In a little stable, not far from Jerusalem a baby boy was born on the eve of midwinter to the family of a humble carpenter. The parents of the newborn boy headed for the border of Egypt to seek sanctuary and shelter, because in those days many, many children were killed by the soldiers of Israel, at the behest of their ruler. The escape attempt, however, came to no avail, for the border was closed. As were all other routs, that would have saved the little family. There they remained at the mercy of a raging enemy, who were so indiscriminate in their vengefull killing spree to destroy a vile enemy, that they even killed their own unarmed civillians who had been held hostage by their enemies.
Unlike most of their neighbours, this family of our story was Christian, but did the Christians of the world come to their aid? No, most of them were all too busy building fences to stop anyone in need of help from getting into their countries, because that was what Jesus really meant, when he told his followers to sell all their property and give the money to the poor.
For years this family had suffered abuse and exploitation, as their grandparent’s olive trees were cut down by a bunch of squatters and their house was raised to ground. Now in the rubble of their home town, that had first been turned into a ghetto and a prison, it was finally over. God had given the ancestral land of this small family, to some chosen people who had been promised it thousands of years ago in a book.
Have a nice yule tide, happy hanukkah, merry christmas, saturnalia, joyous bobunk, quanza, or what ever!
World's Pain 
December 25, 2023 at 3:42 pm
Spot on
January 3, 2024 at 1:09 pm
I am no writer of stories, nor an actual author of literacy, like you my friend. And I frequently fail at my attempts at sarcasm, but I try. This subject hit my nerve, when our new populist right-wing government was easily panicked by Putin, as the Russians let few hundred refugees from the Middle-East and Africa to our border. It triggered more or less downplayed Fascism in our society and the border was closed. I say Fascism, altough there are a couple of profilic possible cases of slander pending where the speaker of our parliament has made complaints against people (one is a stand up comedian of all people, if you can imagine) for calling him a Fascist in the former Twitter. It is ironic at least, that the very definition of Fascism holds the will to silence all criticism of the people in power. It is like a king having his jester flogged for calling the king cruel. Now Finland is building this ridiculously expensive fence at our over 1300 km long border with Russia. I can tell you, it would not hold me for longer than half an hour at most, but it will stop natural movement of wild animals, if it ever finishes. The worst result is though, that now some of our right-wing politicians have opened discussion with the notion, that they wish to bend international law of protection, human rights and our own constitution. When critizised by professors and judical system representatives, the politicians have attacked their critics in very low browed and threatening manner. The process has made it very clear to a bunch of young people with ancestry in Africa, that the current government sees them as people “non grata” and combined with the cuts to welfare, this attack on poor immigrants will lead to them feeling ostracised and outsiders in our society and ultimately acting it out. Once again Putin has managed to divide us and make the West look hypocritical. It is that, since despite the Conservatives declaring their “Christian values” at every opportunity, they have nothing in common with Jesus the character of the book and more than they like to admit to themselves with Hitler and Stalin.
January 5, 2024 at 2:21 pm
World history documents Jesus as being poor. He had no place to lay his head. He was outcast and homeless, and dirty. He didn’t have proper care to eat, like washing his hands. They called him a gluten and a drunk because he hang with the poor who was in need. Jesus was the poor and he hang with the poor and needy.
When the time came for Jesus to start his ministry. Jesus gathered disciples together, he begin to preach against sin.
What was sin? What did Jesus preach against?
Jesus’ accomplishments as an adult shows plainly: He broke everyone from the bondage of the Law (taxes) and the world Religion (Levites). He preached that taxes was a sin and those who collected taxes were sinners as well. Those who oppressed the poor where sinners. He was against religion and abolished it. Jesus himself becoming the high priest, a mediator between God and man, therefor cutting everyone spiritual guide in middle out.
Jesus taught this principle in Matthew 23, against two groups that ran the world.
1. Those who teach law, (governments of people)
2. Those who put themselves in Moses seat. ( Spiritual Judges or guides, who stand between God and Mankind, claiming they have a word from God.
These powers in which run our world at current status, are politics, and religion.
These controlling powers oppress the poor by controlling their viewpoints on their beliefs about God, for their own greedy gain.
These two groups – politics and religion killed Jesus for setting the captive free from their taxes and heavy bonds.
Jesus said be careful to obey these two groups. But do not practice what these groups tell you. “this includes Christians that put themselves in Moses seat.”
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This Jesus when he came, he preached repentance. But Jesus was not the author of repentance, his forerunner John the Baptist was.
This John the baptist, he was a rebel against religion.
John was slotted to be a high priest, both of his parents were Levites. John understood religion was oppressing the poor by greed. John was so convinced they were wrong, he refused to live in the temples of gold as they did. Neither would he wear their gay clothing but rather he preached against it.
So, John lived in the woods and did not wear their clothing or eat their foods.
He would call out to them, “repent from your evil ways”.
What where they doing to be sin? (Greed, keeps a man blind from those in need.)
So John the Baptist stood and called them vipers.. Snakes… .because they were oppressing the poor for their own gain.
This is the same repentance Jesus himself excepted by john and lived his life out as such.
The example John set for repentance was to give to the poor. John said, if you have two coats. Give one away. If you have much food see someones need and show your love by feeding someone. You can find this in in Luke 3:11 if you are interested.
Jesus ministry clearly backed this poor/rich concept of where sin exist. Greed being the culprit for sin. The love of money being evil.
And he was killed for it by them.
PS>
My family too has witnessed the horror by the teachings of those calling themselves Christians. Not just witnessed, but have felt the effects of their greed.
Christians of organized religions are blind puppets, dancing to the beat of a drum, with the allusion of being in control.
January 5, 2024 at 4:47 pm
I agree with pretty much all you say, exept for the tiny bit, that “world history documents Jesus”. It actually does not. Jesus, as we know him, is a fictional character in a myth. I personally happen to think the person on whom the myth is based actually lived and said and did much of what the myth tells us (excluding the supernatural stuff, because that is how all historical sources are read, when we want to know what really happened). Including the poverty and opinions about priesthood and wealth you point out. They seem genuine enough and go a long way to explain why the myth was born in the first place. To me, as a researcher of history and pre-history, it is obvious, that the myth most likely started allready during his lifetime and was established as the stories about him were later written down. That explains for example the disparity between the different descriptions of what happened at the empty tomb of Joseph of Arimatea. How many angels were there?
Yet, most people who claim to believe in the myth, do not live according to the advice by Jesus. Even among those who have actually read the book and know what he is said to have said. Not to mention all those, who make the claim at faith, but can not be bothered to read what the book actually says. I find this hypocricy intriguing. How can people delude themselves this way? Is it akin of herd behaviour? Still, it is good to remember, that most of these people are good and well meaning ordinary people.
January 5, 2024 at 5:18 pm
This — “Yet, most people who claim to believe in the myth, do not live according to the advice by Jesus.” — is spot-on!!