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The point is, is that the Biblical text is VERY accurate to the original documents that we have our hands on. In other words, it's not partially accurate, it's not halfway accurate, but very accurate.
what about the gnostics? how about the book of Thomas? None of these are in the bibile, the early christian/catholic hierarchy decided that these didn't "fit" in the main theology of their church. Hundreds of people wrote versions of the new testament and what Jesus' teachings were. We aer supposed to believe that a few (fairly powerful) men in the early millenium knew what was Jesus' actual teachings? What about the need to please the Romans and try to get them on board the Christian wagon, there sure isn't much antiroman stuff in teh new testament even though the were the ones that actually killed Jesus and then destroyed the Jewish nation a few years later. The bible is a large narrative story that has quite a few good points and philosphies in it. It can't be taken literally as time has a way of "changing" the story. On top of that, what theology do you go with? islamic? Catholic? Protestant (what one btw) There are too many versions of even teh "original" Greek and Hebrew to really deterimine what is right/wrong.
However, back to the article, I thought that it had some very good points, why does the most "christian" society on earth give the littlest to countries that have the most trouble. The poor in our country are quite rich compared ot teh poor in eqcuador, bangledesh, etc.
In discussing hte poor here, not all are poor becuase they're lazy. I have a client htat has 2 degrees and tries very hard to get a job but can't becuase "the voices" cause him to behave erratically and bug clients. Many of our poor (around 50% have some type of Mental illness) What about them? They were given a set of genes that causes them great suffering. How many people are helping them? I'll admit I dont' give money to people on the side of the road, I give them cards to the local shelter for a warm bed and food lol they don't really like that. However, I've found that most of my clients don't do this kind of panhandling (some do but those tend to be my not so serious clients). Most try very hard to get somewhere and often end up spinning thier wheels because of lack of transportation (have you ever tried to take a bus when you could hear everyone's thoughts?), lack of housing (try to keep an apartment when you scream, at the top of your lungs mind you, at the relatives you see every day to get out) or lack of adequate health care, somethings wrong when the type/quality of healthcare you get depends on your income, there's a reason why some rich people are "ecentric" and some poor people are "mentally ill"
Anyway now that I got totally off the subject, I think that America really should take a look at itself and what image it's portraing to the world. Are we actually trying to make the world a better place for humankind(the actual christian ideal) or just for ourselves(the capitalistic model)
Jim
Last edited by jlanger; 10/05/05 05:01 AM.
