QotD

[realthog]

If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus is just as selfish as we are or we’ve got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition . . . and then admit that we just don’t want to do it.

—Stephen Colbert, Colbert Report, December 16 2010


h/t frostokovich

Comments

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Jesus of Nazareth has very little to do with Christianity as it is actually practiced.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Jesus of Nazareth has very little to do with Christianity as it is actually practiced.

The trouble is that even the liberal-type Xtianity that you (I imagine) and I (certainly) grew up with practises the principle of cherrypicking the bits it wants of Christ's supposed teachings from the relevant three gospels and ignoring the rest -- not to mention much of Paul's rantings.

In a sense I go along with that: the purported teachings of Christ were remarkable for their age and culture, and it's not surprising that some of them were, by the standards of today, bordering on the barbaric. Leaving those aside, and likewise the supernatural stuff, you have the basis of a fairly good moral code to live by -- essentially, humanism (as I understand it).