We all know that every emotion you have gets exploited for money. That has been the case throughout human history. Never forget that it was the shamans who INVENTED this. Whether the Oldest Profession is prostitution or shamanism is entirely a matter of definitions. By the time Christ appeared, Judaism had long since developed a perfected place for their shaman or high priests could get the maximum money and power. As far as he COULD without getting stoned to death on the spot, this was EXACTLY what Jesus repeatedly and specifically denounced.
He finally said “No man comes to the Father but by ME.” And he said it to JEWS. If he HAD said he came to replace the Law he would have murdered on the spot. But, by saying that to the JEWS he did make the high priest the same as any other shaman.
That was fine until the church became big BUSINESS and big POWER. Then the Church began to look more and more fondly on that wonderful setup the High Priests had developed to maximize money and power. If you can tell any fundamental difference between today’s Curia bureaucrats and the Puritan despots, and the one the High Priests had in Jesus’ day, please let me know what it is.
It’s called parallel evolution. There were enormous similarities between the MARSUPIAL saber toothed tiger and the Mammalian saber-toothed tiger, but they were less kin to each other than a whale is to mouse. The same conditions, in the case of evolution or human nature, cause the same results. A bureaucrat of the Temple, one of the scribes Jesus denounced, would have been right at home in the Vatican today or in a Puritan pulpit.
Only Christ was different. But ianity remains the same old thing as its Judaic ancestor.
Nothing upsets a religious professional like the idea of taking his Temple privileges away from him. It is no coincidence that the original church of the Calvinist Pilgrims is now a Unitarian Church, entirely ianity with no Christ at all.
#1 by Peter on 02/09/2007 - 6:53 pm
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Christ against christianity. Now that has a nice ring to it.
#2 by Pain on 02/09/2007 - 10:24 pm
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This comment does not affect your argument.
“Calvinist Pilgrims”
The Puritans may have read and studied Calvin, but technically they were not Calvinists. A more accurate word used by their more sane contemporaries was “Catharist.”
Calvin wrote compulsively, and as with all compulsive writers, he wrote volumes. Few people have the patience to read and UNDERSTAND everything he wrote (including me), so even “Calvinists” today would find themselves chastised by Calvin for heresy.
As one example of how far removed from Calvin the Puritans were and most all Calvinists are: Calvin completed a liturgy that was more high church than any Anglo-Catholic service or any post-Vatican II Romish service.
Your average Presbyterian seminary professor wrongly thinks that Calvin’s service was little more than hymns-prayer-sermon-hymn-prayer.