But serious questions can be raised about this perspective, questions raised by the text of the folktale itself. For one thing, many readers over the years have felt that God is not to be implicated in Job’s suffering; after all, it is Satan who causes them. But a close reading of the text shows that it is not that simple. It is precisely God who authorizes Satan to do what he does; he could not do anything without the Lord directing him to do it. Moreover, in a couple of places the text indicates that it is God himself who is ultimately responsible. After the first round of Job’s sufferings, God tells Satan that job ‘persists in his integrity, although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason’ (Job 2:3). Here it is God who is responsible for Job’s innocent suffering, at the Satan’s instigation. God also points out that there was ‘no reason’ for Job to have to suffer. This coincides with what happens at the end of the tale, when Job’s family comes to comfort him after the trials are over, showing him sympathy ‘for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him’ (Job 42:11).
- Bart Ehrman, God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question—-Why We Suffer, Ch 6, p. 167-8
The narrator then moves to a heavenly scene in which the ‘heavenly beings’ (literally: the sons of God) appear before the Lord, ‘the Satan’ among them. It is important to recognize that the Satan here is not the fallen angel who has been booted from heaven, the cosmic enemy of God. Here he is portrayed as one of God’s divine council members, a group of divinities who regularly report to God and, evidently, go about the world doing his will. Only at a later stage of Israelite religion (as we will see in chapter 7) does ‘Satan’ become ‘the Devil,’ God’s mortal enemy. The term the Satan here in Job does not appear to be a name so much as a description of his office: it literally means ‘the Adversary’ (or the Accuser). But he is not an adversary to God: he is one of the heavenly beings who report to God. He is an adversary in the sense that he plays ‘devil’s advocate,’ as it were, challenging conventional wisdom to try to prove a point.
- Bart Ehrman, God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question—-Why We Suffer, Ch 6, p. 165
Most people who read Job do not realize that the book as it has come down to us today is the product of at least two different authors, and that these different authors had different, and contradictory, understandings of why it is that people suffer.
- Bart Ehrman, God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question—-Why We Suffer, Ch 6, p. 162
what if church was called jesuscon
#That would require more people to be familiar with what Jesus said, and familiar with the rest of the “good book”, so there could be interesting debates and discussions.
#Because sometimes I feel like many debates on Christianity consist of people quoting approximately 5 to 10 verses out of the entire Bible.
PSA: Roman Catholicism is a denomination of Christianity. I’m not even Christian, and have many disagreements with the religion, but it always bothers me when people are taking about religions, and in their list is “Christians and Roman Catholics”, in which they are often using “Christian” as a synonym for “Protestant”. I mean, seriously, as wrong as the Roman Catholic Church is on lots of stuff … you can’t really honestly say they’re not Christian.
A while ago, I read John Granger’s Harry Potter’s Bookshelf: The Great Books Behind the Hogwarts Adventures. I enjoyed many things about it, but there was some things I did not like.
As I was looking at the book again and contemplating writing a review, I found something I just wanted to comment on here. (Maybe I’ll turn it into a more organized and detailed essay at some point.)
In chapter five, Granger quotes the following passage from a Time article about J. K. Rowling as a Runner-Up for Person of the Year (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/personoftheyear/article/0,28804,1690753_1695388_1695436,00.html).
“[Y]ou can tell how much this all matters to her, if it weren’t already clear from her 4,100-page treatise on tolerance. ‘I’m opposed to fundamentalism in any form,’ she says. ‘And that includes in my own religion.’”
In response to this, Granger writes —- among other things —- the following:
“Like most of us, Ms. Rowling’s religion, qua postmodernism is being ‘opposed to fundamentalism in any form.’ She misuses the word ‘fundamentalism,’ which refer to a set of beliefs held by a specific, historic sect of Protestant Christians, the way most everyone else does, that is, a synonym for ignorant, prejudiced people who are intolerant of any beliefs their than their own. She, of course, overlooks the irony that she is talking about these evil fundamentalist folk the way Death Eaters talk about Muggles.” (John Granger, Harry Potter’s Bookshelf, Ch 5, p. 88)
~~~~~
#NO. Just NO. #JKR criticizing fundameantalism is NOT the same as what Death Eaters say about Muggles.
