"Please, 2000 y/o Middle Eastern Jewish Communist in the sky who was executed for being a threat to the elites, help us recreate these contitions so we can feel closer to you."
Recreate? I am not sure if "worsen" wouldn't be more accurate.
I want to see the one that gets yeeted out of a window.
I think they just hold up the stale unused loaf, even place it on display .... never touch, taste or eat it ... and tell themselves and everyone else how delicious it is.
Everyone knows you’ve gotta eat Jesus if you want his powers.
I agree with the message, but I just can't watch that clip of Mickey, Donald, and Goofy being so destitute and downtrodden without getting intensely sad. To whomever hasn't seen the original animation this is from, prepare to feel worse than the opening of "Up" when you finally look this up.
I might regret, but, source?
The Disney version of The Three Musketeers, iirc.
It's from the start of Mickey and the magic beanstalk. The voiceover really ups the misery by talking about how they're destitute and their spirits are broken, and Donald and Goofy both go delirious from the hunger at one point.
Of course, after that tear jerker the typical Disney magic sets in again and the whole thing is largely played for laughs, but those first few minutes are intensely sad IMHO.
John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
When was the last time you encountered a Christian who was a disciple of Christ? The only ones I know don't call themselves Christian anymore.
Last Sunday
I worked in churches for over 15 years, and during that time, I met many kind, well-intentioned people. But what I often ran into—and what eventually wore me down—was the disconnect between the teachings of Jesus and the behavior of many who claimed to follow Him.
The command to “love one another” wasn’t just a suggestion. It was supposed to be the defining mark of discipleship. But instead, I saw love regularly take a backseat to doctrine, tribal loyalty, and personal comfort. When challenged, many defaulted to talking points instead of compassion. They could quote scripture fluently but seemed unable—or unwilling—to embody it, especially when it required real humility or sacrifice.
What was most painful was the hypocrisy: preaching grace but practicing judgment, offering community but withholding inclusion, speaking of Jesus while acting more like the Pharisees He opposed. And often, faith became a shield—not to protect the vulnerable, but to protect egos from the hard work of self-examination. It blinded people to their own contradictions. They believed they were living rightly, when in truth they were often just defending their culture, not their Christ.
So yes, I hope your experience is different. Truly. Because for many of us who once lived and breathed church life, the gap between Jesus and those who speak in His name grew too wide to ignore. That’s why I and some of the most authentic followers of Christ I’ve known don’t call themselves Christians anymore. Our Christian values won't allow it.
Here is an excellent 18-minute-long Christian sermon by James Talarico I stumbled across earlier today which condemns Christian nationalism as being fundamentally opposed to the teachings of Christ. Based on the video comments, it has inspired many people regardless of their religious affiliation or lack thereof:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blph_2RSBno
Sermon transcript, part 1
Our pastor, Dr. Jim Rigby, is on his writing leave, but I don't know how much writing is really getting done. I sent him a text asking for some inspiration for this sermon, and he sent me this:
It's "The top reasons beer is better than religion."
- When you have beer, you don't knock on people's doors trying to give it away.
- There are laws forcing beer on minors who can't think for themselves.
- Nobody has ever been burned at the stake because of their favorite brand of beer.
- You don't have to wait more than 2000 years for a second beer.
- If you've devoted your life to beer, there are groups to help you.
My granddad was a Baptist preacher. I've been a member of this church since I was two years old and now I'm in seminary studying to become a minister myself. My faith means more to me than anything but, if I'm being very honest, sometimes I hesitate for telling someone I'm a Christian.
There is a cancer on our religion. Until we confess the sin that is Christian nationalism and exorcize it from our churches, our religion can do a lot more damage than a six-pack of Lone Star. There is nothing Christian about Christian nationalism. It is the worship of power - social power, economic power, political power - in the name of Christ, and it is a betrayal of Jesus of Nazareth.
