Reply #78: Best.TShirt.Ever: "Jesus, Save me from your Followers"

[pink-o]

...I saw that on a guy right after the Gay Pride parade a few years ago.

In my old age (53) I've seen Christianity change and mutate in a very scary way. Does anyone remember the show "Highway to Heaven" with Michael Landon? That show was unabashedly there to appeal to those with Christian values, 20-some years ago. It had plot lines like helping the poor, protecting the environment, making compassionate choices--you know, kinda like what Jesus was talkin' about in the Sermon on the Mount. At the time, I thought it was horribly corny and sentimental, but it seem to embody what I would have considered "Christian". And been a protest against the Reagan and 80s greed and selfishness.

Now, a generation later, Christianity is all about denying global warming and screaming at poor people that it's their fault (like living in a sinful city such as New Orleans) and God is punishing them. WTF??? How could someone like Tom Delay get away with saying he's a Christian???

In the interest of full disclosure, I've never seen Jesus as the Messiah, only a dude with a very beautiful philosophy that's basically a fusion of Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism. As the years go on, I realise more and more the mythology of any religion is used as mind control and to keep people oppressed--the exact opposite of what Jesus was about! Also, it's pretty convenient to blame all good and evil on outside sources, when humans need to account for their own acts and not look for divine forgiveness.

But that's just me--Anja the Agnostic. You're free to believe whatever you want--but if you want to open the conversation with me, then rest assured I'll have plenty to say back!

Which is what the OP's message is all about, as I read it.