Not to mention their removal of ‘a disturbing deviant that hangs out with whores and preaching free care for the sick and that he’s preaching this touchy feely nonsense. Stop being a pussy stop pandering to those babies they’re not real men™.’
5 Likes
Of course then there’s Medical Error Insemination, which turns out to be more fun that you would’ve expected (as a viewer anyway…)
1 Like
The discussions of Jesus reminds me of the plot to Final Fantasy Tactics, which has some interesting commentary on Christian religion (without it being explicitly christian in the game). In the game there’s a big cover up on their one big religious Christ-like figure, but it boils down to this figure being a regular man, who rose to do incredible things. And how after his death the Church sought to sanctify him by re-writing history to make it so that he was directly a child of the gods, you later find out in the game that there’s rampant corruption in the Church and a lot of twisting of history to serve their needs. There’s some typical JRPG conventions that directly work off of that in the game but the insight was really interesting.
Seeing Jesus in a similar lens, that he was just a regular guy, not some holy figure, might be heretical to most but i personally find that to be more inspiring. That a normal guy was able to deeply affect his current culture and also the future, with nothing but a message of love. Too bad that’s been changed over the centuries to something more complicated.
Sorry for the rambling by the way.
8 Likes
My view is God gave us our mind. He gave us the freedom of will. He also made the universe operate under consistaint rules that are able to be figured out. The rest is just details.
5 Likes
Not exactly. There is a lot of unpacking to be done surrounding that passage. All things considered, I think there are several valid interpretations.
Some things to think about when reading Jesus’ response to the question “is it right to pay taxes to Caesar?”:
Who is he talking to? Observant Jews in Roman occupied Israel would be my answer.
Note that he starts his response by asking to see the coin used to pay the tax. This reads like a bit of theater to demonstrate that he himself does not carry money. (He’s going out of his way to show that he DGAF about Caesar’s money)
Then he asks whose portrait is engraved upon said coin. It is of course Caesar. This strikes me as an obvious callback to the commandment that Israel not make or worship engraved images. (Perhaps the audience should also not give fuck about money with the taint of idolatry?)
The conclusion to give back Caesar’s stuff, and give to God what belongs to God raises some larger questions. What does the audience actually owe Caesar, and what belongs to God? Digging into those questions is a thing people have written entire goddamn books on. There are lots of nuanced directions it can go, if you want to go down that rabbit hole.
Also, if you want to build a more complete picture regarding Jesus vs. taxes, you also need to include Matthew 17:24-26. He makes the case in that passage that he doesn’t really need to pay a different tax, but ends up paying via divine miracle to avoid pissing people off.
I’m giving this one a longish response because the simplistic readings of this passage I got growing up in evangelical churches were used to support all kinds of knee-jerk flag waving bullshit. It gets under my skin.
My takeaway: Jesus didn’t really give a fuck about taxes, and saw questions about them as a petty distraction. Or as anarchy jesus (via crass) would say: “Do they owe Caesar a living? Of course they fucking meh.”
14 Likes
As opposed to the other miracle of natural asexual reproduction of a human?
Point is, you need a miracle either way, so why suggest that there be no Y chromosome? You’re already presupposing a miraculous birth at that point.
2 Likes
Nope. The Romans had a humane system for dealing with the urban poor in the form of free bread and admission to the shows.
Canon Jesus? He always struck me as more of a Leica kinda guy myself.
17 Likes
Isn’t that what the “H” in Jesus H. Christ stands for? Haploid?
10 Likes
Passion of the Christ et.al. also play up the human suffering, which is the thing that they point to as a huge sacrifice. It’s funny to act like it’s this big thing when - if he’s truly divine - it really isn’t. Dying, for him, is just like leaving a shitty party.
So money is fake, and we should all stop buying into man’s made-up systems if we want to be free? I’m going to be so pissed if it turns out @popobawa4u was Jesus driving trollies the bbs boards…
11 Likes
Don’t confuse the Real Fightin’ Jesus with some sort of Republican Jesus. Praise Bob!
3 Likes
Never bothered with that movie, didn’t really see the need to fetishize his suffering as a reason for everyone in the faith to be a good christian. It’s directly appealing to our guilt vs our love and compassion. I think this focus on his suffering shows up around medieval times but i could be wrong, frankly i’m a bit lazy to look that up at the moment 
Either way, you try to celebrate how someone lived and not how they died.
3 Likes
For me, here is Jesus talking publicly to some smart guys who are trying to catch him out. If he says they should not pay their taxes then they can rat him out to the Romans. If he says they should pay their taxes, then he is a Roman Imperialist. Instead of saying either, he gives a damn fine political answer.
Similarly: is he the Son of God? “Call me rather the Son of Man”. Is he the King of the Jews? “The words are yours”.
Spoiler alert: they get him anyway.
There is an interesting theory that Jesus may have been a Pharisee, or at least sympathetic to them. They did have the common touch where the Sadducees were upper class and favoured the Greeks. Some of them did express a hippie-like detachment from material stuff. Perhaps the gospel writers found it necessary to bad-mouth them, so they could not absorb the new cult.
6 Likes
Something I think about all the time is how the superstitious nature of Christianity overpowers the actual philosophical/sociological aspects. Like how some people will proudly display John 3:16, or even better John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." To them you have to “accept Christ” like you’re signing some binding legal agreement, and after that everything is peachy. Someone who is good and kind and has never done anything wrong will still be punished for all eternity because they were raised a Hindu instead of a Christian. Apparently Yahweh is as vain as Donald Trump and needs for us to honor Him specifically and constantly lavish Him with praise.
That’s my joke when someone offers me a Bible or DVD on Christ: “Meh. . . I already know how it ends.”
8 Likes
‘Jeezus” looks like Gary Busey.
1 Like
There’s really nothing shocking or revolutionary here. Most of these ideas are at least a century old. Of course, “fanfiction” is a hip new idea, very internetty.
2 Likes
I meant their system for dealing with religious radicals 
I hope we get to see more of Mexican Jesus next season. He seemed like a pretty good guy.
3 Likes
I think the author is stretching a bit on some of those.
2 Likes