He told us we would know them by their fruits. Jesus includes. Christian nationalism excludes. Jesus liberates. Christian nationalism controls. Jesus saves. Christian nationalism kills. Jesus started a universal movement based on mutual love. Christian nationalism is a sectarian movement based on mutual hate. Jesus came to transform the world. Christian nationalism is here to maintain the status quo. They have co-opted the Son of God. They've turned this humble Rabbi into a gun-toting, gay-bashing, science-denying, money-loving, fear-mongering fascist and it is incumbent upon all Christians to confront it and denounce it.
Christian nationalism is on the rise. Two years ago, Christian nationalists stormed the US capital killing police officers while carrying crosses and signs reading "Jesus saves." Last year, Christian nationalists on the US Supreme Court overturned Roe versus Wade, allowing States like ours to outlaw abortion even in cases of rape and incest. And as we speak, two Christian nationalist billionaires are trying to replace public schools in Texas with private Christian schooling. We are closer than we think to a Christian theocracy.
How did this happen? The first followers of Jesus didn't call themselves Christians. They called themselves "the way." Their crucified teacher taught them a different way of being human and they intended to follow it. The early church was a revolutionary community built on radical love - a peculiar people who shared all their possessions and refused to participate in the economy, the military, or the culture.
The book of Acts tells us that the first Christians were persecuted for turning the world upside down but, 300 years after Jesus was executed by the Roman Empire, Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official state religion of that very same Empire. Constantine was the first Christian Nationalist and ever since the powers-that-be have been taming Christianity, domesticating it, diluting it into something more palatable: pro-war, pro-wealth, pro-white supremacy. That original countercultural movement became a tranquilized, privatized, weaponized religion: the official sponsor of Western Civilization. A religion of sharing became a religion of greed. A religion of peace became a religion of violence. A religion of forgiveness became a religion of judgment. A religion of ego transformation became a religion of ego affirmation.
Today, Christian nationalists obsess over people's private parts while the planet burns. Eight men own as much wealth as 3.6 billion people and Christian nationalists are boycotting Barbie. The Bible doesn't mention abortion or gay marriage but it goes on and on about forgiving debt, liberating the poor and healing the sick. Christian nationalists like to say this is a Christian nation. Not only is that historically inaccurate, not only is that theologically blasphemous, but it's also just not true.
Look around us. If this was truly a Christian nation, we would forgive student debt. If this was truly a Christian nation, we would guarantee health care to every single person. If this was truly a Christian nation, we would love all of our LGBTQ neighbors. If this was truly a Christian nation, we would make sure every child in this state and in this country was housed, fed, clothed, educated, and insured. If this was truly a Christian nation, we would never make it a Christian nation because we know the table of Fellowship is open to everybody including our Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sihk and atheist neighbors. Jesus could have started a Christian theocracy, but love would never do that. The closest thing we have to the Kingdom of Heaven is a multi-racial multicultural democracy where power is truly shared among all people - something that's yet to exist in human history.
Christian nationalism is not only a threat to the American experiment in democracy, it's also a threat to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When someone asked Jesus to name his most important commandment, he cheats and gives two - two that he says are related. The first is to love God. The second he said is like it: love thy neighbor as thyself. It's like it because, when I recognize the Divine image in myself, I can't help but recognize it in my neighbor whether they're Christian or not, whether they're religious or not. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus specifically defines neighbor as someone different from us: racially, economically, politically, religiously. God loves diversity. God loves variety. Just look around this big beautiful planet of ours. Do we really think think God would make all these beautiful people with all their beautiful traditions for no reason at all?
There are so many pathways to the sacred. The Islamic Mystic Rumi said, "every religion has love but love has no religion." God is so much bigger than our human categories. God is not a Presbyterian. God is not a Christian. God is not a noun at all. God is a verb. God is not a being. God is being itself. God is love and that's why Jesus is against anything that gets in the way of that love between neighbors, including religion. That's why he's always breaking religious rules. That's why he's always getting in trouble with the religious authorities. That's why he says "sinners will see the Kingdom of Heaven before religious people do." Sorry to everyone here. I know you came all this way.
