Sunday, February 20, 2005

Today's Bible lesson for bigots: Love thy neighbor

Matthew 22:36-40 (NRSV)

‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ He said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Note that Jesus did not say "Love thy neighbor if he is white, Protestant, and straight." He says love thy neighbor -- period.

Now, I suspect that some bigots with hate-filled hearts, like that nutcase who goes around protesting "God Hates Fags", will then point to sections in the Old Testament that call homosexuality "abomination". The same sections of Leviticus in the Old Testament also prohibit the eating of pork and shellfish, yet these bigots have no problem eating bacon for breakfast and eating at Red Lobster for dinner. Jesus came to bring a new revelation to the world, a revelation which overrides any contradictory text in the Old Testament. It appears, however, that the bigots will pick and choose only those parts of what Jesus said that they agree with. Which means that they aren't Christians, since Christians are, by definition, followers of Jesus Christ.

Now, personally, I don't like people who lie and claim to be Christians when they really aren't, people like James Dobson who preaches a litany of hatred against anybody who is not a white Protestant like himself, Jimmy Swaggart who claims that all Catholics will go to hell, Jerry Falwell who claimed that 9/11 was retribution from God for loving our neighbor rather than stoning him as abomination, etc. Those are not Christians, because they do not follow the Gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who says that the bedrock of Christianity is love for our neighbor. It's just sad that these sick anti-Christians are allowed to call themselves Christian and, by extension, smear the reputation of all real Christians in the bargain.

- Badtux the Christian Penguin

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