THE EVIDENCE OF JESUS BEING MARRIED CONTINUES TO GROW
I don’t know why Christians find the idea of Jesus being married so repugnant. Why shouldn’t he have been married? Being married was a requirement for being a Rabbi. Jesus was a Rabbi. The Bible says he was tempted in all points such as is common to man. There are some temptations one simply cannot experience if they’re not married.
According to a newly discovered papyrus, Jesus mentions his wife. Scholars are now debating its authenticity however as one scholar pointed out, hoaxing a papyrus that old written in Coptic is not trivial. Although the canonized Gospels do not mention Jesus having a wife, they also don’t say he did not. Even Paul when suggesting that his followers live celibate as he claims to have been living, does not point to Jesus as an example of celibacy.
If anything, Jesus being married would make his sacrifice much more meaningful. Speaking personally, I do not fear death. My objection to dying has much more to do with the impact it would have on my family and loved ones. I simply do not want to leave them without my protection. I would not want to cause *them* to grieve.
A person without those obligations is much more free to take risks and do as they will. Why? Because their decisions only affect themselves. For example. I *think* I’d like to ride a Harley. I’ve ridden a motorcycle a time or two in my youth and thoroughly enjoyed it. My wife says, “HELL 2 THE NO!!!” I will not overrule her on this because my life is no longer my own to do with as I wish. My life belongs to her.
When we first got together, I was doing Bodyguard work. My fault for talking too much… but during dinner one day she asked how my day went. “I told her not bad, I was shot at twice… but they MISSED!” Didn’t matter. She told me I was done and she forcibly retired me. I loved her enough to abide by her wishes. Again, the point is, she has a say in what risks I take and what happens to me.
Jesus Married
Thus, when we propose that Jesus was married and yes, may have had children, shouldn’t that make his sacrifice – for Christians – even more meaningful? Or is it the whole notion that… dare I mention it, Jesus may have actually had SEX??? Oh my! What a concept! Here you’ve been taught that sex was dirty and come to find out… Jesus had sex! Yes, I see the problem. Perhaps Christians should rethink things? We know that whole “celibacy” thing isn’t working out too well for the Catholic Church.
For some time now I have pondered the dichotomy between the mission statement of scientific skepticism and its actual practice. On the one hand, a healthy dose of skepticism is essential for finding truth. However, taken to extremes, skepticism can become every bit as irrational and delusional as the faith based perspectives.
skep·ti·cism also scep·ti·cism (skpt-szm) n.
1. A doubting or questioning attitude or state of mind; dubiety.
2. Philosophy
a. The ancient school of Pyrrho of Elis that stressed the uncertainty of our beliefs in order to oppose dogmatism.
b. The doctrine that absolute knowledge is impossible, either in a particular domain or in general.
c. A methodology based on an assumption of doubt with the aim of acquiring approximate or relative certainty.
3. Doubt or disbelief of religious tenets.
There are few who would find anything objectionable with skepticism based on its definition. However, the way skepticism is actually practiced now borders on religious fervor. First, let me state, I am a devout Agnostic. A friend once defined that as being a “weak atheist.” Actually, there is a distinct difference between atheism and agnosticism. The root of “atheism” is theism. Atheism is the disbelief in gods or God and in particular God as a “personal saviour.” Agnosticism leaves that door open and is not inextricably linked to religious philosophy. The Agnostic simply says, “I do not know.”
Who Debunks The Debunkers?
The Amazing Randi
While I could certainly focus on matters of religion, the focus of this article is on the cottage industry of skepticism that has sprung up over the past few decades. One of the better known ones is the “James Randi Educational Foundation” founded in 1996. It’s expressed purpose is “to help people defend themselves against paranormal and pseudo-scientific claims.” While this mission statement certainly seems laudable, we must remember Randi himself admits to being a cheat, trickster and a charlatan. I’m not sure if those are the best credentials for someone who purports to uncover the truth about claims of the paranormal and extraordinary.
I have followed James Randi over the years. I actually saw his appearance on the “Tonight Show” when the inimitable Johnny Carson was the host. On the night in question he was demonstrating how spoon and key bending is done and damnit if the key didn’t break. Thinking quickly he immediately stomped on the broken piece to conceal it from the audience. Of course, this was done so clumsily, everyone noticed him do it.
As a magician, Randi really isn’t all that exceptional. Thus, his foray into debunking did not come as a surprise. Not unlike the “Masked Magician” who has made his living revealing how magic tricks are done, Randi has figured out a way to generate revenue as a professional debunker. That may be his best “magic trick” to date!
Don’t get me wrong. Exposing the pariahs of society which feed like parasites on the fears and superstitions of the ignorant is a good thing. I’m all for unmasking, exposing and defaming hypocritical religions and their leaders who have turned a gullible public into their personal cash cows. I feel equally malignant towards medical quacks who are giving people false hope while looting their bank accounts. A pox on them all!
CSI – Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
Dr. Joe Nickell
This organization does a slightly better job at suppressing its biases. Nevertheless, those biases are exposed by the experts they send out to speak to various issues. One such expert is Dr. Joe Nickell. I’ve seen him sent out to debunk everything from UFOs to Bigfoot to paranormal claims. He’s a credible debunker right? He does have a Ph.D after all… Yes he does! He has a Ph.D from the University of Kentucky in English with a focus on literary investigation and folklore. In other words, he’s an expert at evaluating books on the customs and myths of indigenous peoples. He does not have a background in science or the scientific methodology. His opinions on these matters is no more valid than the Janitor’s down the hall.
Occupationally, Dr. Nickell has been a carnival barker, private detective, blackjack dealer, riverboat manager and a stage magician. While he might certainly make for an interesting dinner guest, there is nothing in his background that would qualify him to speak to the matters he often is seen debunking.
What Is The Scientific Method?
Perhaps we need some clarity regarding just what the “scientific method” entails. The “Cliff’s Notes” on the scientific method or methodology are as follows:
Hypothesis. Your idea as to what is going on.
Null Hypothesis. What you should find if your hypothesis is wrong.
Experimental Design. The experiment you design to test your hypothesis.
Experiment. You run your experiment and collect your data.
Data Analysis. You analyze your data producing a “finding.”
Acceptance or Rejection of your hypothesis. Your results.
Repeatability. You and others should be able to follow your methodology and reproduce the same results.
In a nutshell, this is the “Scientific Method.” If I am measuring acceleration caused by gravity and drop a 2 kilogram lead ball from 10′ feet and take the measurements, I should get similar results if I perform the exact same experiment in Russia, China, Australia or Brazil. Repeatability is one of the hallmarks of the “Scientific Method.”
Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann
In 1989, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announced that they had discovered “Cold Fusion.” This is nuclear fusion at room temperatures. The Sun is powered by nuclear fusion but clearly not at room temperature. It created quite a stir as you might imagine. Cheap, clean, abundant energy without the danger of nuclear radiation or radioactive waste? Oh yes, they made quite a stir. Instantly laboratories around the globe began trying to replicate their findings. Some were successful, many were not.
They were ultimately denounced and censured. Why? Well, largely because they violated the orthodoxy of the Scientific Community. There was more outrage at their violation of the orthodoxy than there was interest in what they may have discovered. According to the orthodoxy, they were supposed to have submitted their discovery for “peer review.” Instead of doing this, they published their results to the world. In typical debunking fashion, the labs that were able to replicate their experiment were largely ignored and only the labs who could not were focused on.
The result was, Cold Fusion was considered to be a hoax or an error and the public largely forgot about it. Think about what it would mean to have a small fusion reactor powering your home or your car. Not only would it mean an end to carbon emissions, all the fossil fuel industries would collapse. World poverty could be ended and the wars over oil and resources would end. The military industrial complex would go broke. We can’t have that now can we? Fortunately there have been scientist working quietly behind the scenes to realize the potentials of “Cold Fusion.” Some have been wildly successful.
The Higgs Boson Does Not Exist
LHC – Large Hadron Collider
If we hold the discovers of the Higgs Boson – the so called “God Particle” which gives mass to all other particles – to the same standards as Pons and Fleischmann were held to, we must similarly conclude that the Higgs Boson does not exist. Why? Because you cannot replicate the experiment unless you happen to have the equivalent of the – Large Hadron Collider – LHC. Yet, scientist around the world believe that the Higgs particle has been discovered. Text books are being rewritten and this new discovery is now being factored into the mathematical equations used by physicist around the globe. Evidently, they all take it on faith!
Dr. Philip J. Klass – Member of CSI
Yes, the Scientific Community, just like any church organization, has it’s own orthodoxy, it’s own recognized Apostles – Albert Einstein for one – their own Bibles – peer reviewed journals – and they meet all the definitions of a faith based community. If one of their Apostles says that UFOs don’t exist or are not visiting Earth, they all fall in line with the orthodoxy. Never mind the reams of data, eyewitness testimony, photographs and videos to the contrary. Two old farts over in the UK are making all those crop circles around the globe.
If one of their Apostles says Bigfoot is a hoax, they all fall in line. Never mind the fact that the Roger Patterson film was never sold, nobody has yet attempted to profit off of it and if that’s a man in a monkey suit, they should have got the same fellow to make Chewbacca’s suit. We even have DNA evidence for Bigfoot. Foot prints have been found in such out of the way locations, the likelihood of anyone coming upon them would make it pointless for a hoaxer to plant them. Yet, because the orthodoxy does not accept their existence, I guess they don’t exist.
Even in the face of scientific evidence that jet fuel does not burn hot enough to melt steel – if it did, what would you make jet engines out of? – the scientific orthodoxy believes that jets brought the twin towers down on September 11, 2001. If you point out that “Building 7” was never hit by a jet this doesn’t seem to bother them. Never mind the fact that immediately following the “attacks” when the entire nation was under a “no fly order” our government was rounding up family members of Osama Bin Laden and flying them out of the country, nobody asks how or why our government was doing this when presumably they did not yet know whom they were going to blam… excuse me, whom was responsible for the attacks.
