As seen on a sign on the Salvation Army in my town.
As my friend aptly snapped, “Oh yes, all the fighting in the Middle East would stop right this minute if everyone there just embraced Jesus.”
This is probably the sentiment that pisses me off the most. Yes kids, every single problem, no matter how complex, can be fixed with Jesus! War that won’t end? Inject a little Jesus into the mix and watch those doves fly! Unbefuckinglievable scenes of slaughter in crushingly poor countries? Well, they don’t have enough Jesus there. Problems in predominantly Christian countries? It’s those dangblasted nonbelievers. Or, alternately, our Christian community has minor altercations, while your Godless neighborhood has deep-seated rivalries, confrontations and could use a little Jesus.
If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone say something like this, I’d drop out of college and go ballooning around the world.
I had a lot more insults lined up for the sign, but then it occurred to me that the sign could be an ironic musing on what it’s like not to be a Christian in a backwater shit crater like the one I’m living in. “No Jesus? NO PEACE FOR YOU!”
I love it how they make Jesus sound like a pinch of spice. “Ooh, that’s not looking well. Add some Jesus to the mix and it will be tasty and pleasing!”
I would have thought that to be beneath you, Zev. Were I to massacre people declaring that it was in your name, would that mean that without you, the world would be a better place?
Yeah. I recall comments made in my family when I was a child, to the extent that Ireland was 70% Catholic and 30% Protestant, and there was even a Christian or two.
(No offense to the Irish Dopers present – but I trust you see the point to the irony.)
The truth is that if more people really took to heart the teachings of jesus (or most religions for that matter) and lived a life like jesus lived there probably would be MORE peace than there is in the world today.
Mainly because we’d be “loving our neighbors as ourselves”. and living the “greatest commandment” which is “to love one another”
To me, the phrase “No Jesus, No Peace” doesn’t immediately translate to “Follow Jesus and everything is perfect”. The other half of the No Jesus, No Peace is Know Jesus, Know Peace. I know Jesus, and I’ve studied his teachings for a long long time. They bring me a great deal of peace within myself that I try to project on others. The love and peace and teachings I find in Christ is why I don’t blow up abortion clinics, or kill myself in suicide bombings, or rob banks, or what have you. It’s given me my personal set of morals and beliefs.
I can’t believe how quick everyone is to paint Christians with the widest “idiot, blind, backwater, stupid, sanctimonious” brush that they wouldn’t dare use on any other culture. It’s so fun and easy to make fun of Christians that I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by it anymore.
Remind me to market my “We’re Not All Like That” t-shirts to a wide audience.
His teachings were nothing special: be nice, love your neighbor, and so on. Jesus’s mission wasn’t to teach, but to die and rise again.
Jarbaby, in case you hadn’t noticed, the majority of Christians in the U.S. ARE blind, backwater, stupid, and sanctimonious idiots. Think John Ashcroft.
Sure, there are a lot of kind, loving folk who believe in Jesus, like you and Polycarp, but waaayyyy too many are voting for antigay legislation, trying to ban Harry Potter and the teaching of evolution, and generally acting as if God were a Republican. Too many Christians I have met have a smug “I’m better than you are 'cos Jesus likes me and He hates you” attitude that makes want to slap the white right off them.
In U.S. Christianity, there are about 10 John Ashcrofts to 1 Polycarp: the world would be a lovelier place if the ratio were reversed.
If you do really seek out the teachings of Jesus, you will Know Jesus and Know Peace. But I have to say that the complained of phrase “No Jesus, No Peace” is extraordinarily offensive to me. Frankly, it reads like a threat to people who do not worship in a certain way.
A lifetime of living as a gay man. Try it sometime.
The swell of support for antigay legislation.
Ditto for John Ashcroft from the evangelicals.
Book bannings.
Creationism.
The popularity of the Left Behind series.
I’m not going to debate, you, Yosemitebabe.. In 40 years, I and other gay folk have put up with an enormous amount of crap from Christians, and I need not justify my opinions to you or anyone else.
Are all Christians jerks? Of course not. Do the majority of Christians in the U.S. live lives that reflect the influence of the Holy Spirit? Not in my view.
I am not engaging in simple-minded Christian bashing. I know, AS I SAID IF YOU BOTHERED TO READ MY PREVIOUS POST, that there are good, kind folk out there in the church. They are in the minority.
The Pharisees are running the church, not the apostles.
