I am not religious, but I have devoted a good chunk of time to reading the bible. If I can do it, someone who essentially stands to gain nothing by reading it can do it, so can and should all these greasy-ass politicians who use it as a political prop. The only thing more irksome than inflexibly, overly literal religious people, are phony religious people who don’t even know what they’re talking about. And then the next level of annoying beyond that is yhe voting public who allows the charade. They should be the ones pressing these politicians. “Two Corinthians” Donald? What the fuck are you talking about?
No, see, you can do it because you have nothing to lose. If they actually read and understand the Bible, then they have to start living according to it, and that would suck. “For I say to you it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven?” No thank you sir, that would ruin my prosperity gospel!
From the theologians I’ve read on the topic, it’s not so much a translation error as a context issue. Apparently “the eye of the needle” was the name for one of the gates going into Jerusalem. It was very narrow, and a fully laden camel would never get through there. The only way to make it through was to first unburden the camel of its load. The theory goes that Jesus is presenting a metaphor; the rich man must unburden himself of his wealth, in the same way that the camel must be unburdened of its cargo.
Not vouching for that as the absolute truth of the matter, it’s just the version I’ve been given to understand.
Like the devil convincing God to torture the faithful? Throughout the parable, I can hear Satan trying to suppress his laughter as he listens to Him godsplain Job’s devotion.
If more people followed the lessons of the good Samaritan and the sheep and the goats, we might be better off
Also people who do a lot of backflips to justify readings where the text says “help the poor” and turn it into “don’t help the poor” are probably scumbags.
If you like that then you might enjoy the funny possible euphemism of the whole “washing of feet” thing. It could be read as the actual act of washing feet but there’s some places where it’s definitely being used as a euphemism for getting your dick wet.
That slight ambiguity could mean that the last supper included an orgy with a lot of same sex pairings - which to be fair is pretty in keeping with the MO of a lot of other cult leadership throughout history. Most of the prudish sex negative stuff comes more from Paul’s additions than directly through Jesus. But hoo boy do Christians get real mad when you imply this as a possibility.
If you got a foot fetish sure. But in bible foot or feet is used so many times for dick it is decently unlikely. “Foot water” is my favorite biblical euphemism for piss.
As a progressive Christian, that’s something I want to say almost everytime I read somethung written by an Evangelical.
I am not religious, but I have devoted a good chunk of time to reading the bible. If I can do it, someone who essentially stands to gain nothing by reading it can do it, so can and should all these greasy-ass politicians who use it as a political prop. The only thing more irksome than inflexibly, overly literal religious people, are phony religious people who don’t even know what they’re talking about. And then the next level of annoying beyond that is yhe voting public who allows the charade. They should be the ones pressing these politicians. “Two Corinthians” Donald? What the fuck are you talking about?
The pundits don’t care what the Bible says, they like that their followers instead believe what they say the religion is about
You need the common folk to read and understand it if you want the religious leaders to lose their hold
No, see, you can do it because you have nothing to lose. If they actually read and understand the Bible, then they have to start living according to it, and that would suck. “For I say to you it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven?” No thank you sir, that would ruin my prosperity gospel!
To be fair to the camel, God hadn’t heard of the Byford Dolphin incident yet.
Well that was a horrible read.
There was a translation error, IIRC. It’s not a camel but a rope.
From the theologians I’ve read on the topic, it’s not so much a translation error as a context issue. Apparently “the eye of the needle” was the name for one of the gates going into Jerusalem. It was very narrow, and a fully laden camel would never get through there. The only way to make it through was to first unburden the camel of its load. The theory goes that Jesus is presenting a metaphor; the rich man must unburden himself of his wealth, in the same way that the camel must be unburdened of its cargo.
Not vouching for that as the absolute truth of the matter, it’s just the version I’ve been given to understand.
The bible’s a neat old book of parables and early concepts of morals. Like most things, the fanbase is probably the worst part.
Morals?
Like the devil convincing God to torture the faithful? Throughout the parable, I can hear Satan trying to suppress his laughter as he listens to Him godsplain Job’s devotion.
If more people followed the lessons of the good Samaritan and the sheep and the goats, we might be better off
Also people who do a lot of backflips to justify readings where the text says “help the poor” and turn it into “don’t help the poor” are probably scumbags.
If you like that then you might enjoy the funny possible euphemism of the whole “washing of feet” thing. It could be read as the actual act of washing feet but there’s some places where it’s definitely being used as a euphemism for getting your dick wet.
That slight ambiguity could mean that the last supper included an orgy with a lot of same sex pairings - which to be fair is pretty in keeping with the MO of a lot of other cult leadership throughout history. Most of the prudish sex negative stuff comes more from Paul’s additions than directly through Jesus. But hoo boy do Christians get real mad when you imply this as a possibility.
I prefer to think “washing of feet” means exactly that, but it’s a sex thing
If you got a foot fetish sure. But in bible foot or feet is used so many times for dick it is decently unlikely. “Foot water” is my favorite biblical euphemism for piss.
We may be more numerous than you think 😉.
(However still a minority indeed; but I prefer to be right alone than wrong with the crowd)