hehe...well, if you have seen some of my spicier debates on here with fellow believers, I doubt you'd have a problem with the volume...hehe... Christ was a lot of things, and the type of guy to throw profiteering douchebags out of the temple and calling the stick up the ass pharisees an evil brood of vipers was among them...lol...combine that with the fact that he preferred the company of sailors and prostitutes, and I find myself more than able to follow Christ's example from time to time...hehe
But he was a smart guy...he also advocated for a gentler approach, perhaps a slower and more methodical approach, as changing the world with love tends to take longer than with a sword. And he was right to. I'm not sure what ever happened to the merchants, but he never got clear of the Pharisees, despite the fact that he gave them a proper fiery intellectual ass whooping on more than one occasion.
I'm not overly concerned with the Church's "brand". It has faced worse challenges in its history, and here we are, 2000 years later, getting ready for Christmas.
There will be a Church as long as there is God. If something as unavoidable as our humanity, for all the good and bad that entails, could bring down a deity, especially when we believe that same humanity was by their design and intent, then what kind of deity do we serve? I would suggest that rather than being just one more angry, out of control Christian asshole for our critics to point and laugh at, my advocacy for societal change in general, directionally aligned with the basic message of "love thy neighbor" that is at the core of what we Christians are called to live, is more valuable in the long run. Certainly there are plenty of critics of Christianity who are more than capable of delivering any required ass whoopings in our stead...hehe...
There are certainly folks calling themselves Christians, weaponizing a complicated and problematic religious text for personal gain. But they are part of a bigger problem, a sub demographic of a group of people who are seeking personal gain by whatever means are available to them. Perhaps the better approach is for people who are against
that to work together, irrespective of motivation or classification or religious affiliation. Atheists and believers will never agree or understand each other. But maybe a bunch of people that believe we can do better to become a more humane, sustainable society can work together to make that happen. Maybe for that to happen we need to actually turn the volume down a notch, and figure it out. The yelling doesn't seem to be working. As fun as it is in an anonymous debate forum...
Peace to you too, bud.
