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January 10, 2007

Confused Americans for Truth - The Misunderstood Christian

We have a divinity student in the house, so a lot of Christian-themed magazines end up scattered through the house. One of the recent ones (The Christian Century, Vol 123 #26) features an excerpt from The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus by Amy Jill-Levine.

Jesus is a very big topic in these magazines. In particular, they are very concerned that we understand Jesus in the correct way. I'm all for that, but the approach in this case seems rather unscientific.

Here, for example, is the excerpt from Ms. Jill-Levine's book that adorns the cover of the magazine.

Many Christians see Jesus' Jewish background as the epitome of all that is wrong with the world. If Jesus preaches good news to the poor, then Christians think "the Jews" must have been preaching good news to the rich. If Jesus speaks to or heals women, "the Jews" must have set up a patriarchal society.

First off, the word "many" at the beginning of a sentence usually means the author has absolutely no evidence to back up the rest. If someone had actually interviewed Christians to see what they think of Jesus and his relationship to the Jews, there would be a number or a percentage, or a quote, or even somebody's name. The unsupported word "many" allows Ms. Jill-Levine to set up a straw man, and like most straw men, it's very easy to knock it down.

But a worse problem is that the article is more about what Jesus doesn't teach than it is about what he does teach.

You have to look at the gospels through the eyes of a cat to get the real message. Jesus wasn't opposing the Jews, he was opposing the priests. It was the priests who had him arrested and the priests who bribed the crowd to pick Barabas.

I could go on, but to me, the overriding theme of the gospels is simple: don't trust priests!

You have to wonder why this message is never taught by any of the established churches.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat

# At Wed 4:23 AM | Permalink | Trackback URI | Comments (2) | More Confused Americans for Truth | Tags: Amy Jill-Levine Christianity humor Judaism religion satire skepticism

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Comments

Posted by: Tom Bailey at January 10, 2007 8:45 AM

Posted by: annoying little twerp at January 15, 2007 1:17 AM

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