The Other Jesus

Posted on June 20, 2003 in Crosstalk Morals & Ethics

Lynn’s sparked a debate over whether Catholics are idol-worshippers. I’m not going to rehash the debate except to say that I find current Catholic eucharist theory no more idolatrous and perhaps less so than the practice of modern Fundamentalists who claim to be saved by “admitting Jesus into their lives”, praying for victory in the war against Islam, and reading the Bible for loopholes to justify their meanness and greed.

The more I see Fundamentalists running around attacking others, the more I believe that there must be a second Jesus Christ, other than the one who delivered the Beatitudes. This guy — a real snake oil salesman — sounds like Great Diana of Ephesus; his followers resemble the Roman citizens who told Christians that they were endangering the nation by not making proper sacrifices to the gods.

The Jesus who wraps himself in the flag, supports capital punishment, and rewrites history and geology to suit his own narrow views isn’t Jesus of Nazareth. The Jesus Christ who hates is an imposter living in the hearts of those who have found a clever way of disguising their pagan gods as a red-letter edition book bound in black leatherette.