Blogtrek

Jesus and Paul

I think this country is getting hung up on Jesus. There have been at least two television programs, a brand new movie, and a whole host of older movies about Jesus recently. There even was a tabloid story! ("The 13th Apostle was an Idiot!") The latest was a program hosted by Peter Jennings tonight on Jesus and Paul. I get the impression that Paul caused most of the problems with Christianity. Jesus said, “Turn the other cheek”. Paul said to turn back the heathen. Jesus sought to heal people. Paul said that unless one followed a life of Jesus, one will go to Hell, thereby turning God into the Devil, as if there is such a thing as evil, then certainly sending souls to Hell is evil. Eventually the corrupt Roman Empire took over the religion, and when it did so it promptly split in half. So this was a deal that went off the wrong foot the moment that Jesus hung from the cross. Peter Jennings did a good report, but we should be focusing on things like the ill effects of the War on Iraq, global warming, the upcoming oil shortage, and the Bush administration’s assault on civil liberties instead of what someone did or did not do about 2000 years ago.

I will go even further. This fixation on Jesus is a sign that our society is still in the Third Turning; that the Fourth Turning has not arrived yet. It is an example of the unraveling of our society.