Why do we oppress each other? Isn’t life hard enough without us grinding our fellow men or woman into the dust? Why do we as “Christians” feel superior in general ways if we can keep someone down?
We didn’t vote for civil rights; our government had to pass a bill! Why is that? Are we so small to have to oppress others to feel superior?
Jesus thought we were because he left the parables on how we should treat each other; he saw it happening then in his day and it is still happening today. Most of the parables I read are on how we treat each other, how we should live in community with one other. If he didn’t have to tell us to behave like a loving parent what else could we have learned from him?
Jesus even had mercy on his most “hated” things! Don’t believe me? Look it up here Matthew 8:28-34. Jesus took mercy upon the demons and instead of destroying them he took mercy and sent them in to the herd of pigs (the pigs then jumped off a cliff but I think that was better than the destruction the demons where afraid of)
Why do Christians feel it is the correct thing to do, oppressing others?
I am looking at ideas for a new tattoo right now and I came across this piece. It is about this guy who had the crucifixion of Jesus tatted on his back. The writer wrote well but then came the responses – “it is a sin according to Leviticus 19:26-31,” and "You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh on account of the dead or tattoo any marks upon you: I am the LORD."
Now, not even considering this is believed by the scholars to be a warning to the Jewish people about a pagan practice at funerals and that the other verses in this chapter are overlooked completely (no rare meat, only wearing certain hair cuts, and my favorite over looked verse 33 and 34 “treat a stranger (alien as in illegal) in your land as your own countrymen and love him as yourself (paraphrased).”
Instead of expressing love for the person with the tattoo, damnation and disdain were generally passed around. I put up the verse Galatians 6:17 "let no one make trouble for me; for I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body." And people where shocked that I took it out of context. (It is a verse about circumcision BTW). As if we haven’t been doing that for years!
But back to my point - “Where is the love?” that Jesus talked about over and over and over again.
- “The Good Samaritan” the other people on the road where too concerned for the rules of the Bible to even see if the robbed man was even alive.
- The story of the bad servant oppressing the other servants while taking care of their own whims.
- John 13:34-35 "new commandment, love one another as I have loved you, this is how you will be recognized."
Now it does also say that God will forgive the people that don’t know any better. So I hope I will be forgiven as they (the people running down tattooed followers) for judging others.
This is another distraction from praising God, like no cussing, no smoking, etc, etc. I am not saying smoking won’t kill you (ex-smoker here) and cussing will make people think twice about hiring you. What I am saying is that I think God would like the people who cuss, smoke, and drink to praise him.
“God comes to you just as you are”
-? –
“Don’t tell me about your religion, show me how you live and I might follow”
Stigandi
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