Re: CREATIVITY and CHRISTIANITY

From: Don Kirkman (donkirk_at_covad.net)
Date: 09/05/04 

Date: Sun, 05 Sep 2004 14:25:34 -0700

It seems to me I heard somewhere that Frank M wrote in article
<2puctnFpej90U1@uni-berlin.de>:

[...]

>Q. But wasn't this done by people who were not following Christianity's
>teaching of love? A. Since these killings, tortures, and persecutions were
>carried on by the highest leaders and authorities of the various Churches
>themselves, such as the Popes, by Zwingli, Luther, Calvin, etc., we must

I think you're overgeneralizing if you include Zwingli, Luther, and
Calvin among those who killed, tortured, or persecuted others. Zwingli
was a follower of Luther; they later argued and separated over theology,
Luther wanting to reform the Catholic church from within and Zwingli
more inclined toward breaking away. Calvin wanted to reform Catholicism
among more strictly Biblical principles, which resulted in a complete
split. I don't know of any evidence that any of the three persecuted,
tortured, or killed others, though some of their followers may have done
so (I don't even know about that).

>presume that the teachings of Christianity, which at best are ambiguous,
>contradictory and hypocritical, must be held responsible for producing these
>kinds of people and this kind of insanity. But if we turn to the New
>Testament,
>we find Christ himself dispensing such hateful advice as for exam~e in Luke
>14:26: "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother and wife,
>and children, and brethren and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot
>be
>my disciple." What idiotic and destructive advice!

This is an excellent example of the difficulty of discussing ancient
religious teachings based on modern translations and apart from the
cultural context. The Greek word ascribed to Jesus is indeed often
translated "hate" and is a translation of the Hebrew or Aramaic word
Jesus would have used, but that word, "shanah" in Hebrew, was also used
to mean "to be indifferent to" or "to disregard" something. The point
is not hatred but putting aside other considerations, including family,
to follow Jesus, as is clear from the rest of the context which deals
with making a realistic assessment of what would be involved in becoming
a disciple. 

-- 
Don
donkirk@covad.net