Faith based skepticism for some strange reason is rarely applied to whatever the official government approved party line is. I find that not only odd, but extremely disturbing. If we cannot rely on our Scientific community to use the tools of the Scientific Method to ferret out the truth, how are they any better than the pastor of that “mega-church” who sells heaven for a price to his gullible followers?
Evidence is always defined by the persons requiring it. _Benjamin T. Moore, Jr.
Emperor Constantine invented Christianity to control his empire. Indeed to understand the Catholic Church, one need simply realize the Roman Empire never went away. It merely became the Catholic Church.
Adolf Hitler was raised a devout Catholic. He later discovered the writings of Martin Luther and used Luther’s hatred of the Jews as an organizing point for Germans to rally around. Thus he used a religious belief system to motivate and mobilize Germany into creating a war machine that threatened the world. Small matter that it cost 6 million Jews and untold other millions of people their lives.
Joseph Stalin was raised Georgian Orthodox. He later became an Atheist and did much to stamp out all religion in Russia. However, with the advent of WWII, he relented and began to support the Russian Orthodox Church calling it “a patriotic institution.” Why? Because it was useful in controlling and organizing the Russian people for their war efforts.
The Popes are the head of what may well be the largest and wealthiest corporation on this planet. They are the new versions of the Roman Emperors. Without the need for fielding an army, they control billions of people all around the planet with the carrot and the stick of heaven and hell. People willingly pay tribute/taxes to them in the form of offerings and donations. The Catholic Church influences all the politics around the globe.
Karl Rove is an Anglican-Episcopalian. He wears his religion rather loosely and in practice is more of an Agnostic… unless playing the religion card for political gain. His extensive use of “wedge issues” in politics was a stroke of diabolical genius. Abortion, Gay rights etc. He successfully duped Christians into focusing on those issues while ignoring the other equally – more important – issues they should have been focused on. Poverty, caring for the poor, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and caring for the sick. How exactly can one be against abortion yet support capital punishment and war?
Pat Robertson is a Southern Baptist minister who makes his living doing a rather poor imitation of Johnny Carson’s “The Tonight Show.” There is not much difference between his “Word Of Knowledge” shtick and Carson’s Carnack The Magnificent. Nevertheless, he has been successful in not only gaining a following, but exerting political influences on our elections.
What do all these people have in common? They exploit those who subscribe to a Christian belief system for personal and political gain. If a stranger walked up to you on the street and told you that you needed to take $500 dollars across town immediately, what would you do? If you’re like me, you would put some distance between yourself and whomever this person was and – in my case – make certain your gun hand was free and unencumbered.
Why? Because you don’t know them. The very nature of their statement would cause suspicion and red flags to begin to wave. However, if that same person claimed they were delivering a message from your mother or some other loved one, suddenly they would have slipped past the first layer of your mental defenses. You would probably ask, “what’s wrong with my mother?” Perhaps, “what is she doing in town?” Notice you’re no longer questioning the authenticity of the message, you’re beyond that. Your mind is now processing what the problem might be and how to solve it.
Religious belief works in the same way. If a preacher tells a Christian that God wants them to pledge $500 or give $500 or vote Republican, your average Christian does not question the message or the messenger, they focus on how or if they can do what is requested. Let’s go back to the message from your mom example. Suppose your mother had passed several years ago and someone came with the same message? Now you would know they were lying and up to no good. Your system of belief and feelings for your mother cannot be exploited.
This is the problem those in power have with Atheist. Atheist are “free thinkers.” You cannot manipulate them using the levers of a belief system. Your appeal must pass the test of logic. An Atheist is going to apply logic to your message or request. They’re going to actually think about what is being said and come to their own conclusions. Tell a Christian that God will supply all their needs, and you’ll get an “Amen!” Turn around and pass an offering plate telling a Christian that their money is needed to support and further God’s work and they’ll pull out their wallets without ever stopping to ask, “if God can supply all *my* needs, why can’t he supply the financial needs of his own ministry?” See the problem?
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” __Albert Einstein
Sitting around and defining the problem is easy. As a matter of fact, we have an entire cottage industry of pundits who are paid good money to come before us each evening and tell us what we already know. From about 3 pm onward you can turn to almost any Cable news station and listen to these well paid “trained observers.”
Aaron Brown
What do they all have in common? None of them ever offer solutions. None of them lay out a plan of action. None of them set in place the mechanisms to execute that plan. The ones who do, don’t seem to last long. Remember Aaron Brown of CNN? Each night he kept before his viewing public, the case of a missing 4 year old girl. The problem? Unlike Elizabeth Smart or Natalie Holloway, this little girl was Black. Not surprisingly Aaron’s tenure at CNN was limited and he is no longer there.
Keith Olbermann
Keith Olbermann is another example. Keith built MSNBC. He gave it the ratings it now enjoys… although they’re now falling after his departure. To attempt to portray Keith as volatile and difficult to work with is a smoke screen. Keith is Keith. He was not and is not an unknown quantity. There was nothing Keith did that even began to approach some of the antics of his competitors like Bill O’Reilly. Here’s what I believe was the problem. Keith started and funded – from his own pocket, along with donations – “Free Clinics.” He looked at the problem of working people not being able to afford healthcare and got with medical professionals to bring “Free Clinics” to depressed urban areas wherein people could come in and see doctors for free.
At these clinics, some people were actually transported to the hospital by ambulance. One such case was a gentleman who’s blood pressure was so high, he was in imminent danger of having a stroke. Keith identified a problem. Created a solution and managed that solution and now he’s gone. Both Aaron Brown and Keith Olbermann moved from being trained observers to actually fixing the problems they saw.
What if it were you?
Think of it this way. If you were in an automobile accident on the Freeway, and a news crew rolled up, jumped out, set up cameras and began reporting on the accident without rendering you aid, how would you feel? We’ve become a nation of voyeurs, watching the world come down around our ears, hoping someone will do something about it before it’s too late. Well, that someone is you.
Target Acquisition
I would be no better than any of the pundits you listen to each night if all I did was to describe and define the problem. Truth be told, you could probably do a pretty good job of that yourself. In Part I of “Zimmerman Acquittal – Lessons Learned,” I gave compelling evidence that minorities and Black people in particular are under an orchestrated, coordinated attack by a powerful Cabal, who’s views for the future look surprisingly similar to the old “Antebellum South.”
If you happen to be white and are reading this, you should be concerned too. Unless you were a rich, plantation owner, the only comfort you had back then was to tell yourself, “at least I’m not a slave!” There was not a lot of difference between a “Slave shack” and the dilapidated, run down shacks poor white people lived in. The facts were, they had more in common with the Slaves than they did with the wealthy aristocracy.
In order to fight back, I have identified 4 areas/targets we should all focus on.
STEP
Social
Technological
Economic
Political
At this point, you’re probably saying, “really? Is that all you’ve got? This is not news!” Often truths are hidden in plain sight. The objective is to so desensitize you, you ignore them. Once cloaked by ignorance, the solution becomes unobtainable. Let’s de-cloak these and perhaps see them from a different perspective.
Social
Everyone has an idea what is meant by targeting the problem from a social perspective. Indeed, that is part of the problem. There is no coordination of effort. No cohesive methodology and only a nebulous criteria for determining success and progress. Small victories are exaggerated and used as pacification. Many are deluded into thinking they’ve accomplished something and the collective energy level drops back to normal. The result is that nothing really changes.
The “Occupy Movement” is an excellent example of this. A lot of “sit-ins”, a lot of media coverage. People got arrested and subjected to pepper spray, with cameras rolling, but what if anything has truly changed? The collective energy was harnessed, assembled but ultimately released without being focused in the manner that would have created the change we all sought.
Wall Street Occupied
What would have happened if all those people, many of whom spent quite a bit of money on travel, had donated to a collective “war-chest,” hired a top flight law firm to file law suit after law suit to jam the courts and bury them in paper work? Hell! Hire several law firms! Imagine what an army of investigators would have uncovered. Imagine what an army of litigators might have done. Do you realize that a mortgage company must have the original“promissory note” the mortgagee signed? Not a copy but the original. If you don’t have the original note, no money is owed. With all the bundling of mortgages and shipping them all around the world, how many promissory notes do you suppose were lost? Imagine the impact of several million people learning, not only could their homes not be foreclosed on, but they could live there in perpetuity free and clear!
Technological
Knowledge is power! We live in a technology based society. We went from an agrarian based society, where our economy was dependent on farming and agricultural production, to the “Industrial Revolution.” Industry led to the creation of technology and now we’re in what we call, “The Information Age.” In order to effectively wield power in the “Information Age” you must understand the technology it is based on.
Make no mistake, knowledge is the ultimate wealth. Knowledge leads to power. Power equals control. Right now there is a network of cameras all across this nation that photograph the license plates of vehicles. You cannot leave your home without your movements being tracked. Why? Equally important is, how much do you believe this system – paid for by you, me and other taxpayers – costs? With data mining programs you can hit a button and create a comprehensive profile of almost anyone. If I know where you’re going, where you’re going to be, I own you.
If you do not understand the technology, you have no concept of the peril or how to defend yourself from that peril.
Economic
There is no such thing as a free lunch. We all know this, if not intellectually, viscerally. Anything of value has a cost associated with it. Yes, there may be some things that require our financial support, however there may also be some things from which we need to withdraw our financial support. Consider Walmart for example. For every job Walmart creates, 1.5 jobs are lost. Because we’re not seeing the arterial spray and only a drip, drip, drip, we ignore the fact we’re being bled to death. It is the height of insanity to bring the rope to our own hanging.
