Government the Leftist Jesus's Way!

How much have YOU donated?

Answering for churches:

Most likely more than you have personally.

It's not proper to answer a question with a question.

I decide for myself what's proper for me.

And you speak for everyone? That's rather arrogant.

I'm mature enough to read and properly understand the Bible. And that will suffice. You can keep your dementia patient. Polls aren't looking good for Joe these days...

So now you're a "troo" believer?

Are you an atheist?

Now I've heard some very good debate surrounding baptism and the necessity of. We know Jesus was baptized by John, of course. But Jesus himself never performed a baptism that we know of. It's a discussion worth having but for perhaps lack of clarity we'll just have to say whatever your beliefs are on it are right. Jesus did talk in very metaphorical terms if I remember correctly about something like baptism and a fire of the soul? Christianity is supposed to be spiritual and it actually seems unjust for god to bar the way simply because someone didn't get the holy water on him.

And yet you and I both seem to have come to the interpretation of the text that Jesus and his followers didn't love the Roman government. Yes? I'm not trying to be fully anti- what you're saying here or anything but we might have massively different interpretations of a lot of things between just the two of us but there are things we as well as everybody else can agree on if we're being honest.

We would start by saying something obvious like if the text says "Jesus picked up a rock" then it's safe to say everyone would agree that's what the text is communicating. The rest of that and what's hardest to interpret in the Bible is on a spectrum but I don't think the hardest things to understand in the New Testament are that hard to understand. The Old Testament gets harder but those books/scrolls are much older. And they come from much different standards.

But you'll have to make some contortions to pretend Jesus and his followers loved the Roman government.

2Atom up there gets it. The Bible's exhortations are personal, not something you just say, "Oh, the government will take care of it." The idea that the government should coddle you and of the nanny state is a very new one and a very queer one in my eyes. It wants to say it can guarantee this and that but my experience is there are no guarantees in life and you should distrust the promises of politicians.

I can't say I've read the whole Bible. That would be quite the task to take up and understanding it even more so but I have read the entire New Testament, notes on it, and I've taken a class on early Christian communities that shed light on how Jesus lived as well as his followers in his era, the apostolic era, and the post-apostolic era. It was very enlightening. But I suggest you read the four gospels. I think they make clear enough the attitudes of Jesus and his followers.

Than you are aware that "give us our daily bread" was (interestingly) actually a reference to Roman practice of entitling a free loaf of bread per day for its citizens who needed it. Our Father indeed,,,

So why are you pretending this is more complicated than it is? That this is somehow up for interpretation? That things are maybe metaphorical? Right? Are we going to get into some sort of nebulous zone of "words have no meaning" and "the truth is not the truth" here? I don't think that way. Sorry.

Jesus said that YOU should feed and clothe the poor. Come by our Church and we will help you.