It is really galling to me that fire-and-brimstone fundamentalist Christians are always quoting scripture and pretending that their faith is the only genuine one. Well, I have noticed that fundamentalists tend to quote very selectively. Have you noticed? They most often quote the letters of Paul, written by a guy who never met Jesus. If they quote the original gospels at all, it’s ONLY the book of John. And they sure as hell NEVER quote the Sermon on the Mount! It’s like that part doesn’t exist for them.
Fundamentalists say faith is the ONLY thing that saves you, and good deeds matter nothing. Well, just casually paging through my New Testament, I can find lots of passages where Jesus says that if you act a certain way, you’ll go to Heaven.
Fundamentalists say if you don’t profess faith in the instant before you die, you’ll go to Hell forever. Well, how about those passages that call for us to pray for the dead? What’s that for, if they’re already in Hell?
Also, what about the thing about the camel getting through the eye of a needle easier than a rich man getting into Heaven? Fundamentalists NEVER quote that passage. My Republican father says that’s a mistranslation – “camel” is really supposed to be “rope”. (Hmmm, still seems it would be pretty hard…) Well, I have the New American translation, and guess what? It’s still a camel!
And what about that part of the Sermon on the Mount that forbids public prayer and public displays of piety? Seems to me that should stop those street-corner evangelists from shouting at me. It should also stop church services, period.
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*Originally posted by tclouie *
Also, what about the thing about the camel getting through the eye of a needle easier than a rich man getting into Heaven? Fundamentalists NEVER quote that passage. My Republican father says that’s a mistranslation – “camel” is really supposed to be “rope”. (Hmmm, still seems it would be pretty hard…) Well, I have the New American translation, and guess what? It’s still a camel!
The way I heard it was that upon returning to the city or fortress or whatever, those guys and their camels had to enter through a somewhat small opening. The camels had to scrunch down (on their knees?) to do this. Not impossible, but not an easy task.
The “camel through the eye of a needle” is hyperbole, folks. It’s just a literary device to exagerate the degree of difficulty that a rich man has to enter heaven. Sorry, there is no factual basis for camels “scrunching” into Jerusalem.
It is breathtakingly naive to interpret similes and metaphors literally. If one reads of a baseball screaming over the plate, does that mean that sports equipment is sentient?In the gospels, Jesus refers to his followers as sheep; does this mean that Christians are supposed to eat grass and say “baaa” a lot?
I too, love the Sermon on the Mount. However, I don’t seem to recall it “forbidding” anything. You may be thinking of another passage condemning piety for piety’s sake.
“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.” (Shakespeare). You provide a perfect example by citing the “eye of the needle” story without mentioning the rest of it.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Fundamentalists never / heven’t read the Bible, I think that many of them just avoid thinking about it to hard, as thought can lead to questioning, which can lead to uncertainty.
Thought requires energy, uncertainty tests Faith, and many Fundamentalists simply don’t wish to spend the energy to think & examine their faith. Many, I suspect, are in secret fear that their faith is weak, and as such, would rather lash out against anything which might test that faith.
BTW: I’m Christian, and born again. I also question and examine my faith, because to not do so means that I’m failing in my duty to understand my faith. It isn’t always easy, or comfortable, and I have unanswered questions.
The OP is a heckuva easy misinterpretation to make. And the behavior of most evangelical Christians seems to support your point. In point of fact, however, that is not the stance they take.
Please check out any of a wide range of threads on several forums, particularly the Kitchen, at The Pizza Parlor, where a wide range of Christians and other people interested in this sort of debate, explore the issues in question.
Just for the record, Paul is supposed to have met Jesus in a Resurrection appearance to him (see Acts 9ff) and to have been inspired to write the stuff in his letters by the Holy Spirit whom Jesus is, according to Scripture, to have sent to guide the faithful. This does not mean, IMHO, that he got everything precisely right.
But if you really want to get into this sort of stuff in detail, follow that link.
OK, it’s in Matthew 6:5-6, which is part of the Sermon on the Mount. “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites! They love to stand up and pray in the houses of worship and on the street corners, so that everyone will see them. I assure you they have already been paid in full. But when you pray, go to your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you.”
bibliophage – good point. But it seems significant to me that he singled out rich men, not poor men or moderately comfortable men.
If by “wide range” you mean a bunch of mindless fundmanentalists with a handful of Catholics and other real Christians tossed in.
The Pizza Parlor: Where anti-gay hate screeds are “conversation” and WorldNetDaily is actually considered a reputable news source. Spreading bigotry and malice since 2000 AD.
By the same right as the fundamentalist non-Christians claim to decide who is and isn’t Christian, by my own judgement.
If the Baptist bigots can spit on Catholics for having the gall not to be braindead Biblical literalists, then I will more than return the favor.
Fundamentalism is evil to its very core, as are those who support it. That is my position, and if they can spread their filthy lies about Catholics, gays, real Protestants and non-Christians, then I will gladly spit right back in their putrid faces.
