The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> God and Empire....a book.

God and Empire....a book.
Posted by pancho (Guest) - Thursday, December 27 2007, 23:01:09 (CET)
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God and Empire
Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now
By John Dominic Crossan


At the heart of the Bible is a moral and ethical call to fight unjust superpowers, whether they are Babylon, Rome, or even America.

From the divine punishment and promise found in Genesis through the revolutionary messages of Jesus and Paul, John Dominic Crossan reveals what the Bible has to say about land and economy, violence and retribution, justice and peace, and, ultimately, redemption. In contrast to the oppressive Roman military occupation of the first century, he examines the meaning of the non-violent Kingdom of God prophesized by Jesus and the equality advocated by Paul to the early Christian churches. Crossan contrasts these messages of peace with the misinterpreted apocalyptic vision from the Book of Revelation, which has been misrepresented by modern right-wing theologians and televangelists to justify U.S. military actions in the Middle East.

In God and Empire Crossan surveys the Bible from Genesis to Apocalypse, or the Book of Revelation, and discovers a hopeful message that cannot be ignored in these turbulent times. The first-century Pax Romana, Crossan points out, was in fact a "peace" won through violent military action. Jesus preached a different kind of peace—a peace that surpasses all understanding—and a kingdom not of Caesar but of God.

The Romans executed Jesus because he preached this Kingdom of God, a kingdom based on peace and justice, over the empire of Rome, which ruled by violence and force. For Jesus and Paul, Crossan explains, peace cannot be won the Roman way, through military victory, but only through justice and fair and equal treatment of all people.

...I agree. However, Jesus was not the first person to suggest peace and love as a way of life. Many, who never heard of him, did so before and after...the important thing here is to understand how and why Rome and so many tyrants have found the means to enforce their rule through the RELIGION made of Jesus...not the man himself.

..I disagree with the notion that the Romans executed Jesus because he preached peace and love...he was killed for denying the Roman god; Caesar. There were many Romans preaching love and peace. Nothing new there.

...if you let them, Christians will take credit for sliced bread too. Jesus can be praised for raising his voice against the intersts of Rome however, the fall of the Roman empire meant centuries of barbarism which grew to intolerable levels when the Church of Rome ruled human minds and bodies during the Dark Ages. It boggle the mind to think of how many innocent people were put to death in the second attempt of Rome to create an empire, only by replacing the emperors with popes and Roman soldiers with Roman priests.

...the actual and true history of this RELIGION needs exposing and badly too if we're ever to pull its claws and fangs which have been ripping people apart for centuries now. Whatever good the first Roman Empire, both East and West, brought to humans, added to the crimes of the second empire, under Christianity this time, in no way compensate us for all that we've lost. For every brilliant mind and soul which survived the soldier/priest/missionary of Christendom, one hundred more were killed.

...this planet can no longer afford to realize the "benefits" of the Christian religion when placed side by side with all we have suffered from it. The existence of a country for Jews in no way makes up for what Christians did to them...the fact that they accept it and keep silent only shows how little choice theyw ere given and how fearful they still are over what could come next...history isn't over. Jews know that. Let's hope Muslims don't wait untiul after the next Holocaust. because all the signs and symptoms are here again...with only slightly better stage-management. If you want to, you can deny the obvious...refuse to see the seeds being planted and the first fruits of this bogus war on "Terror"...a euphimism for a war against Islam. But first Christians need to create fear in the minds of people..get them to hate Muslims as much as they were taught to hate Jews.



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