Economically, we need to realize that when we spend our money with companies who’s leadership does not share our focus, some portion of those dollars wind up supporting the very political aims that are devastating this nation and ourcommunities in particular.
Fortunately, there are a lot of things we can do to turn the tables. It starts by “Teaching Our Dollars Some Sense.”
Political
Politics is the battleground. Not only are “all politics local” they begin in the home. Politics is not a spectators sport! There are no bleachers from which you can watch in safety. You’re out on the field whether you realize it or not. You are a player, a piece in a game of chess. You may start out as a pawn, but if you make it to the “end zone” you can become extremely powerful.
We talk about the 3 branches of government – Executive, Legislative and Judicial – but all 3 branches have their local equivalents. We have been led to believe that we are merely passengers on a bus with the destination, speed and route controlled by others. In point of fact, we can take over the bus. Most elections are decided before the first vote is cast. The people in charge of your local community have a lot to say about where and how your tax dollars are spent. They also have a lot to say about whom provides the services you come to rely on.
Take the price of gas. Right now you can drive across town and see gas station after gas station all selling gas at the same price. Not that far back in our history, we would call that “Price Fixing” and someone would be going to jail. Why is no one being investigated and prosecuted? That has a lot to do with the bought and paid for people who currently occupy the positions who could bring such a case to trial. How is it that Shell, BP, Marathon and others are all selling gas for the same price? If they’re all getting it from the same place, then they’re engaging false advertising. It would be like taking generic “Corn Flakes” and putting them in a “Kellogg’s” box.
In my next installment – “The Treatment Plan” – I will expand on the STEP acronym and give specific plans of attack. Yes, you can do something about this. Sometimes we just need a road map. No, I don’t advocate expending a lot of energy marching and demonstrating. Those are just pressure relief valves that do not accomplish much and allow us to relapse into the somnambulistic state so many of us exist in. If you’re having a nightmare, the best thing you can do is to wake up. The alarm clock is ringing. It’s time to rise.
Stay Tuned For “Zimmerman Acquittal – Lessons Learned (Part III)” The Treatment Plan.
We are at war! We are not at war against all white people. Thankfully, the vast majority of white people are enlightened and committed to the same goals as we are. They are committed to creating a better world, a better life for their children and grandchildren, opportunity to grow and become the best they can be. If it were not for these white people – of all ages and economic brackets – coming out and voting in mass, we would not have elected President Obama. I have not forgotten – nor should you – that white people marched with Dr. King, had fire hoses and police dogs turned on them and some were even murdered for the cause. The following is an older white man expressing his outrage over the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial. (Warning – strong language and probably not suitable for work)
Merely because there has not been an official declaration of war, doesn’t mean you are not in a fight for your very existence nor does it mean that the higher principles this nation aspired to when it was founded are not under attack. The attack on Pearl Harbor occurred before a war was officially declared. The men and women who died that day are not any less dead because of this fact. There was not an official declaration of war prior to the attacks of September 11, 2001.
“As long as we play by these bullshit rules and the killer doesn’t, we’re gonna lose!” _Marion Cobretti (Cobra – Sylvester Stallone)
Rules Of Engagement
The war that is being waged has been going on for thousands of years. It is about the wealthy maintaining power over the poor. You no doubt are familiar with the term “chivalry?” Most people upon hearing that word have visions of Knights in shining armour riding forth on their trusty steeds doing good for those less fortunate, rescuing damsels in distress and slaying dragons. The reality was quite different.
First, remember that all the royal families were related. They were cousins. The King of England – or Queen – was related to the monarchs of France, Russia, Germany, Spain and Denmark. One big extended family controlling the world. They all had the same problem, namely peasant population control. Too much prosperity and the peasant population grew too fast. Most wars were to decrease the peasant populations. Hence the rules of Chivalry. Under Chivalry, a peasant could not strike or touch a nobleman or his horse.
When they lined up for battle, guess how they lined up. The Knights always lined up opposite the peasants on both sides. They would ride into them and mow them down. If a peasant struck a Knight or his horse, they would pause the battle and execute the peasant. Things didn’t change until the advent of the English Long Bow. Archers could strike from a distance and it was impossible to determine which archer had fired the arrow sticking out of a Knight’s chest. If you go back and study history, you will find that there was quite an uproar about the unfairness and lack of chivalry of this tactic.
This mentality has carried over to this day. Snipers are both loved and hated on the battlefield. Why? Because they target officers. Back during the revolutionary war, Officers were the favorite targets of Colonial sharpshooters. It was considered unsportsmanlike. Generals and officers used to be at the front of their lines commanding their troops into battle from horseback in perfect safety. War became real when the peasantry began fighting back. It is time we began fighting back again.
“According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, one in three black men can expect to go to prison in their lifetime. Individuals of color have a disproportionate number of encounters with law enforcement, indicating that racial profiling continues to be a problem. A report by the Department of Justice found that blacks and Hispanics were approximately three times more likely to be searched during a traffic stop than white motorists. African Americans were twice as likely to be arrested and almost four times as likely to experience the use of force during encounters with the police.”
As is always the case, the officers claim to be in fear for their lives. In the video you can see a compliant subject who puts his hands up, then two officers manhandle him face down on the hard concrete floor. One is sitting astride his back the other is kneeling on his neck and shoulders. Imagine two grown men sitting on you like that. Could you breathe? You might begin to squirm to relieve the pressure. Now ask yourself, why is it that Black people always decide to resist once there are two or more Cops on top of them and they’re being handcuffed? If you were going to resist, would you wait until then to make your move? Or would you put up a fight when you had a better chance of success? Zimmerman’s defense was the same defense used by these officers and every other officer who uses lethal force.
Police Academy
“I was in fear for my life and the safety of others.” This is a phrase they hammer into all Cops at the law enforcement academy. Why? How do you measure fear? How do you prove that a person is not in fear? Notice, by focusing on the issue of whether or not a person is in fear and whether or not that fear is justified, just as in the Zimmerman trial, we ignore the choices and actions of that person leading up to the confrontation. Was he afraid or not? He was dealing with a Black male. Black males are scary! Get a predominately white jury and they find it very easy to imagine a fear that may not have actually existed. So immersed do they become in their imagining this spectre of fear, caused by interaction with a Black male, their latent racism causes them to forget the facts. If you invade my home at night, unannounced and uninvited, you should be afraid… be very afraid. However, let us not forget, that it was you who placed your life at peril.
The War On Drugs Is A War On Black People
“The study, which was published Monday in the Archives of General Psychiatry, controlled for variables like socioeconomic status because rates of severe drug problems tend to be greater amongst the poor. Despite this, Native American youth fared worst, with 15% having a substance use disorder, compared to 9.2% for people of mixed racial heritage, 9.0% for whites, 7.7% for Hispanics, 5% for African Americans and 3.5% for Asians and Pacific Islanders.”
When you view these statistics, it is important to bear in mind that Black people are only 13% of the population. White people compose over 70% of the population. So when you see that 5% of Black people are involved with narcotics, remember that’s 5% of the 13%. Yet we make up 60% of the prison population and the large majority are there for narcotics crimes. Roughly, this means that law enforcement officers have to walk past 6.3 white drug users to arrest the 1 Black user. Is there any wonder why we’re losing the war on drugs? This isn’t by accident, this is by design.
Rolling Back The Clock
If you need further proof that minorities and Black people in particular are under attack, consider the ridiculous lines at the polls. Governments cut the number of voting machines in minority districts and shortened the times that voting could occur. Meanwhile in the predominately white suburbs, there were plenty of voting machines. Just recently, after watching all of this, the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act. Although there has not nor will there be a “formal declaration of war,” ask yourself what they would do differently? They’re jailing us, murdering us and doing everything within their power to roll this nation back to the 30’s and 40’s.
If you find this objectionable and wonder what to do about it or what can be done about it, stay tuned for Part II wherein I offer a prescription.
There is only one Race on this planet… The human Race.
The Evolution Of Race
With the mapping of the human genome, the myth of race or ethnicity has been laid bare. Despite our outward appearances which are merely the result of the evolutionary process of adaptation to the climates of geographic location, there is no such thing as Race. We are all the same species. Our parts are interchangeable, thus should we need a heart or lung transplant, a Black, White, Asian is not limited to a donor from their same “Race.” Why? Because really, there is no such thing as race. Dr. Nina Jablonski gives an excellent presentation on this subject at a “TED Talks” presentation.
This is well worth the viewing and I will be referring back to it a bit later.
Define Race
This question is rarely if ever asked. Everyone simply assumes they know the answer. The reality is, in our culture, race is totally based on skin color. Skin color is entirely based on the geographic location humans evolved. Think about it. You can see evolution at work every year. In the summer, you get darker. Whether you’re “Black,” “White,” “Asian” or any other arbitrary ethnic genotype. In the winter, you lighten back up. These changes occur over the space of a few days or weeks at most.
What would happen if you/your family lived for generation after generation closer to the equator where the amount of sun you received was like a perpetual summer? Your family would grow darker and darker with each successive generation. Again, you see this process begin each summer. By the same token, if you were dark skinned and you/your family moved to northern Europe, over successive generations, your family would lose skin pigment and grow lighter. Why? Because you would be receiving less UV radiation from the Sun. This is because of the oblique angle the Sun’s rays strike the surface of the Earth in the northern latitudes. This is not theory, it is scientific fact.
Even the classic European features are adapted to living in a cold environment. Where it is hot, you want your nose to be wider to take in more oxygen. However, where it is colder, a narrow nose is more efficient to pre-warm the air you inhale. Most of the heat in your body is lost, dissipated through your head. More surface area is more efficient. Broad nose, thicker lips, curly hair helps to protect you from the heat of the Sun and dissipate the heat. In a colder climate, straight hair helps to form an insulating layer to keep heat in. Thin lips provide less surface area for heat loss.
