Day 137b: Dodging the dismissive Dogma … (September 13, 2019)
There was a delightful display of irony in this particular sign, seeing as how A) the sign itself openly advertised the Christian religion, B) the Christian religion is not founded in the teachings of Jesus Christ at all (but is rather soaked in & indeed inundated by the dogmatic ramblings of Paul), and C) neither one of the verses mentioned was indeed actually quoted by the Jesus mentioned in the Gospels – with the book of Revelation 3 quite obviously citing another Jesus entirely, and Acts 3 actually quoting Peter, not Jesus …
“And this is what evil does: It inspires selfish & often harm-inducing choices for others in the name of religion or government or even community. It tempts in the name of ‘greater good’ or ‘personal worth’ – tempts us all to believe that we must first & foremost care for ourselves and those like us … Early on in my reading I came upon a sentence from Nietzsche, one that essentially noted that the crucial thing in both heaven and earth was that one should choose a long obedience to one direction; a noble and diligent persistence towards a higher way of being – a consequent & conscient way of being that thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, in something that brings a greater harmony to living, and thereby makes life worth living. And this struck me as a concept I could live with – indeed, one with which I could live more readily than any other … And there must ultimately be a similar choice made by the Church – one that can only come from a new type of monasticism – a monasticism which only has a way-style in common with an old an uncompromising allegiance to Jesus’ teachings announced in the Sermon on the Mount. It is high time people banded together to do this.” ~ inspired by John Kramer, Eugene Peterson & Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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