Religious supremacy is antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus. Christ Jesus didn't come to establish a Christian Nation. He came to reveal ultimate reality, which he called the Kingdom of God, but it's not like any kingdom we've ever known. Instead of a throne, Jesus sits at a table. Instead of a warhorse, Jesus rides a donkey. Instead of a sword, Jesus picks up a cross. The Kingdom of God inverts the power dynamics of all the kingdoms in the world. True strength is vulnerability. True status is equality. True wealth is sharing, and we as Christians are called to realize that "Kingdom on Earth as it is in heaven" not by force but by faith.
Jesus asked us to have the faith of a mustard seed, trusting that by living and dying for love, we give birth to a better world. That's not easy to do. In a world full of fear, Jesus knew we would put our trust in something other than God - something other than love. As a Jewish rabbi, he called those things idols: money, status, and the most dangerous idol of all, power. When Jesus was tempted by the Devil in the wilderness, one of the things the Devil offered was power. All the kingdoms of the world and Jesus rejected it. When his disciples asked who will be the most powerful in the Kingdom of God, Jesus said "you know the lords of the Earth push their people around, but among you it'll be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be a servant."
And when they still didn't get it and they asked who will be the greatest in the Kingdom of God, Jesus said little children - the least powerful but most trusting members of any human community. That's the Kingdom of God.
I think Chance the Rapper said it best: "Don't believe in kings, believe in the kingdom." Jesus knew. In the words of Dorothy Soelle, there is only one legitimation of power and that is to share it with others. Power that is not shared, power that is not transformed into love is pure domination and oppression. Christian nationalists are more committed to the love of power than to the power of love, and it exposes a lack of faith because the opposite of faith is not doubt. Doubt is a healthy part of any faith. The opposite of faith is control. When we stop trusting God, when we stop trusting love, we start taking control ourselves.
Christian nationalists want to control what we read, who we marry, where we travel, when we have children. They want to control our minds and our bodies. "Oh, ye of little faith." Christian nationalists trust domination because they think domination is what works, but Jesus revealed that the true power of the universe is not domination, but love.
This reminds me of the words of Frederick Douglass.
…between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference—so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity. I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels. Never was there a clearer case of "stealing the livery of the court of heaven to, serve the devil in." I am filled with unutterable loathing when I contemplate the religious pomp and show, together with the horrible inconsistencies, which every where surround me.
- Frederick Douglass, 1845
The entire thing is worth reading. The “corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land” is clearly the very same that overwhelmingly persists and thrives today… 180 years later.
Thanks, that message is truly powerful, by embracing love and keeping faith despite everything that's running against it. Let's hope that humanity will be more open to this message.
A problem is that "christians" don't actually give a shit about jesus. They worship some heretic called paul.
Sermon transcript, pt. 2
In Daoism they teach that, over time, the soft overcomes the hard. The water wears down the rock. The wind takes out the mountain. The grass upends the concrete. The meek inherit the earth. Violence may win in the short run but, in the end, love always wins. Jesus said this Kingdom of God is in our midst - it's hiding in plain sight. Heaven is already here: inside of us, above us, all around us.
On my mom's side, my granddad was a Baptist preacher, but on my dad's side, my Grandpa Talarico never went to church but he was one of the most generous, compassionate, moral people I've ever met. He was an immigrant from Italy whose family saw firsthand the dangers of mixing church and state. He settled in the Texas hill country and, on Sunday mornings, he would take these long walks through the wildflowers and live oaks and he would take me with him. He said it was the best chance to see G-O-D: the Great Outdoors.
Biologists tell us that everything in nature is connected and evolving toward greater union. Anthropologists tell us that our ability to share and cooperate is humanity's superpower, and astrophysicists tell us that the universe is just gentle enough to make our existence possible. This universe of ours is nothing but gratuitous grace.
Teilhard wrote that the very physical universe is love. We see it in the harmonies of music, the principles of mathematics, the patterns of nature. We are all expressions of that creative power. We are the universe becoming aware of itself. As children of God, children of the cosmos, we are loved unconditionally, indiscriminately, infinitely. No achievement can add to it. No mistake can take from it. No amount of church-going or church-missing can change it. That's truly deserving of the title "Good News."
We are made by love with love to love. I call that love "God." You may use a different word, and that's okay. There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground. We can cure the disease of Christian nationalism. We can protect against the virus of religious extremism with healthy religion.