Moving to a different location does not change your race. Over generations you may adapt to your environment – it’s what humans do – but you are still the same race you always were. Human.
Justifying Racism
The primary cause for the very notion of Races comes from people who were historically, anthropologically and archaeologically ignorant, attempting to understand Jewish mythology and take it as historical fact. You may want to read that again. What they fail to understand when reading Biblical accounts, is that the Bible was talking about families and tribes of people. Indeed, “family” and “tribe” are distinctions without a difference.
If you believe the Genesis myth, how many races of man did God create? When did he create a new race of man? At what point did this happen? The Garden of Eden story is what we call a “choke point.” Supposedly, the only two human beings on this planet were Adam and Eve. According to the Bible, Adam and Eve were of one flesh. Thus, no other Races were created in the Garden, fair to say? The next “choke point” recorded in the Bible is the “Great Flood of Noah.”
The Great Flood Myth
Without going into all the reasons why this never happened, suffice it to say, prior to Cable News Networks allowing you to have a global perspective on events, if you look out your door and all you see is water, as far as you’re concerned, the entire world is flooded. The point is, following the Flood, there are supposedly only 8 human survivors. Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives. If there had been any other “Races” that sprang up by magic, there were none after the flood. So again, there was only one Race on this planet.
A cottage industry has sprung up with people writing books and creating DVDs on the subject of the Nephilim. This comes from a passage in the 6th Chapter of the book of Genesis. It is an interesting story. According to these Biblical researchers, this story implies that humans were interbreeding with alien – or demonic – beings and it is this corruption of the human bloodline which causes God to send the flood to cleanse the Earth. According to the story, the Nephilim were giants. They were more than human with super human abilities.
In their narratives, they explain all the megalithic structures by pointing to these Nephilim. The Great pyramids and the pyramids around the world are all works of the Nephilim according to these researchers. They sell a lot of books, give a lot of speeches and make a lot of money. They also tie up all historical loose ends quite neatly. One might overlook the fact that the only places where these Nephilim built all these megalithic constructions were where Black and Brown people lived. The not so subtle implications are that people of color couldn’t possibly have possessed a technology that White people cannot duplicate or figure out today! So, to preserve the White psyche, it is much more attractive to theorize that space aliens or demonic beings and their hybrid offspring did these great works. Ironically, they rarely ever reference Stonehenge in their conjecturing. Why? Because that megalithic site is in Europe. Those White people were simply clever!
David and Goliath. But I thought all the giants died in the flood?
What everyone seems to miss is, there were giants after the flood! Since the Bible says that all living flesh was destroyed by the flood except for that which was on Noah’s ark, where did these giants come from? If God was trying to destroy the Nephilim and their hybrid offspring, what a waste! It really makes God out to be incompetent! All that death and destruction and he still did not achieve his ends.
Noah’s Three Sons
In Genesis 10, yet another place people like to point to and declare this is where the various races come from, we are told that each of Noah’s sons became the fathers of various nations. Japheth was the father of the Gentiles. Shem was the father of the Shemitic or Semitic peoples and Ham was the father of the African people. There are two things that are important to note. The first is, Noah’s sons were all of the same race. So, you’ve got a problem saying that their offspring who would all be cousins in the same family, suddenly became different races. The second glaring problem is, they left out quite a few ethnic groups that we recognize as races today. Whom was the father of the Asians? How about the Native American people?
Of course, at the time this myth was put together, these people were unknown. There are a few often overlooked other points such as, the descendants of Ham – Black People – are notGentiles. Only the descendants of Japheth – Europeans – are Gentiles. Ever hear of the Ashkenazi Jews? Ashkenaz was a descendant of Japheth and thus a Gentile. Thus, an Ashkenazi Jew is something of an Oxymoron. I may explore this little problem in a future article.
So we have three sons from the same father, same bloodline, same race – human – supposedly being the progenitors of all the different arbitrary racial distinctions we make today. In a word, nonsense!Everyone present on the planet at this mythical point in time was of the same “Race.” My parents had 3 sons and 1 daughter. We all have different personalities, different interests and different abilities. We are all the same “Race.” We have the same parents and we are of one family.
What about skin color? At the time of Noah, everyone had Black skin. There were no White people on the planet. If you need to, read that again. This is not theory, this is scientifically proven fact. If we place the “Great Flood” in time, based on the lifespans – generations – listed in your Bible, mankind had not yet left northern Africa and the Mediterranean. This means their skin was still adapted to high UV light. White skin would not develop until mankind spread into the northern regions of the planet. Thus, Noah, Ham, Shem, Japheth and their descendants were all Black skinned people.
Kemet The Land Of The Blacks
You are probably more familiar with the Greek name for Kemet, “Egypt.” Kemet is very important to human history. First let me dispel some popular myths. Back in the 70’s when President Carter was brokering a lasting peace between then Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli President, Menachem Begin, they had all met in Egypt and President Sadat was giving them a tour of the Pyramids of Giza. As they’re walking along, President Begin looks up at the Pyramids and remarks, “these remind me of the suffering of my people.” At which, President Sadat turned to him and informed him, “your people didn’t have a damn thing to do with these!”
President Sadat was of course correct. Based on the Bible and the Torah’s representation of time, the Pyramids were built long before Abraham the Jewish patriarch was born. It is beyond the scope of this article to go into all the proofs that show that the whole Hebrew bondage in Egypt and the Exodus story is a myth. Nevertheless, suffice it to say, at any conceivable placement in time for Moses and the Hebrews being in Egypt, the Egyptians were a Black African people. The first European presence in Egypt came about when Alexander the Greek conquered Egypt.
Why is this important. It is important for two reasons. Let’s explore the first. Remember the story of Joseph being sold into bondage in Egypt. This is the whole “Joseph and his technicolor dream coat story.” Joseph has these dreams. His brothers become jealous and plot to get rid of him. He winds up in Egypt and rises to become second only to the Pharaoh.
Here is the point you need to pay attention to. Famine was in the land and Jacob – Israel – sent his sons into Egypt to purchase grain for the family to eat. The brothers had to present themselves before Joseph to buy grain. They did not recognize him standing alongside the other African Egyptians. Had Hebrews been light skinned or fair of complexion, Joseph would have stood out like a sore thumb standing beside the other Black skinned African people. If nothing else, it would have caused his brothers to scrutinize him closely and I’m certain that recognition would have set in.
The next story I want to direct your attention to concerns the story of Moses and the Exodus. If you will recall the whole “burning bush” affair, God sends Moses back to Pharaoh with the message to let his people go. Moses asks why would Pharaoh believe him and God gives Moses several signs. One of those signs was for him to put his hand into his shirt, pull it out and it would become all white and leprous. Think about that for a moment. A White man putting his hand in his shirt and pulling out a white hand wouldn’t really cause much sensation. The Bible specifically says that his hand turned leprous as snow. In other words, white. Clearly Moses wasn’t White to begin with. In fact, nobody in the area was White.
Tribalism Not Racism
Charlton Heston as Moses
One of our biggest problems with understanding ancient texts, whether it be the Bible, the Torah, Sanskrit you name it, is that everything we read, we filter through the lens of modern understanding and prejudices. Most people when they think of ancient Egypt, are visualizing a Cecil B. DeMill fantasy. Yul Brenner as Pharaoh and Charlton Heston as Moses. The movie, “The Ten Commandments” was so divorced from reality, they might as well have begun it with, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.”
Back then, no one had any concept of what we now call Race. Since everyone had the same skin color, what was important was where you lived and or which family you belonged to. Conflicts arose over resources. Water, land to grow crops, access roads etc. If you lived in Egypt, you were considered Egyptian. If you lived in Babylon, you were Babylonian. If you lived in the land of Canaan, you were a Canaanite. Where you lived determined the style of your clothes, your armaments and your accent. If you were dressed like a Greek and either spoke Greek or spoke with a Greek accent, you were considered a Greek. Skin color was never an issue.
4 – 5% may not seem like a lot, but when you have 1.1 billion pieces of DNA, and when just one piece can determine your eye color, you can have quite a few instructions contained in that 4 – 5%.
The Geography Of Skin Color
What color is your skin? Which latitude did your ancestors come from?
The simple fact is, human beings need vitamin D to live. The further north or south you go on the surface of the Earth, the more oblique the angle of the rays of the Sun. You do not require the protection of Melanin. You need as much sunlight penetrating the layers of your skin as possible to create that vital vitamin D. Thus, we see that the further one goes into these upper northern and lower southern latitudes, the lighter their skin becomes. It is a human adaptation, not a change in race.
The sad truth? If all people of color suddenly disappeared off the face of the Earth, leaving only white people, there would be a new definition of race. Blond haired, blue eyed white people would become the models of perfection and they’d begin discriminating against their dark haired and dark eyed counter parts. How do we know this? It has already been done in the United States of America. As each new ethnic group immigrated into the United States, they were at the bottom of the social order. They discriminated against the Irish, and the Italians when they first arrived, even though both the people doing the discriminating and the victims of this discrimination consider themselves to be white.
Religion and Discrimination
Pope Nicholas V
It is a fact that the Bible has been used to condone and justify some of the most horrific genocides in human history. In almost every instance, the victims were people of dark complexion. The holocaust of the African Slave trade was started by the Catholic church. In 1452 Pope Nicholas V penned his “Papal Bull” known as the “Dum Diversas.”
“”We grant you [Kings of Spain and Portugal] by these present documents, with our Apostolic Authority, full and free permission to invade, search out, capture, and subjugate the Saracens and pagans and any other unbelievers and enemies of Christ wherever they may be, as well as their kingdoms, duchies, counties, principalities, and other property […] and to reduce their persons into perpetual slavery.”
