Res Mortua
“What power executed Jesus?”
“The Roman Empire.”
“What was the Roman imperial religion?”
“Paganism. Christianity eventually.”
“And you are Christian?”
“I am.”
“You have chosen the Roman imperial religion?”
“Are you trying to be funny? Look here, Rome converted.”
“What was the change? Was the empire no longer Roman–did the ruling race pass off the scene?”
“No.”
“Then were they no longer an empire?”
“Of course not.”
“And so you belong to the religion of the power that executed Jesus.”
“I am a Christian.”
Careful what you see
The history of human knowledge has been less one of true and false than of truth and lies.
Thou shalt
It is generally accepted — among those who accept Divine Authority — that having heard the Divine Voice is an advantage: that the religious legalist enjoys knowledge and favor above the rest of humankind. But Paul Envoy says that those claiming this advantage may be special mainly in that they are specially cursed among humankind: He writes to the Jews in Rome: “The name of God is defamed among the nations because of you … [who] boast of a Law” — and then most risibly can never keep it.
Just think it
I had a realization today while reading the news. Australia has had a tie in elections to parliament — between the major parties, I mean — and the reporter blithely informs us that this is “the worst possible outcome for the markets”. The economist she interviews, however, says only that the stock markets may drop by as much as a cent in the next few weeks. But here is the realization I had: what a joke to relish it is that the Devil has nowadays got even opinions monetized. He no longer needs to say, Do this or that and I will reward you, but merely, Think this or that and I will reward you. Of course his reward is death, but this is no less a joke to relish.
Chased
How are you advertising your chastity?
Saver
This talisman the Evangelicals flaunt, that they have said words to make Jesus their personal savior, is easily debunked with a little observation.
So Jesus you have contracted as your own personal rescuer? Then what are these bills for house insurance, health insurance? What is this record of your having called the fire department, the police? On this date you begged your banker for a loan. At this meeting you demanded a teacher improve your daughter. You have turned to counselors to keep your marriage and to lawyers gainfully to end it. Every November, you petition governments with votes, and every May, you hang a flag hoping an Army will remember you.
Special
Everywhere I read a Christian writing about God, these days, she seeks miracles. She dwells upon whether God may have intervened in her life in some forgotten way or whether God can be made to intervene in her life in future. Have Christians never read, “A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign”?
Yesterday I even read a pastor declare that, if only he were faced with an event from no explicable cause, he would find it easy to believe God the cause of it. Could he be less logical?
God planned the universe. It revolves at his will by his laws. Were he always to be crossing himself with miracles, surely this would cast doubt on his plan’s prudence.
(And what is so special about a Christian, anyway?)
Church’s book
As long as the church translates scriptures, scriptures are much in danger of sounding like the church.
Safe-and-sound
Alternatively, one can probe the Greek to perceive Paul Envoy’s mood of stern counsel yield to commiseration. I will translate the whole paragraph.
I would have, then, the men, with uplifted holy hands, to pray everyplace, without anger and arguing; and the women, with seemly carriage and cautious and collected minds, to deck themselves not with curls and gold or pearls or costly clothes but, as befits those who profess piety, with good works. Let a wife learn peaceably, in all submission: I do not allow a woman to teach nor to tyrannize a husband, but to be at peace. For Adám was created first, then Eúa; and so Adám was not deceived, yet the woman once wretchedly deceived has been marked the law-breaker— Yet she will come safely through childbirth, if only she remain trusting, loving, and modestly holy; believe me.
Creatrix
One always reads I Tim ii.15 with astonishment. The astonishment can abate if one remembers that “saved” is obsolete English, not properly the revenant that does Evangelicalism’s bidding. But now one is bemused.
I contrived the following catechism as a comment on the passage.
Q. According to the Hebraíc scriptures, what were the results of the human disobedience after creation?
A. Conscience, and mortality.
Q. Can these ills be remedied?
A. Yes, by God’s special gifts mercy and eternal life, as his son Yesús taught and showed.
Q. And what were the punishments with which God cursed humanity for the disobedience?
A. For males, to encounter pain in their labors, and to find nature tend to resist them; and for females, to tend to submit to men, and to encounter pain in childbirth.
Q. Can humanity be rescued from these punishments?
A. Yes: by persisting through the pain, thus to renew the joys of creation. Specifically, males can emerge from the sweat of work with a new bounty, and a subjected Nature; while females can pass through the pangs of childbearing to the reverence of husbands, and a baby.
Exoristos
Porter Doran
Iannes
Epiktetos
Anonymous
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