The great faith traditions of the world have so much to offer us in this time of global crisis. Hinduism's ahimsa provides an alternative to the logic of violence. Buddhist meditation provides an alternative to the abuse of our attention. Judaism sabbath provides an alternative to the demands of capitalism. And in a world where everything can be bought and sold including the earth itself, native American traditions provide an alternative to ecological extraction.
It's hard - it is so hard to protect your spirit in a world trying to kill it. That's why we need faith communities like this one. That's why we need stories and traditions and practices that heal our soul and transform our mind.
Every time in this sanctuary that we say the prayers, sing the hymns, sprinkle the water, eat the bread, drink the wine, we're tuning our hearts. Our Buddhist friends tell us that compassion takes practice. Neuroscientists tell us that we can become kinder, more empathetic, if we work at it. Things like love, peace, and hope - they require strength training. A gym for the heart. And so every week, we gather here to sing our songs and tell our stories just for the opportunity to, in the words of Thich Nhat Hanh, "dwell in the ultimate" together just for a moment. And that's almost better than a cold glass of beer.
I invite you now to your own reflection on these words.
lol They've been cherry-picking since Constantine's Council of Nicaea. Half of Rome was still Pagan and half of it was converted Christian. Constantine felt that civil war was coming, so he invited all of the most influential from both sides and they sat down to decide what should stay in the Bible and what should be removed to make both sides happy.
That's not quite right. Council of Nicaea didn't choose biblical canon. They chose the teachings of certain Christian sects over others, which later had an affect on canon.
You can just say “Christians.” The actual Christians it doesn’t apply to won’t care/know it’s true. Source: I know 2 actual Christians.
Same could be made about Christians finding arguments for why God is a good source of moral values.
I just like how overtly humanist and socialist Jesus’ teachings are. “Rich people are evil. Be good to others and share everything you have with those in need. If you don’t, my daddy takes that personally and will burn you like the trash you are at the end of time.”
It’s wholesome.
God is like that abusive father who’s throwing a fit whenever someone is having a mind of their own.
Why did you eat that fruit?!? You and all your descendants are going to be punished for all eternity!!!
Like, the only morally good thing God has said is to not kill, but he’s not really a good subscriber on that one himself.
They cut out jesus entirely and worship paul.
Reads the part where Jesus flips the tables on the money lenders.
"No ... no ... not that part, we love money and need to elect all the greedy billionaires."
Reads the part about a certain golden calf.
"OH! Good idea, let's make a gold statue of Trump. Also a weird fucking golden goat with money glued onto it. Totally not cultists. Totally Christian."
If you saved yourself you would save us all.
They follow any of his teachings?
ITT People who think they understand Christian doctrine well enough to critique Christians
Jesus wasn't a communist. Sorry folks.
Read it again.
I don’t think you quite grasp what Christian dogma actually is, and you’re doing a stellar job of proving it by passing judgment. Funny thing: the people most qualified to critique a system are usually the ones not inside it. Remember when the church opposed the printing press because they were worried people might start reading the Bible for themselves and realize the clergy were editorializing? Turns out they were only half-wrong. Most folks still haven’t read it, and judging by takes like yours, they definitely don’t understand what Jesus actually taught.
Funny thing: the people most qualified to critique a system are usually the ones not inside it.
The only thing funny about that is that it's a baseless assertion.
Remember when the church opposed the printing press because they were worried people might start reading the Bible for themselves and realize the clergy were editorializing
The early church produced the canon of scripture we now know as the Bible. (E.g. It is literally the editor) What the Church was worried about is people getting Bibles and thinking they can figure it all out without the tradition of the Church. 40,000 Protestant denominations later it's pretty clear their fears were well founded. This is why Joe Jimbob's McChurch USA is playing with snakes instead of attending liturgy, participating in the sacraments and living the liturgical life of the church. It's why ahistorical low-church Protestants are proto-atheists.
what Jesus actually taught
It will be very interesting to hear your opinion on what Jesus taught considering you're entirely reliant on a canon of scripture assembled by a church you do not trust.