For the first time in recorded human history, perpetual slavery was created. For the first time in recorded human history, a baby could be born into slavery, grow up a slave and die a slave having never known freedom. During the period that the African Slave trade was in progress, 100,000,000 million Africans were murdered before they ever made it to the auction blocks. This doesn’t include the 100s of millions who survived to be sold into slavery and live out their lives in misery.
Hitler amongst his other delusions, used as a justification for creating the Jewish holocaust, the notion that the Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus. Many Christian nations – the Catholic Church included – were content to look the other way. You can get away with quite a bit, if you use the Bible to justify whatever it is you’re trying to do. The irony is, Hitler looked more like the people he was murdering than his idea of the ideal genotype of blond hair and blue eyes.
Why We Identify With A Racial Group
The delusion of racial typing confers upon certain groups by accident of birth, the presumption of traits and abilities that one neither has to earn nor achieve. Thus, Jews are good with money, Blacks are good athletes, Asians are smart in school and so on. This even carries over into human sexuality. There are myths about white, women, Black women, Asian women, indeed women of all nationalities that are just that… MYTHS! The same should be said for males.
Thus, we limit the human race by embracing these delusions which cause us to squander the most valuable resource on this planet… the human resource! We don’t fund inner city schools because those students are minority students. The mind that may contain the cure for cancer or the solution to a faster than light drive, allowing us to leave this solar system, never gets developed because of racism. We simply can no longer afford racism. Our continued survival depends on the realization that there is only one race on this planet and that race is the Human Race!
“Before you can get someone saved, you must first get them lost.”
The entire Christian message, hinges on the doctrine of “Original Sin.” If you’ve ever been “buttonholed” by some Christian on the street engaging in what they call, “witnessing,” within the first moments of your encounter, they started out by quoting one of several passages from their Bible – Scriptures – pointing out that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Death is too easy. You’ve got to suffer forever.
The next step in their parade, is to convince you of just how terrible and serious this is. Whether you know it or not, there’s this “all powerful being” just waiting to squash you like a bug, turn you into asbestos and then throw you into a fire that burns for all eternity… but he loves you! I admit the cognitive dissonance is a bit much, but for their program to work, it is necessary that you hold these two mutually exclusive positions in your mind.
It gets worse. Suppose you’re living a perfectly good life… even by their rather flexible standards. You’re not a liar or a cheat. You’re paying your taxes. You donate to charities. You’re volunteering perhaps mentoring youth or caring for seniors. Not to worry, they’ve got a cake baked just for you. They’ll tell you all these things don’t matter. You’re a sinner not because of anything you’ve done. You’re a sinner because of what Adam did! Say what? Yes, Adam!
There’s your problem! It was Mayhem!
It all goes back to that fateful day in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve took a bite from some fruit they were not supposed to eat. Of course, you had nothing to do with that. However, God whom really, really loves you… and evidently hates you at the same time, can hardly wait to burn you for all eternity, not because of something you did, but because of something Adam is supposed to have done. Did I mention? God is also just and righteous! Don’t try and make any sense of of this because there is none. You’ll see why as we continue.
Fall Of Man Or Ascent Of Man?
Let’s suppose temporarily, for the sake of discussion that there actually was a Garden of Eden. The problem is, all of these events would have occurred thousands of years before the development of writing. Thus the story – if it occurred – would of been handed down via word of mouth generation after generation after generation. If you’ve ever played the “Telephone Game,” you know that after one or two people, the original message becomes garbled. Now multiply that by numerous generations and you get my point.
We have no way of knowing what if anything was said, to whom and by whom. We have no way of knowing what was done or not done by any of the players. Was it a fruit that was eaten or was the talking Serpent really a phallic symbol and the forbidden fruit sex? We do not know. Just because a large number of people believe something doesn’t make it true. At one time, the majority of the world’s population believed that the Earth was flat and that the Sun orbited the Earth. They were wrong.
Oft times back then, stories were told not so much to give a factual account of history, but rather to convey a principle or a moral from generation to generation. The minute details of the story were inconsequential. The important information was encoded into the story at much higher level.
The Ascent of Man?
Thus, someone enlightened hearing the story of the events in the Garden of Eden, might actually find a record of the ascension of human development. We began as gathers. Hence the Garden setting. We were naked and subsisted by picking fruit off trees and eating berries. What’s the next thing that happened after eating the forbidden fruit? We realize our nakedness and God kills animals to make skins so we can clothe our nakedness. Hence, we go from eating nuts and berries to hunting and eating meat.
Abel represents the next step. He represents our nomadic herdsman period. Just as today, in various parts of the world, people live off and follow their herds. The Laplanders survive off their reindeer herds. In Africa there are tribes that follow their herds of cattle. The problem with the nomadic lifestyle, although enjoyable, it precludes real technological progress. You cannot build cities if you have to pick up and follow your herd to the next greener pasture.
Cain was a farmer. Farming is hard work. However, through farming, harvesting and storing food, you now have the possibility to subsist in one location. You don’t have to live in tents and be ready to move at a moment’s notice. You can build long lasting structures. You can develop and build a specialized society. People can learn to work metal. People have time to develop a system of education. Thus, as Cain slew his brother Abel, so too did farming put an end to the nomadic lifestyle based on following the herd. All this information is encoded into the first few chapters of Genesis. It is not written on the lines but between the lines.
Original Sin – Mind Control Through Mythology
The real sin in the story of the Garden of Eden is the insulting depiction of God. I have a two year old granddaughter. If I left a cocked and loaded handgun lying on the coffee table and left the room… even if I told her not to touch it in the most unambiguous and emphatic terms possible, when she picked it up, as she surely would, whom would be responsible when the gun went off? Me or her?
In for a penny, in for a pound! Most Christians at this point will want to ascribe to Adam knowledge and abilities that are not in evidence. Had Adam ever seen anything die? Did Adam have any idea what death was? Telling Adam that he would surely die might not have meant much.
Then there’s this whole “Good and Evil” problem. Prior to eating the fruit, Adam had no concept of Good or Evil. Hence, he wouldn’t have known that God is good and equally important, he wouldn’t have known that the Serpent and what the Serpent was telling him was evil. Adam, according to the Christian theological position, was in a state of perfect innocence. If you saw a snake in a tree, you’d back off immediately. If that snake began talking to you, Bible stories notwithstanding, you’d run like Hell! Why? Because you would know it wasn’t natural. Neither Adam nor Eve possessed those innate survival instincts or inhibitions. They were like innocent two year-olds in the bodies of adults.
This could end poorly!
This brings us to the next point. If God knows all things and knows the “end from the beginning…” and If God is all places, then God would have to have known that the Serpent was in the playpen. What parent would put his baby in a playpen, then watch as a venomous cobra wound it’s way through the bars? Furthermore, what parent would then punish his child for getting bit? The entire story begins to fall apart… unless of course God is not all powerful and not all knowing and not omnipresent.
This brings us to yet another “sticky wicket.” What if it was all God’s plan to begin with? Possible. However, now you have God punishing mankind for going along with his plan. See the problem?
Passing Down Sin
Remember, the entirety of Christian theology depends upon everyone being born a “sinner” because of what Adam did. Of course if Christians actually would read their Bibles, they would see that this is false.
[KJV] Ezekiel 18:20
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.
There you have it! This passage right here is the death knell for the Doctrine of Original Sin. You don’t inherit the sins of your father and that of course means, you cannot inherit the sin of Adam.
Nowhere in Jesus’ recorded words in the Gospels, does he ever say or imply that his mission is to right the wrong and undo what Adam did. Nowhere! In fact the name “Adam” only appears one place in the Gospels. Luke 3:38 gives the genealogy of Jesus tracing all the way back to Adam. If Jesus’ entire mission, the reason he came to Earth was to be the ultimate sacrifice and die to fix the original sin of Adam, you’d think he might have mentioned it. That would be a pretty important point for him to overlook mentioning it. Surely he would have shared his mission, his purpose with his Disciples… at least one of them. Perhaps Peter?
The entire doctrine of “original sin” comes from Paul. Paul never met Jesus, was never taught by Jesus and quite frankly, not to put too fine a point on things… Paul was a liar and a false Apostle. If you doubt this, read Revelation 2:1-2. Then ask yourself if you know of anyone other than Paul claiming to be the Apostle to the Ephesian Church.
Mind Control
Despite what you’ve seen in science fiction movies or in the performances of Stage Hypnotists, mind control is actually a lot more subtle than what you may have been led to believe. It all begins by planting suggestions and building on those suggestions. For instance, right now your nose is itching. We are all susceptible to suggestions to varying degrees. Nose not itching? Give it a minute. It will. By telling you what I’m doing I’m letting you off the hook. This is just in fun. It doesn’t matter if your nose itches are not. The more you fight it the more annoying the itch will become. The human mind is a marvel.
Try this, next time you’re in a group, clear your throat loudly and then count how many people begin clearing their throats as well. This also works with yawns. Yawns are extremely contagious. These are simple things you can have fun testing. However, what about our core beliefs? It turns out that we are even more susceptible to manipulation when someone accesses a button we’ve already developed a preconditioned response to.
This is one of the reasons I have asked, “how can you judge someone who was raised in an Islamic, Buddhist or even a Pagan home?” We are born with a blank slate. Our parents begin writing on that slate from the moment of our birth. As children we have yet to develop the analytical skills that allow us to determine what is reality. This is when the indoctrination begins. The foundation upon which the rest of our life is built, is laid in our childhood. If you’ve been raised in the “West,” more like than not you’ve been indoctrinated to have a predisposition to believe in Christianity.
