Are Christians Loving Their Neighbours By Invading Them?

When will "Christians" take Jesus' words "to love your neighbour as yourself" seriously. Was the bombing in Iraq an act of love...or greed. Clearly the reason for the invasion was to get control of the second largest oil reserve in the world, keep the U.S. dollar as the currency used for oil purchases and to have a presence in the Middle East.

While supporting Al Qaeda in the past, and also supporting Saddam during the Iraq-Iran "war", the U.S. creates powers that do much harm. And now Obama and Harper are escalating the attacks on ISIS. ISIS was created by the earlier invasion of Iraq.

Remembrance Day was to be about "the war that ended all wars"...as Obama deploys more troops now!
And what do Christians do to protect the people/land? Shame. Listen to this war vet in his last days and to what he has to say about the lies, greed, the SIN that WE allow/cause...and the sin of the church...

Christians And Jews Fail The Test: Maintain Justice...

The Jewish Scriptures are very critical of the injustice that the Jews lived. Unfortunately, most church and synagogue goers ignore the Hebrew Prophets and their call to social justice. If they heeded the demands, the Palestinians would not be suffering now or for the last nearly 50 years under the illegal occupation by Israel.

Hear this...you women who oppress the poor

and crush the needy...

They do not know how to do right...

who hoard plunder and loot in their fortresses...

You trample on the poor

and force him to give you grain....

I hate, I despise your religious feasts;

I cannot stand your assemblies...

But let justice roll on like a river,

righteousness like a never-ending stream!

The time will surely come

when you will be taken away with hooks,

the last of you with fishhooks...

Amos 3-5

Above is a message from a recent rally in Hamilton, Ontario. Click for more.

Ignore This: Living In Luxury Condemned By James

Church-goers deny what the bible says – or at least they “explain it away”. While the book of James surely condemns wealth, many react, “God blesses with wealth”. Hmm. Where does that come from? Did Jesus say that? Here they loosely refer to the Old Testament. Hmmm. Usually they ignore the OT. But it’s convenient for legitimizing their exploitive lives. Not only does this ignore the context, but it denies and distracts from the James text and from what Jesus said. 

And such purveyors of "truth" try referring to some Old Testament examples of wealth. Hmm. So they ignore the OT except when it's time to justify their greed. This is what I call PAC Theology [pick and choose theology].

So let’s look at James.  Let’s remember that the men {not women, not God] who decided which books would be in the bible barely agreed to including James. Why? It is “too Jewish” – i.e. it doesn’t “spiritualize” life but is practical and “this worldly”.  It doesn’t, if we are honest, allow for changing the rich and poor to mean “in a spiritual sense”. It also, as with Jesus’ teaching, reinforces a kingdom in the authors’ days – or soon to come during their lives.

1:10: But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower.

1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their oppression and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world [materialism, favouritism toward the rich – ch. 2]

2:5f.  Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world [materially, status-wise] to be rich in faith and to INHERIT THE KINGDOM he promised those who love him? But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you?...Are they not the ones slandering the noble name of him to who you belong?

Wow. Have you ever heard such pronouncements made in church? No way! Rather, the minister [read liar] changes the bible to fit his [usually a man in evangelical churches – women still being forbidden from ‘leading’] ideology. Let’s be honest – this is lying. This is deceiving.  This is justifying the oppressors’ place in the world. Though the texts cited condemn the rich, the church dis-honestly changes the message to “soften” its impact. You know, God loves everyone [the same] - even Hitler? Oh no he was bad. 

We will continue with the text in a later blog. And it only gets harsher for the privileged. 

This painting by Hamilton artist Peter Reitsman sums up the church and the "christian" nation with respect to the rich, fair distribution of wealth and social justice:

Jesus Domesticated, Packaged, Sell-able

The once revolutionary Jesus has become a peaceful, nice, Caucasian friend. Does anyone wonder why he was murdered on a cross? To many church goers the cross represents hope, resurrection, etc. But what did it mean in Jesus' time - and isn't this more important?

The cross was the method of killing, especially among others, insurrectionists. Even the "bandits" on each of Jesus' sides were also insurrectionists - though translators and the church have mistranslated/preached "theives".  This is easy to ignore. But to think that Jesus died as "The King Of The Jews" - which was not a sarcastic label - is threatening to the status quo. And as throughout most of history, the church has established, sanctioned and protected the status quo. Of course this includes invadiing countries, killing/poisoning the natives, destroying cult-u-r-es, repressing/raping women...

