Jake Doberenz challenges the obsession with winning in Christian faith and argues that Christians are called to reflect Christ’s character, not chase power or numbers.
Donald Trump’s faithful followers who call themselves Christian need to do a major moral re-think as to which fundamental values taught and practiced by Jesus Christ they’re willing to uphold or ignore, personally though especially publicly.
While there are many Christians who have rejected Donald Trump and his politics (though mostly quietly), regardless of his tempting conservative politics and pro-life professions, there nonetheless remains a vocal and politically active ‘Christian’ element celebrating Trump conservatism. Trump’s extensive disgraceful conduct appears to take a muted back seat to, perhaps most notably, his successful nominations of three conservative justices for the U.S. Supreme Court; and, from my understanding, he was/is strategically doing likewise with a number of lower courts.
But Jesus fundamentally was about non-violence, genuine compassion, love, and non-wealth. His teachings and practices epitomize so much of the primary component of socialism — do not hoard morbidly gratuitous wealth in the midst of poverty. He clearly would not tolerate the accumulation of tens of billions of dollars by individual people, especially while so many others go hungry and homeless.
Thus I feel compelled to reiterate: Too many adherents of institutional Christianity — those ‘Christians’ most resistant to Christ’s fundamental nature, teachings and practices — are creating their Creator’s nature in their own fallible and often angry, vengeful image.
Prominent Christian (i.e. Christlike) leaders/voices should often strongly-emphasize what Jesus fundamentally taught and demonstrated to his followers. However strange that sounds, institutional Christianity seems to need continuous reminding: Notably, that the Biblical Jesus would not have rolled his eyes and sighed: ‘Oh, well. I’m against what the politician stands for, but what can you do when you dislike even more his political competition?’ … And that too many institutional 'Christians' seem to create their Creator’s nature in their own fallible and often angry, vengeful image.
They will, for example, proclaim at publicized protests that ‘God hates’ such-and-such group of people. (One wonders how the Divine actually feels when observing all of this extreme theism and theological insanity?) Often being the most vocal, they make very bad examples of Christ’s fundamental meaning/truth, especially to the young and impressionable.
Christ was viciously murdered largely because he did not in the least behave in accordance with corrupted human conduct and expectation — and in particular because he was nowhere near being the angry and sometimes even bloodthirsty behemoth so many theists seemingly wanted or needed their Creator and savior to be and therefore believed he’d have to be.
Christ’s nature and teachings even left John the Baptist, who believed in him as the savior, bewildered by his apparently contradictory version of the Hebraic messiah, with which John had been raised. Perhaps most perplexing was the Biblical Jesus’ revolutionary teaching of non-violently offering the other cheek as the proper response to being physically assaulted by one’s enemy.
The Biblical Jesus also most profoundly washed his disciples’ feet, the act clearly revealing that he took corporeal form to serve.
Perhaps some ‘Christians’ even find inconvenient, if not plainly annoying, trying to reconcile the conspicuous inconsistency in the fundamental nature of the New Testament’s Jesus with the wrathful, vengeful and even jealous nature of the Old Testament’s God. But for many of us, Godly greatness need not be defined as the ability to destroy and harshly punish, as opposed to the willingness and compacity for compassionate forgiveness, non-violence and humility.
“Crack open the Sermon on the Mount” . . . Great quote. Makes me want to drink it in, man!
Awesome work.
Thanks!!!!
Donald Trump’s faithful followers who call themselves Christian need to do a major moral re-think as to which fundamental values taught and practiced by Jesus Christ they’re willing to uphold or ignore, personally though especially publicly.
While there are many Christians who have rejected Donald Trump and his politics (though mostly quietly), regardless of his tempting conservative politics and pro-life professions, there nonetheless remains a vocal and politically active ‘Christian’ element celebrating Trump conservatism. Trump’s extensive disgraceful conduct appears to take a muted back seat to, perhaps most notably, his successful nominations of three conservative justices for the U.S. Supreme Court; and, from my understanding, he was/is strategically doing likewise with a number of lower courts.
But Jesus fundamentally was about non-violence, genuine compassion, love, and non-wealth. His teachings and practices epitomize so much of the primary component of socialism — do not hoard morbidly gratuitous wealth in the midst of poverty. He clearly would not tolerate the accumulation of tens of billions of dollars by individual people, especially while so many others go hungry and homeless.
Thus I feel compelled to reiterate: Too many adherents of institutional Christianity — those ‘Christians’ most resistant to Christ’s fundamental nature, teachings and practices — are creating their Creator’s nature in their own fallible and often angry, vengeful image.
Prominent Christian (i.e. Christlike) leaders/voices should often strongly-emphasize what Jesus fundamentally taught and demonstrated to his followers. However strange that sounds, institutional Christianity seems to need continuous reminding: Notably, that the Biblical Jesus would not have rolled his eyes and sighed: ‘Oh, well. I’m against what the politician stands for, but what can you do when you dislike even more his political competition?’ … And that too many institutional 'Christians' seem to create their Creator’s nature in their own fallible and often angry, vengeful image.
They will, for example, proclaim at publicized protests that ‘God hates’ such-and-such group of people. (One wonders how the Divine actually feels when observing all of this extreme theism and theological insanity?) Often being the most vocal, they make very bad examples of Christ’s fundamental meaning/truth, especially to the young and impressionable.
Christ was viciously murdered largely because he did not in the least behave in accordance with corrupted human conduct and expectation — and in particular because he was nowhere near being the angry and sometimes even bloodthirsty behemoth so many theists seemingly wanted or needed their Creator and savior to be and therefore believed he’d have to be.
Christ’s nature and teachings even left John the Baptist, who believed in him as the savior, bewildered by his apparently contradictory version of the Hebraic messiah, with which John had been raised. Perhaps most perplexing was the Biblical Jesus’ revolutionary teaching of non-violently offering the other cheek as the proper response to being physically assaulted by one’s enemy.
The Biblical Jesus also most profoundly washed his disciples’ feet, the act clearly revealing that he took corporeal form to serve.
Perhaps some ‘Christians’ even find inconvenient, if not plainly annoying, trying to reconcile the conspicuous inconsistency in the fundamental nature of the New Testament’s Jesus with the wrathful, vengeful and even jealous nature of the Old Testament’s God. But for many of us, Godly greatness need not be defined as the ability to destroy and harshly punish, as opposed to the willingness and compacity for compassionate forgiveness, non-violence and humility.