What happens when someone begins pushing these buttons? You’ve already been raised to believe that the Bible is the “Word of God.” You’ve been taught not to doubt or question. If they come to you and begin quoting or referencing certain Bible passages, you’re predisposed to give what they’re saying more weight. Naked human beings who didn’t know they were naked? Talking snakes? Forbidden fruit? Under normal circumstances, you’d ask someone what they’d been smoking! However, because of the triggers planted in your youth, you’re predisposed to believe whatever is written in the Bible. If someone tells you you’re “lost,” you’re “lost!” It’s just that easy.
[KJV] Mark 2:17
When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance
Here you have it! According to Jesus, noteveryone is a sinner. Some people are righteous. When a proselytizer approaches you to “witness” to you. They never leave it with your accepting Jesus as your personal saviour and accepting his substitutionary death for your sins. Fellowship is the flip side of the salvation coin. Now you need to join a Church… their Church! You will quickly discover there is more to your salvation than merely accepting Jesus. There’s paying tithes – 10% of your income – and giving in the offerings. Matter of fact, if you don’t pay your tithes, you’ll discover that your salvation might not be assured. Yes, it seems heaven has its price too.
So, whom are you going to believe? The recorded words of Jesus or someone who has a financial interest in your joining their Church? The doctrine of Original Sin is Mind Control Through Mythology. Churches have become huge corporate interests who profit from your belief in their message. Everything is designed to control your mind. From the Church building, to the music to the message. It is designed to not only lead you to the altar, but to open your wallet. You need to be aware of whom is pushing your buttons and why.
“A beginning is a very delicate time…” _Princess Irulan (Dune)
Some two thousand years ago, we are told that a child was born to a carpenter and his second wife. He was born into poverty and as things go, no one should have even known about or remembered anything about him.
However, the story takes a turn when we are told that Angelic beings announced his birth. Men of learning and prestige travelled from the Orient to witness his birth and the king in the area he was born, murdered every male child under two years of age in an effort to kill him. There is another twist to this tale. His mother was said to have conceived him without ever having “known” a man. Thus, she was a virgin while she carried him.
Young Jesus In The Temple
We don’t really know much about his life until he turns 12 and resurfaces in a Jewish temple. We are told that his knowledge amazed the teachers of Jewish law and then he vanishes again. The next time he makes an appearance, he is a grown man on a mission.
At this point, the story is taken up by four different narrators. We learn of omens, signs, portents and of course miracles. He heals the sick, gives sight to the blind, causes the lame to walk again and even raises the dead. Small wonder, of the oppressed people he is ministering to, various political factions also began to take an interest.
Power Is More Addictive Than Crack Cocaine
This person we call Jesus – according to the Gospels – was building a following. Not of the wealthy and elite, but of the common, poor simple people. Rules, laws, traditions in society ultimately serve only two purposes.
To keep a certain segment of society in power.
To keep everybody else under their control.
His message of giving to the poor, caring for the sick, no longer seeking or valuing material things was creating a problem. If people begin sharing what they have with others… for free,the people they’re sharing with, are not buying goods and services. If you’re a farmer and have a field that needs harvesting, and your friends whom are also followers of Jesus come and volunteer to help you bring in your crops, the people whom you would normally have hired, are out of work. If you then turn around and give away food to those who helped bring in your harvest, those people are not buying their produce at the local market. Thus, as you might expect, the merchants had a problem with the teachings of Jesus.
What about the political structures? The worst thing you can do to those who perceive that they have power is to make them irrelevant. Jesus’ message was not to overthrow the Romans, though there were factions who clearly wanted him to lead such a revolution. When asked about paying taxes – a trap laid by the Pharisees – Jesus said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” I know this may prove traumatic for my Republican readers, but Jesus said to pay your taxes!Jesus also said to obey the laws of the land. This hardly qualified him to be the firebrand revolutionary that would overthrow Roman rule.
Constantine was the pagan – Sun worshipper – emperor of Rome who created Christianity and created your Bible.
The religious institutions also had a problem with Jesus. He pointed out the blatant hypocrisy of the Church. By “Church” I mean the Jewish religious institutions. The Christian Church as we know it today, had yet to be invented by the Roman Emperor Constantine. That would come some 300 years later.
For example, Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath. The Pharisees had a problem with this. There is a prohibition against doing any “work” on the Sabbath under Jewish Law. Of course, in my mind, this begs for a definition of what constitutes “work?” From the accounts in the Bible of Jesus healing someone, he usually simply spoke to them… but I digress. Jesus, using the Socratic method, posed the question, “which one of you if your Ass or Ox fell into a pit on the Sabbath, wouldn’t immediately pull them out?” Of course, every last one of them would, Sabbath or no Sabbath.
Can’t push a button on the Sabbath? Not to worry, this elevator stops on each floor.
Ironically, even today, there are industries creating “Kosher” gadgetry to assist practicing Jews in circumventing restrictions presented by the Sabbath. Obey the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law be damned! As the saying goes, “rules were made to be broken…” or at least, worked around. If one believes in God, what does one suppose God’s opinion is? Do you think that God looks at these workarounds and gives out points for cleverness?
My baby sister from around this time frame.
Being the oldest, my parents would leave me in charge of my younger siblings whenever they left home. On several occasions, I was admonished to make sure my baby sister was in bed by 9 pm. On one such occasion, we were all watching a television program which wasn’t over until 11 pm. What to do? At 9 pm I instructed my baby sister – she was 9 years younger than I – to go and get in bed. 5 minutes later, I told her she could get back up and we finished the show, then I put her in bed. When my parents asked me the next day if my sister was in bed by 9 pm, I truthfully answered “yes.” They didn’t say anything about her getting back up. My sister loved me for my cleverness. However, if my parents had known… well, they would have had a different perspective on things. The trouble is, if one believes in God, then you have to believe that God knows that you’re employing human cleverness to circumvent the spirit and intention of his laws.
Jesus was always around the poor and common people.
Jesus could have afforded a very fine horse. Yet, he walked everywhere he went. Jesus could have afforded a very fine house. Being a carpenter by trade, he could have built himself one. He could have built churches all around Palestine. Yet, he did none of these things. He chose a life of poverty and self-denial. This is far different from the so called preachers today who measure their success by the size of their churches, their homes and the expense of their cars.
Pimping Jesus
Jesus has been turned into a commodity. His message has been repackaged, turned over to advertising agencies and is being marketed at a profit. Churches take in 100s of billions of dollars a year pimping Jesus. Tours to the “Holy Land” sponsored by various church groups dump billions into the economy of Israel.
Pastor Creflo Dollar’s Private Jet
Preachers are buying mansions, corporate jets, Bentleys and Rolls Royce cars. They’re taking vacations on the French Riviera and buying expensive yachts. They’ve got personal chefs, personal trainers, tailors and stylists. Pimping Jesus has become a wildly successful business. Jesus has become the perfect product. It is an intangible product from which you can never get a refund. You don’t know whether or not it works until after you’re dead. Of course by then, it’s too late to ask for a refund.
Televangelist Paula White’s Rolls Royce in front of her Italian home
I often wonder, if Jesus came back today, would he even recognize today’s Church? 100s of billions taken in, mostly from poor people who can barely afford to give, yet they give because they’ve been manipulated into believing in a message that is the very antithesis of what Jesus actually taught.
How is it that with all the money churches are taking in, homeless shelters are having to turn people away? How is it with all the money churches are taking in, families with children are going to bed hungry right here in this country? Whenever those heart wrenching commercials come on my television showing children in some foreign land living in abject poverty, I think to myself, there are children living right her in these United States that are every bit as impoverished.
Kirk Franklin at the 54th Annual Grammys.
In Luke 18:8 Jesus asks an interesting question. He asks, whether or not he will find “faith” upon the Earth when he returns? This seems like a strange question to ask. Especially given that we have a church on almost every other corner in some communities. We have gospel recording artist who have songs that are doing well on the R&B charts. How could there not be faith when he returns? Isn’t faith everywhere? Perhaps not?
Matthew 25:31-46
King James Version (KJV)
31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
You may want to read that twice. That is the true message of Jesus. Notice at no point is anyone asked about their religious affiliation, how much money they gave to their church, whether or not they paid tithes or even whether or not they believed in Jesus at all.
Now read the following and ask yourself if this is talking directly to and about all these preachers that have been pimping Jesus for gain?
Matthew 7:21-23
King James Version (KJV)
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
You either believe or you don’t.
So, what do you believe? No really? You don’t get any credit for donating money to a church. Caring for the poor, feeding the hungry, tending to the sick, sheltering the homeless and clothing the naked is a personal responsibility. Only you can discharge this obligation. Remember, it was the act of turning over the tables of the money changers and driving them out that triggered the events that led to Jesus being crucified. Today, the money changers are no longer out in the courtyards. Today, they’re running the Church. Are you following Jesus, or just pimping him?
If you are reading this and consider yourself to be “straight,” I would like for you to do a little experiment with me. I want you to find a quiet place, calm your mind and think back. Think back as far as you are able. Try to recall your very earliest memories as a young child. What is the earliest birthday party you can remember? Perhaps your earliest memory is of a Christmas or a Holiday or some special event involving your parents. Were you given Pabulum as a young child? Perhaps you remember the slightly sweet taste of a teething biscuit?
While you’re time travelling through the memories in your mind, try and remember the day you decided to be “straight.” Can you do it? Was there some point in time where, if you’re male, you decided you were attracted to females? If you’re a female, was there some point in time you decided to be attracted to males? I have thought long and hard. I have plumbed my memories and I can remember events that happened before I was two years old. Try as I might, I cannot recall ever deciding to like females. Thus has it ever been. I have never been attracted to other men. I have always been attracted to females. It was never a choice. It was simply who I am.
When a person who is homosexual says to me, “I have always been attracted to the same sex,” I find it difficult to dispute them. My own personal experience doesn’t provide a foundation permitting me to make such an argument. No amount of fasting, prayer or restorative therapy will ever make me attracted to another man. Can’t be done. If your experiences are different, please leave a comment. I would like to hear from you.
