[SOC] Religion

[Chris Redding]

Don't get me wrong folks...I am not ridiculing anyone's religion....it is
not my place.
Although I do not believe in god, I do not 'throw the baby out with the
bath-water'. I do believe that a wise, innovative, brave man called Jesus (I
think of him as 'Mr Joshua-ben-Yussef') did indeed walk the earth. I take on
board his words as a humanist message of tolerance and forgiveness as I do
the words of Ghandi, Luther-King and (selected bits of) JFK.
Obviously Jesus did believe in God ( he was referred to by many at the time
as a 'Rabbi'), but (usually) I do not.
In allowing himself willingly to be crucified, he showed the ultimate
example of turning the other cheek, and demonstrated that in absorbing
endless suffering (as later repeated at Auschwitz etc.) gains you such a
moral high ground that your cause becomes indisputable and irresistable.
Call me a heretic, but I hold that my thinking of him as 'only' a very
remarkable human being, as opposed to a 'bit' of God, makes his words all
the more remarkable.
Also the fact that (as a man) he knew that his death would be just as final,
agonising and total as it is for the rest of us makes this demonstration all
the more powerful...just like the buddhist monks who set themselves on fire
in 'Nam.
I think that you can be a follower of Jesus, and listen to his words,
without believing in God.

What do you lot think?.

----- Original Message -----
From: f5pbl <f5pbl@qsl.net>
To: <SOC@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2002 7:34 PM
Subject: Re: [SOC] tomorrow never comes...don't let it happen to you
And Chris, as an answer to Deuteronomy 23:2 , you should have replied
Mathew (? Matthieu) 19:30 ("But many of the first ones will be the last
ones, and
the last ones will be the first ones").


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