Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Merchandising Religion

Mostly I  think that the WWJD merchandise was an excuse to sell stuff. Sort of like "Testamints." Those were over-priced mints that had Bible verses on the packaging. These were sold in Christian bookstores. There was no real reason to charge the high price. If people were really paying attention to what Jesus did, they would go into the stores selling this kind of shit and turn over the tables. I hope they have not been sold in Churches. That really would have pissed Jesus off. You cannot honestly tell me that Jesus didn't get pissed off. I would say that turning over the tables of money changers and merchants who were ripping people off was one of the signs that he definitely got pissed off. He did not have a lot of patience with hypocrites. I am struggling with faith these days, but I do not think that my saying that God sent me to piss the world off is an unchristian statement. Jesus pissed a lot of people off.
There are a lot of people who ignore the things that Jesus said and did while he was during his life on Earth. Some like to look smug and reduce Christianity to a slogan that will fit on merchandise that can be sold. There are some who want to ignore Jesus' message of love for all people and say that certain groups are excluded. There were some pastors who said that Jimmy Carter was going to go to hell, because he supported same-sex marriage. They claimed that Jesus' ministry was very exclusive. They must have read a different Gospel than the ones I've read, Jesus was criticized for hanging out with tax collectors, prostitutes and sinners. That doesn't sound too exclusive.
There has been a long history of people using verses in the Bible to justify their own prejudices. There were racists who claimed that Black people would not go to Heaven. Fortunately, this view was dropped a long time ago. I am only using this as an example of how the Bible can be misused by people with an agenda.
The Bible is a book not a weapon.

No comments:

Post a Comment