Homosexuality In Nature
One of the main “non-Biblical” arguments against homosexuality is that it is unnatural. After all, in order to produce offspring, unless a species is capable of asexual reproduction, requires the mating of a male and female of the species. No argument there. Yet, homosexuality has been observed amongst a host of species. Mammals, Birds, Fish, Reptiles and Amphibians. If it occurs in nature, it must be natural. To wit: If you believe that God created all things, you have unimpeachable evidence that God created homosexual creatures. If not, who did?
Misunderstanding The Sodom and Gomorrah Story
Wonder Why You Never Hear This In Church???
Ask almost any “fundamentalist” Christian worth his salt, “why were Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed,” and you’ll get the answer, “because of their homosexuality.” It is a Bible story usually introduced in Sunday School. We have Abraham bargaining with God to save the city because of his nephew Lot. You have God sending his “Angels” to get Lot out of the city. You have the men of the city spotting the Angels and wanting to “know” them. Took me some years to fully understand exactly what that meant. You’ve got Lot his wife and daughters being rushed out of the city in the very nick of time. Lot’s wife looks back and gets turned into a “pillar of salt” and so on.
Child abuse?
All in all a very interesting story. The bottom line is, homosexuality is so bad, Almighty God came down to wipe not one, but two entire cities off the face of the earth. Even the act of looking back to see the devastation cost Lot’s wife her life. The term we use today for homosexual sex is “Sodomy” and comes directly from that story. Seems like case closed. God hates homosexuals and the Westboro Baptist Church is right! But what if our takeaway from that story is wrong? What if we’ve had it completely wrong for several 1,000 years?
What’s this? According to Ezekiel – he lived a lot closer in time than we do – says that homosexuality had nothing to do with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Were there homosexuals in Sodom? No doubt there were. There have always been homosexuals. There were homosexuals before the “Great Flood of Noah,” and there are homosexuals after the Flood right up to today. Homosexuality, at one time was a part of Greek culture. If God hated homosexuality, why didn’t he wipe out the Greeks?
Based on what Ezekiel says, God hates people who don’t show kindness and take responsibility for those less fortunate than them. In the Book of Matthew, Jesus gives his Disciples the “Cliffs Notes” for the final Judgement. He goes into quite a bit of detail on what all the nations will be judged on. You can read it in Matthew 25:31-46. Not once does a person’s religion or even whether or not they believe in God come up. In fact, none of the creeds or beliefs so important in distinguishing between the various Christian denominations seem to matter at all! What does matter is how youtreated the poor, the hungry, the naked, the homeless, those in prison and the sick. Thus, according to Jesus, salvation is not based on saying “the sinner’s prayer.” It’s not based on joining a church or winning converts. It is certainly not based on how much money you give to a church!
Seems pretty cut and dried doesn’t it? Thus sayeth the Lord God! Case closed! Those who believe the Bible always follow whatever God decrees right? Well, it seems there’s some wiggle room. For example, every Sunday around 3 pm, you can go to any Red Lobster Restaurant and you’ll see families dressed in their Sunday finest enjoying a meal together after having attended Sunday morning service. There’s nothing like a hot succulent lobster tail and a side of crab legs with some drawn butter. The only problem is, according to your Bible, eating shell fish is also an “abomination.”
If we work on the theory that an abomination is an abomination, is one abomination worse than the other? Unless your preacher suffers from an allergy to shell fish, I can pretty much guarantee that he or she has enjoyed lobster and crab. Matter of fact, you may have actually been present with him or her and partaken of these abominations right along with them.
There are a lot of things the Bible forbids that you do everyday and think nothing of it. Do you wear clothes that are made from blended fabrics? Cotton and Wool? Do you have a home garden? Did you plant more than one vegetable in it? These things are forbidden by God.
The same book in the Bible that calls homosexuality an abomination, also calls eating shell fish and abomination, forbids wearing garments made from blended fabrics and prohibits planting more than one type of vegetable in your garden. Go to your closet and check the tags on your clothes. More like than not, you’ve been sitting in church wearing fabrics that God forbids. You probably never gave it a second thought. However, when the subject of homosexuality is raised, you probably become righteously indignant! “Those people are going to Hell if they don’t stop what they’re doing and get right with God!” Question: “Are they going to the same Hell you’re going to for eating shell fish or wearing blended fabrics?”
Homosexuality In The Church
Where would the Church be without the contribution of Homosexuals? I spent the first 30 years of my life deeply ensconced in a fundamentalist, Pentecostal church. Let me add a bit of flavor to what that meant.
If you weren’t baptized – you were going to Hell.
If they didn’t say the right words when they baptized you – yep, Hell.
If you didn’t have the charismatic experience (speaking in tongues) – Hell.
If you went to a movie theater – you were going to Hell.
Women who wore make-up, jewellery, pants – going to Hell. (Seems women had quite a few prohibitions.)
If you didn’t pay your tithes (on your gross) – going to Hell.
If you went to dances (like you school prom) – yep, Hell.
If you listened to secular music (rock, jazz R&B) – ticket to Hell.
If you didn’t confess all your sins (masturbation included) – Hell.
I could go on, but I’m sure you get the picture. So needless to say, for the first 30 years of my life, I didn’t like homosexuals… at all! As far as I was concerned, they were demon possessed deviants whom you should keep your children away from at all costs. Of course, this created more than a little conflict because most of those whom I suspected were homosexual and many whom were confirmed as being homosexual later, were in the Church.
Rev. James Cleveland could bring a congregation to its feet
They were in the music department. They played the church organ or piano like nobody’s business and could bring the congregation to their feet or move them to tears. They sung in the choir and could lead a song that would almost cause you to see the sky roll back and offer a glimpse of heaven. They served on the “Usher Board” and in later years I discovered that some were in the pulpit preaching.
Because these people were “in the church,” I was duty bound to accept them. After all, clearly God had forgiven them and their past lives were “Under The Blood.” All their sins had been washed away – not their effeminate ways… clearly – but the behaviours were gone. At least that is the way things were supposed to work. However, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck!
I knew of one gentleman whom if I called his name, some of my readers would know him. He got in church, married, raised a family, sung in the choir, was active on the usher board and then one year, he wrote his wife a 7 page letter and was gone. After years of being in the church, he had to acknowledge whom he truly was. The tragedy was, in his efforts to conform and become someone he was not, he took a wife and fathered children. They were devastated when he left.
Jason Collins
That is the other thing we don’t seem to talk about. NBA player Jason Collins came out as being Gay. That doesn’t bother me. However, imagine the surprise of his ex-fiancée! She dodged a bullet there! This is what happens when society – the Church included – demand that people conform to what we consider to be normal. People do try to fit in. In their effort to fit in, many times they will get married thinking that this will change them. It does not. At this point, they’ve now brought someone else into their lives under misapprehension.
“Pastor Ted” they called him.
Another example is Ted Haggard. Married with a family. Pastoring a thriving church and elected to lead the National Association of Evangelicals. Presumably he led many a person to Jesus Christ. Yet, he was living a lie. He was “bearing false witness” to whom he really is. It all fell apart and he lost everything when it came out that he had been having a three year sexual relationship with his masseuse who also had been supplying him with Crystal Methamphetamine. No doubt the psychological pain of trying to be someone he was not, caused the need to self-medicate.
Bishop Eddie Long
Bishop Eddie Long is another example of a prominent preacher’s fall from Grace. Bishop Long could fire up his congregation and have people falling out, knocking over seats and running to the altar ready for salvation. The man is gifted. He built New Birth Missionary Baptist Church from 300 members into what at one time was a 25,000 member “Mega-Church.” Married with children yet, hiding his homosexuality. It all came crashing down when 4 young men came forward charging that Bishop Long had been having sex with them. He had plied them with expensive gifts, cash money and trips. Forget about his church and congregation for a moment, imagine how his wife and children must have been shattered. Again, another example of someone “bearing false witness” to whom they truly are.
Bishop Carlton Pearson is another example of how homosexuality can affect a ministry. I have heard nothing that indicates to me that Bishop Pearson is Gay or even has those tendencies. His problem is that after reading and studying his Bible, he concluded that the Church has had it wrong for 2,000 years. He was branded a heretic because he began teaching that nobody is going to Hell. He calls this “The Gospel of Inclusion.” What? No Hell??? How will the Church make any money?
Bishop Carlton Pearson. Ostracised because he wouldn’t put Gay people in Hell?
After being kicked out of the church he had been affiliated with and losing everything, a church that ministered to homosexuals asked him to come. This church wasn’t ministering to homosexuals from the standpoint of telling them they were going to Hell or living in sin. They were ministering to them from the standpoint of validating their humanity and reinforcing to them that God loved them equally. Bishop Pearson’s ministering to them was equivalent to burning his bridges with the Pentecostal fundamentalist organizations he was a member of. Heretic for life!
The peculiar thing is, if one believes that homosexuality is an anathema to God, shouldn’t the Church be reaching out to them in a loving and effective way? Clearly the Church hasn’t been real successful in curing homosexuality. Possibly because it isn’t a disease? Of course, they haven’t made much progress in getting Preachers to stop eating lobster and crab either.
The case of Pastor Donnie McClurkin is interesting. Pastor McClurkin has shared his testimony of being healed by the power of God from being homosexual. In his youth he was the victim of homosexual sexual molestation. Evidently this caused him to become a homosexual for a period of time. Then, praise God, he met Jesus and Jesus cured him of his homosexuality. Pastor McClurkin is one of those people who can sing you into heaven. He even moves me and that’s saying something! One of his biggest hits as a Gospel Recording Artist is a song called, “We Fall Down But We Get Up.” He sings that song with the power and the feeling that in my opinion only comes from experience. When he sings about falling down, I have no idea what is in his mind as he sings it, all I know is he’s not singing from theory. He’s singing from the depths of his experience.