To establish oneself as Messiah was threatening - blasphemy - to the Roman occupiers and the Jewish elite. It was a brave and deadly political move. Any challenge to the propped-up high priest or the Roman authorities was swiftly deal with with execution.

What has happened to the story of this revolutionary peasant named Jesus. If he was a carpenter - only mentioned once in New Testament - that meant he was "scum". He was just above the lowest of the low. Where are these people now? The church preaches against revolutionaries and the poor [prostitutes, druggies, ....]. The church needs to revolt against a society that murders, imprisons revolutionaries - those fighting for social justice, environmental justice, women's rights....those oppressed by the "status quo".

Churches tell people "invite Jesus into your heart and you will go to heaven..." - a "nice", sell-able message. A neat package. A lie. Jesus said "repent and believe". That means CHANGE. What kind of change? "Go and sell all your possession and give to the poor....then you will enter the kingdom of God". That is revolutionary, and hard to "sell". I want a Jesus I can fit into my pocket.

He remembers the flowers and the birds...may we repent and stop raping His land:

Fundamentalists Lie: Proclaiming Hatred Of The World From Their Mansions

Funda-mental-ist “Christians” are to hate the world. They are to love God but not the world. What does this mean? First, let’s look at the verse where this comes from 1 John 2:15-16 [all from NIV]:

Do not love the world or any-THING in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he HAS and DOES, comes not from the father but from the world.

So, the world is not some abstract thing outside of the church but the goods and achievements people acquire. It’s about being materialistic – greedy. If any dummy contextualized this and actually read the bible instead of believing their worldly pastor, they would see this.

Yet many churches preach that God will bless you and give you worldly things. But in this context they are good – and not “of this world”. What a lie. Here we see clearly how the church man-i-pulates the bible to serve its purpose. This purpose is to rationalize greed and materialism while being arrogant and self-righteous.

The world usually comes to mean those outside the church. And the juxtaposition of "us" versus "them" lifts the "Christian" to a lofty arrogant, self-righteous position. But this is far from the truth. Let’s look at chapter 3 verse 10 of John’s letter:

This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not DO what is RIGHT is not a child of God; neither is anyone who does not LOVE his brother.

So it is not “faith”, church, prayers that reveal the truth about ones “status” with God – but whether you LOVE. And what is love? Tell others that Jesus loves them, missions and the like? Let’s look at v. 16-18:

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And WE ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has MATERIAL POSSESSIONS and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

So love is about sharing material goods. And we are not to accumulate nor love things or be prideful. And yet the church says otherwise. So how does the church call itself [and its members] “Christian”? We do not love God if we do not share. This  needs to extend into material goods like clear air, water, shelter, etc. How do we steal the very air and water from the poor through our driving, industrial agriculture, intense energy use, war, etc. 

We are told to give up our lives for our brothers. But I can already hear the whining of those who do not really love others but their possessions and convenience – them-selves. Rather than loving God through loving their brother [including the nonhuman “brother”], they are greedy. This reveals their real father is the devil, not God.

Evidence of "Christians" loving their neighbour and loving their greed and convenience:

Faith And Terror Both Eliminate Self-Respect

Both Faith and Terror

are instruments for the elimination of 

individual self- respect.

Terror crushes the autonomy of self-respect,

while Faith obtains its more or less voluntary surrender.

In both cases the result of the elimination

of individual autonomy is - automatism.

Both Faith and Terror reduce

the human entity to a formula

that can be manipulated at will.

-Eric Hoffer

For more ice pics click here

Wendell Berry: The Ecological Teaching Of The Bible Is Inescapable

"The ecological teaching of the Bible is inescapable:

God made the world because God wanted it made.

God thinks the world is good, and God loves it.

It is God's world; God has never relinquished title to it.

And God has never revoked the conditions...that oblige us to take excellent care of it.

If God loves the world,

then how might a person of faith be excused for not loving it or caring for it?

If God loves the world,

then how might a person of faith be...

justified in destroying it?"

-Wendell Berry

What a wonder-full winter of beauty. Click for more "chilling" pics.