Freesk8 #fundie

Freesk8 #fundie youtube.com

Jesus never advocated any kind of government form or activity. He was all about individual behavior toward? individuals. As for government, it was "render un to Caesar what is Caeser's..." which may be read as a call to boycott official currency or even all government.
Lot's of people see Jesus as an anarchist. At any rate, Jesus would not have seen any charity or love in govt welfare programs.

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old comment by Xotan

Render unto Caesar... hmmm! You have a particularly idiosyncratic view on this. One of a kind, perhaps. The rest of the Christian world tends to see it otherwise - as did Paul. Remember Paul? He's to one who told Christians to obey their rulers as these rulers were appointed by God. Now square this with your half-baked understanding of what Jesus said.

The term 'anarchist' is anachronistic, and should not be applied to Jesus. Besides, in commending that one should render unto Caesar, there is a good argument that he was anything but what would later be called an anarchist.
(Anarchy = no government. Caesar was, to all intent, THE government.)

The people who would have actually heard Jesus preach took his word as meaning that they should practice a form of communal sharing (similar to Communism) and merged their posessions and wealth. It was perhaps the first welfare system in the world. Clearly Jesus would have approved. Yet you don't! Are you sure you follow Jesus and not Mammon?

old comment by GigaGuess

Jesus never advocated any kind of government form or activity. He was all about individual behavior toward? individuals.
Fair enough. He also advocated one's specific duties to individuals. PARTICULARLY the poor.

As for government, it was "render un to Caesar what is Caeser's..." which may be read as a call to boycott official currency or even all government.
So when it say Render unto God what is God's, he was calling for a boycott of tithing, or even the church itself, then? Or perhaps he means that the money owed to either is not yours. It's their's. So cough up.

Lot's of people see Jesus as an anarchist.
Definitely a rebel of some flavor, anyways.

At any rate, Jesus would not have seen any charity or love in govt welfare programs.
No, he'd be hounding you to give to the poor PERSONALLY.

old comment by Doubting Thomas

"As for government, it was 'render un to Caesar what is Caeser's...' which may be read as a call to boycott official currency or even all government.

Uh, no, Jesus was saying to pay your taxes. If you take this into context, people were asking him if he thought they should pay their taxes. He said to take out a coin and asked whose picture was on it. They said it was Caesar, and that's when he said to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and render unto God what is God's. Jesus never said anything about boycotting any government or currency.

"Jesus would not have seen any charity or love in govt welfare programs."

I guess you missed the point about feed the hungry, clothe the naked, etc. Or was Jesus just kidding about all that stuff?

old comment by

This is not really fundie so much as slightly erroneous.

Jesus did not advocate worldly government. He also did not advocate AGAINST it, which so often seems to be overlooked. The government is a thing of man. Jesus was concerned with the things of God, particularly the two great commandments to love God with all one's heart and to love one's neighbor as one's self. Fundamentalists love to focus on the first one and are notoriously awful at remembering the second.

Jesus was not "for" or "against" government so much as he simply was not concerned with it. Judging from his attitudes, he most likely saw it as part of the world of men, something that would pass on with the coming of the kingdom of Heaven. His focus was on higher things. He seems to consider worrying about government as being akin to arguing about what color the window drapes should be while the house is on fire.

In the times of Jesus, government was generally composed of high ranking aristocrats which were installed by the foreign Roman invaders. Our government is democratically elected and, at least theoretically, serves as an extension of the will of the people. That was unimaginable back then. When the government offers programs which provide for the general good, that is, again, an extension of the people's will. I very much believe that Christ would prefer this state of affairs to a state of affairs where society is in a position to do something for the less fortunate and yet refuses to do so.

old comment by Professor M

It looks like it's time for that song again...

LONGHAIRED RADICAL SOCIALIST JEW

Well, Jesus was a homeless lad
With an unwed mother and an absent dad
And I really don't think he would have gotten that far
If Newt, Pat and Jesse had followed that star
So let's all sing out praises to
That longhaired radical socialist Jew

When Jesus taught the people he
Would never charge a tuition fee
He just took some fishes and some bread
And made up free school lunches instead
So let's all sing out praises to
That long-haired radical socialist Jew

He healed the blind and made them see
He brought the lame folks to their feet
Rich and poor, any time, anywhere
Just pioneering that free health care
So let's all sing out praises to
That longhaired radical socialist Jew

Jesus hung with a low-life crowd
But those working stiffs sure did him proud
Some were murderers, thieves and whores
But at least they didn't do it as legislators
So let's all sing out praises to
That longhaired radical socialist Jew

Jesus lived in troubled times
the religious right was on the rise
Oh what could have saved him from his terrible fate?
Separation of church and state.
So let's all sing out praises to
That longhaired radical socialist Jew

Sometimes I fall into deep despair
When I hear those hypocrites on the air
But every Sunday gives me hope
When pastor, deacon, priest, and pope
Are all singing out their praises to
Some longhaired radical socialist Jew.

They're all singing out their praises to....
Some longhaired radical socialist Jew.

old comment by Drax

The Gospel story surrounding the 'render unto Caesar' quote (Matthew 22:21) may not be accurate, of course, but assuming it is, Jesus seems to have been put in a difficult position by the Pharisees, who asked him whether or not the Jews should pay taxes to the Romans. If he had simply said that they should, he could be seen as a Roman appeaser and thus lose credibility with the radical Jews, if he said that they shouldn't, the Pharisees could report him to the Roman authorities for sedition. His answer was a clever way of slipping out of the trap - and thus shouldn't necessarily be seen as a definitive statement of Jesus' political beliefs or as some kind of commandment, just a clever off the cuff response to a dangerous question. I get the feeling that the Bible writers did this a lot - take some quote that may or may not have been uttered by Jesus at some point, take it out of context, blow it out of proportion and turn it into some kind of divine commandment, which Jesus probably never intended it to be.

Freesk8 #fundie youtube.com

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