Pastor McClurkin at the time of this writing is not married. Perhaps being married is not his calling…
It’s Time For The Church To Come Out Of Its Closet
Before you can get someone “saved” you must first get them lost!
Homosexuality in the Church is almost guaranteed by the way the “Plan Of Salvation” is presented. I’m speaking from the perspective of a man. “Before you can get someone saved, you must first get them lost.” Not only lost, but you have to convince males of their own inadequacy to cope with life’s problems. Whether true or false, it is the nature of men to embrace at their core, the belief in their own self-sufficiency. A man in order to survive must believe in his own self-reliance. His ability to protect himself and those he loves.
In order to convince a man of the need for salvation, the Church must tear this down. It must convince a man that he is notself-sufficient, that he is lost and does not know the way to where he wants to go. In essence to get a man “saved” the Church must first emasculate him. The men most susceptible to this are those men who already possess a fragile sense of their own masculinity. The message of the Church resonates with this type of man more powerfully than it resonates with men who are comfortable in their own masculinity. Thus it should be no surprise that so many men in the Church – those who were not brought up in the Church – are often struggling with their sexuality.
Jesus loves the little children doesn’t mean what the Catholic Church thinks it means.
When we attempt to suppress our nature, the pressure continues to build until we finally explode. Often this explosion causes much more damage and devastation than had we simply embraced whom we are in the first place. The Catholic Church is dealing with a veritable plague of paedophile priest. They’ve added to their problem by taking the position that their priest must remain celibate. Thus they’re attracting men to their priesthood who are comfortable not being married. What could possibly go wrong?
If my wearing these made you think I was a doctor, you’d be deceived.
When people attempt to portray themselves as other than what they truly are – no matter how well intended – they are bearing a false witness to those around them. They are lying in word and or in deed regarding whom they truly are. I have never even darkened the hallway of a medical school. If I went out and purchased a white lab coat and bought a stethoscope, I might look the part of a medical doctor. However, if you came to me for advice to cure an ailment, even though the advice I gave might be sound, you would still be taking your life into your hands. Eventually, my charade would catch up with me… most probably at the expense of some poor soul who put their trust in the fact that I looked like a doctor.
So, what can be done about homosexuality in the Church? First, let us admit that it is present. Denial is not a river in Africa. The Church only has two choices that I can see. It either must purge itself of all homosexuals – in essence launch a modern inquisition – or it must embrace them and allow them to be whom they are openly. The first option will undoubtedly result in the destruction of the Church. The second option leaves open the possibility that if God changes people, then God will change them in his own time and his own way. I can imagine little worse than a person who is homosexual joining a church and believing themselves to be “cured,” getting married and starting a family only to realize that they are actually still a homosexual.
Tis the season we celebrate the Spring Equinox. Of course thanks to the Catholic Church, most people call it Easter. In point of fact the Spring Equinox occurred on March the 20th, but hey! We’re close enough.
Easter is the celebration – helluva thing to celebrate – of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. “Good Friday” marks his death and “Easter Sunday” marks his resurrection. Each year preachers compete to tell the story in new and more profound ways. I’m not going to compete with them, but I will point out a few rather glaring problems with the entire account.
Problems With The Crucifixion Story
The first glaring problem is the actual historical reason Jesus was supposed to have been crucified. That form of capital punishment was generally reserved for the really bad actors. According to Biblical accounts, Jesus wouldn’t qualify for crucifixion by a long shot. He certainly hadn’t murdered anyone. He had not led or been involved in a revolt against Rome. If they merely wanted to kill a Jew, there certainly was no need to go to the expense – nails were expensive – of building a cross and tacking him up. They could just as easily have run him through with a sword and been done with it.
What we do know according to the Bible is that above his head, they hung a sign which read, “King Of The Jews.” The whole point of crucifixion was that it be an extremely effective form of societal control. You walked by, looked up and read the offense the person had committed and immediately became convinced that you probably wanted to avoid repeating whatever that poor soul had done. This is why when a person was crucified, they remained on the cross until they started to rot. The smell was also part of the process. It served to get your attention.
If being or claiming to be the “King of the Jews” was a capital offense, shouldn’t King Herod have been tacked up beside Jesus? After all, he actually was the “King of the Jews.” If Rome had a problem with there being a “King of the Jews,” Herod would have been crucified long before Jesus.
Then there’s the problem of Jesus being removed from the cross on the same day he died. Remember what the whole point of the exercise was. Crucifixion was not a trivial form of execution. Once the Romans went to the trouble to tack you up… you stayed there. Thus, the story is rather suspect to say the least.
Of course, this brings us to the whole “3 days and 3 nights” prophecy. If Jesus was indeed crucified and buried on “Good Friday” and resurrected “Easter Sunday Morning,” You have a very difficult time getting 3 days and 3 nights out of that time span. You’ll find these and other Biblical errors explored in my article, “Biblical Errors – Why The Bible Is Not God’s Word.”
Holy Shroud – Holy Fake?
Your first clue as to the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin is that the Catholic Church refuses to declare it as authentic. Given all the other – sometimes questionable – miracles they’ve documented, the fact they’re not willing to declare the Shroud of Turin the authentic burial shroud of Jesus should tell you something.
Antipope Clement VII
This might have something to do with the fact, when it first made it’s official appearance in Lirey, France in 1390, Bishop Pierre d’Arcis wrote a memorandum to Antipope Clement VII, stating that the shroud was a forgery and that the artist had confessed. Thus from its very inception, it was found to be a forgery. They discovered the artist who created it and he confessed to having done it. Ordinarily this would be enough and we could close the books on this matter. If only it were that simple… Once faith and belief get involved, the human propensity for ignoring facts in an effort to alter reality to fit their faith can be overwhelmingly powerful. Of course it doesn’t hurt any, that you can make a lot of money putting it on display.
Science Weighs In
Radiocarbon Dating
In 1988 the Catholic Church agreed to allow the Shroud to be subjected to “Radio Carbon Dating.” Knowing that the Shroud had been damaged in a fire they took pains to select a portion of the cloth that was away from the site of any repairs and patches. To wit: they took pains to test a piece of the original cloth. Since this test is destructive, they divided the swath of cloth they were permitted to test and sent it to three different labs. Labs at the University of Oxford, the University of Arizona, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology concluded with 95% confidence that the shroud material dated to 1260–1390 AD. This of course makes it about 1,000 years too young to have been the burial shroud of Jesus. Nevertheless, if you don’t like what one group of experts says, keep shopping until you find some experts who will say what you want them to.
Putting faith ahead of reality always ends poorly.
There have of course been later experts who have attempted to impugn the protocols of the original tests, even though they were not involved with those tests, nor were they present to have witnessed any flaws in how the science was conducted. Thus they are in essence proffering opinions about something they simply do not know. Because carbon dating is a destructive test – the sample is destroyed – the Catholic Church is not letting them cut any more pieces of the Shroud. Of course, this hasn’t seemed to present a problem because they’ve theorized that the piece selected for testing “must have been from an invisible repair.” It is this same type of thinking that causes people to fall for those Nigerian scam artists. They so want to believe that someone they’ve never met, picked their email address at random and wants to share 20% of $32 million dollars with them. They focus on the hope and ignore the reality.
Notice Anything Odd About The Image?
Max Von Sydow as Jesus in “The Greatest Story Ever Told.”
I’m not talking about the reverse photographic negative effect. That is simply a by-product of the process. I’m talking about the ethnic genotype of the face. The face on the Shroud is that of a white European, not a Semitic person. As a matter of fact, it does bear a striking resemblance to Max Von Sydow’s portrayal of Jesus in the movie “Greatest Story Ever Told.”
“Real Face Of Jesus” from the Popular Mechanics project.
In point of fact Popular Mechanics commissioned a study a few years back on “The Real Face of Jesus.” They used forensics and genome typing to come up with a face that matched that of a Jewish male living in that area at that time. Did they come up with what Jesus actually looked like? Of course not. However, the face they came up with is a lot more realistic than any of the white European depictions that are so popular today.
At that time in history, the only Europeans in the area were the Greeks and the Romans. Jesus was neither. Since the Bible goes to great length to give Jesus’ genealogy, if the Bible is correct, Jesus had no European ancestry in his lineage. If the face on the Shroud was actually Jesus’ face or even the face of a Semitic person, it would not resemble the face of a European from the middle ages.
Miraculous Deception
One of the main arguments of Shroud proponents has to do with how the image got on the Shroud. Never mind the fact that the Bible forbids worshipping graven images, according to these people, the last miracle Jesus performed was taking a rather unflattering photograph of himself at the very moment of his resurrection. You hear such things as there was a burst of resurrection energy that imprinted the image of Jesus on the cloth.
They point to such things as the lack of brush strokes, claiming this as proof no human hand could of produced the Shroud. As you know, the only options available to artist back then were paints and brushes. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. We are always quick to assume, that we are more advanced, have better technology, know more than our ancestors did. I’m still waiting for someone to conclusively prove how the Pyramids were constructed, how stone was cut and how stones weighing tons were moved at a time when the hardest metal they supposedly had was copper and they had yet to invent the wheel. Perhaps they knew some things we have yet to discover today?
Modern reproduction of the Shroud of Turin. It has all the same features.
The fact is, the Shroud is easily reproducible today, using the tools and techniques available in 1390. No resurrection energy required. The image has all the same characteristics. It is a negative and when photographed produces a positive image. Since the fellow used as the model is still alive, and doesn’t have the power to walk on water or raise the dead, I think it’s safe to say he’s pretty normal and fairly average.
by Benjamin T. Moore, Jr.
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