this guy is against sugarcoating the bible, that's what you're supposed to think then, by the end of it, you realize he has just finished sugarcoating the bible....

His claim is that the bible is filled with murder and rape and things because knows WE ARE. See, he's talking to us in a language WE can understand! What hew doesn't say is that God COMMANDS us to so these horrible things....God was furious with Joshua for sparing the Amalekites so he orders him back and this time he makes it plain he wants him to kill every man woman and child, except for the virgins which he's to distribute among the Jews...this isn't the Jews wanting to do these things, it's their fucking god, who goes on to teach us "morals" and the rest...nice try.

My Take: Stop sugarcoating the Bible

Editor's note: Steven James is the author of more than 30 books, including "Flirting with the Forbidden," which explores forgiveness.

By Steven James, Special to CNN

(CNN) – The Bible is a gritty book. Very raw. Very real. It deals with people just like us, just as needy and screwed up as we are, encountering a God who would rather die than spend eternity without them.

...yeah, and he made them. I could have done a better job.

Yet despite that, it seems like Christians are uncomfortable with how earthy the Bible really is. They feel the need to tidy up God.

...they might, the rest of us feel the need to dump his ass once and for all.

For example, look in any modern translation of Isaiah 64:6, and you’ll find that, to a holy God, even our most righteous acts are like “filthy rags.” The original language doesn’t say “filthy rags”; it says “menstrual rags.” But that sounds a little too crass, so let’s just call them filthy instead.

...it isn't "to crass", it's too honest...it reveals what god feels towards women, that they are filth half the time.

And let’s not talk so much about Jesus being naked on the cross, and let’s pretend Paul said that he considered his good deeds “a pile of garbage” in Philippians 3:8 rather than a pile of crap, as the Greek would more accurately be translated.

...you parse the crap...it's garbage any way you look at it.

And let’s definitely not mention the six times in the Old Testament that the Jewish writers referred to Gentile men as those who “pisseth against the wall.” (At least the King James Version got that one right.)

...you forgot the rest of that statement; that Joshua should go back and kill every last Amalekite, including their animals (something no Apache would have done), including the children. Who kills people for pissing against a wall?

The point?

God’s message was not meant to be run through some arbitrary, holier-than-thou politeness filter. He intended the Bible to speak to people where they’re at, caught up in the stark reality of life on a fractured planet.

...give it a rest. He is supposed to be the teacher of righteousness...these are HIS commands, not our ideas...no sane person would mutilate the genitals of a child, not unless god tells him to...these are HIS ideas, his orders, his methods...stop sugarcoating god and blasting us. "Oh poor little god, what CAN he do with such crap as we are"!

Dozens of Psalms are complaints and heart-wrenching cries of despair to God, not holy-sounding, reverently worded soliloquies. Take Psalm 77:1-3: “I cry out to God; yes, I shout. Oh, that God would listen to me! When I was in deep trouble, I searched for the Lord. All night long I prayed, with hands lifted toward heaven, but my soul was not comforted. I think of God, and I moan, overwhelmed with longing for his help” (New Living Translation).

...is this where you sneak a little plus in? In the guise of "exposing" our attempts at "political correctness"...hoping that people will read your article for its provocative promise, and then see this "plea" from god to help us in our lives?

And rather than shy away from difficult and painful topics, the Old Testament includes vivid descriptions of murder, cannibalism, witchcraft, dismemberment, torture, rape, idolatry, erotic sex and animal sacrifice. According to St. Paul, those stories were written as examples and warnings for us (1 Corinthians 10:11). So obviously they were meant to be retold without editing out all the things we don’t consider nice or agreeable.

...no they weren't. you are sugarcoating as well as lying..these things are COMMANDED by god....you may remember the saying that the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree...god, "the father" created us, we are the fruit of his rotten tree...he created us, remember,,,he created us sick and then hounds us and commands to be well...but he doesn;t, he continues to smile on our wickedness...his staff blesses our soldiers while they murder innocent Iraqis...this was all HIS idea, remember?

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I believe that Scripture includes such graphic material to show how far we, as a race, have fallen and how far God was willing to come to rescue us from ourselves.

...nice try...scripture shows us an insane god, mad god..a god of a desert tribe that worshipped human sacrifice and kept right on doing it to the day Jesus was murdered, for YOU!

God is much more interested in honesty than pietism.

...oh, sure he is...such an honest fellow....like you?

And that’s what he gives us throughout Scripture, telling the stories of people who struggled with the same issues, questions and temptations we face today.

....he MADE them...he could have made them any way he wanted...instead he made them sick and flawed and then came back to blame THEM for it.

Peter struggled with doubt, and we hear all about it.

Elijah dealt with depression; Naomi raged with bitterness against God; Hannah struggled for years under the burden of her unanswered prayers.

David had an affair and then arranged to have his lover’s husband killed. Noah was a drunk, Abraham a liar, Moses a murderer. Job came to a place where he found it necessary to make a covenant with his eyes not to lust after young girls (Job 31:1).

...yeah, and he made them that way...why didn;t he make them worship Isis...or a rock? Because he wanted them to worship HIM...and they did exactly as he told them to, or else they got into worse trouble. Sure, they complained and got headaches and were depressed, why not, he depresses the crap out of me! That's why I never bothered with him in the first place.

It’s easy to make “Bible heroes” (as Protestants might say) or “saints” (as Catholics might refer to them) out to be bigger than life, immune from the temptations that everyone faces.

I find it encouraging that Jesus never came across as pietistic. In fact, he was never accused of being too religious; instead he partied so much that he was accused of being a drunkard and a glutton (Matthew 11:19).

....if Matthew, whoever he was, meant anything, it might be useful to quote him, but Matthew, like the rest of your cast of characters only means something to people if you get them at an early age and shovel this garbage into them...then his quotes might mean something...to THEM.

Jesus never said, “The Kingdom of God is like a church service that goes on and on forever and never ends.” He said the kingdom was like a homecoming celebration, a wedding, a party, a feast to which all are invited.

...tell that to the Aztecs, the Toltecs, the Tolmecs, the Inca, the Native American tribes, the Aborigines, the millions of pagans who were murdered for not "accepting the invitation"...tell it to the Africans, tell it to the Marines while you're at it.

This idea was too radical for the religious leaders of his day. They were more concerned about etiquette, manners, traditions and religious rituals than about partying with Jesus. And that’s why they missed out.

...man, can you SHOVEL it! Break out a guitar while you're at it and give us a song.

That’s why we miss out.

According to Jesus, the truly spiritual life is one marked by freedom rather than compulsion (John 8:36), love rather than ritual (Mark 12:30-33) and peace rather than guilt (John 14:27). Jesus saves us from the dry, dusty duties of religion and frees us to cut loose and celebrate.

...sigh.

I don’t believe we’ll ever recognize our need for the light until we’ve seen the depth of the darkness. So God wasn’t afraid to get down and dirty with us about life and temptation and forgiveness. And grace.

Only when the Bible seems relevant to us (which it is), only when the characters seem real to us (which they were), only then will the message of redemption become personal for us (which it was always meant to be).

We don’t need to edit God. We need to let him be the author of our new lives.

...you people are still at it...shilling for your god....too bad you can't murder people into Christ any more....now you just murder them.

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