#There’s a reason why ‘fundamentalism’ has taken on a broader meaning than the original —- because there are people in other religions with similar beliefs (who also treat their holy books as being perfect, for example). #And the reason the word has taken on a negative connotation is because of common negative beliefs among fundamentalist Christians and among fundamentalists of other religions. #I mean, if you think a book is perfect, and that book says horrible things about people of other religions, you can’t really be surprised if the end result is negative. #Also, often, part of the belief is that only members of their own religion (or maybe only members of their religion and a few select others who are given special exceptions) will be able to go to Heaven.
#And this type of religion, including the Christian form, has done (and is continuing to do) a great deal of harm to many people —- including people of other religions, women, and LGBTQIA people.
#So, no, saying you are ‘against fundamentalism’ isn’t ‘talking about these evil fundamentalist folk the way Death Eaters talk about Muggles’.
#Being a Muggle is not harming anyone else. #Too often, people’s fundamentalist beliefs are inspiring them to harm other people.
#This was one of my big complaints about the book. In the chapter that is supposed to be about the message of tolerance in the story, Granger totally does not give it the same fair analysis like he does with other aspects of the series in some of the other chapters. He doesn’t go into detail analyzing other books with similar themes, like he does in some of the earlier chapters of his book.
#He’s dismissive of the message of tolerance and its importance. He makes it seem like part of the reason JKR uses tolerance in her story is because believing in tolerance is considered really important in our “postmodern” society and we get anti-discrimination messages everywhere. This ignores problems of prejudice that still exist, which could also inspire someone to write such a story. It also ignores the fact that part of the reason so many people like the books is because we are discriminated against in the real world and like a story with a message against that. (So, no, it’s not that we get that anti-discrimination message everywhere; it’s that we’re glad to find the books which have that message because prejudice still exists in the real world.)
#And he then uses the rest of the chapter to preach.
A popular passage from Galatians 3:28: ‘there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus,’ is often mistaken for an egalitarian avowal. It signifies quite the opposite. Paul is simply dismissing wordly inequalities as being of no great moment, urging his followers to focus on the higher, ethereal equality we presumably enjoy in God’s eyes. One’s station in life matters not, for God loves all equally as one—-but with a love that leaves earthly hierarchies intact, no matter how unjust they be.
-
Michael Parenti, God and His Demons, Part I, Ch 4, p. 47 (e-book)
#This is what I was thinking when I read Galatians, and while reading Parenti’s book, I was glad to see that he points it out.
25 And the Lord spake unto the Angel that guarded the eastern gate, saying Where is the flaming sword which was given unto thee?
26 And the Angel said, I had it here only a moment ago, I must have put it down some where, forget my own head next.
27 And the Lord did not ask him again.
- Good Omens (Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett)
(Source: discreetmath)
the pope will be selected from the goblet of fire
It will select Hermione Granger, and when people object to the equal rights reforms she wants to make, they won’t be able to kick her out because the Goblet of Fire constitutes a binding magical contract.
(Source: holyrick)
canon jesus is way cooler than fanon jesus
canon jesus was a sassy middle eastern guy who literally said “did i fucking stutter” and hung out with prostitutes
fanon jesus is just some boring white guy who sits around hugging lambs
#I don’t mean to be all negative about this (considering I responded to something similar recently), but as I find religion a fascinating topic, I wanted to respond.
#First, I don’t really get it, because the version of “fanon” Jesus on encounters in conversations really depends on who one’s talking to. There are so many different versions of Jesus that people believe in.
#Second, I think that the whole idea that canon Jesus is actually awesome is actually not canon, but just another version of fanon. I feel like our society doesn’t want to acknowledge that there is so much conflicting content in the Bible about Jesus. Sometimes, people acknowledge differences between the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and the New Testament, or between Jesus and other parts of the Bible, but I feel like people like to pretend that Jesus was totally great, even if other parts of the Bible might have some bad stuff.
See also Greta Christina’s “The Messed-Up Teachings of Jesus” and “Eternal Fire: What Jesus Says in the Gospels About Hell”
“The Messed-Up Teachings of Jesus” —- http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2008/06/30/the-screwed-up-teachings-of-jesus/
“Eternal Fire: What Jesus Says in the Gospels About Hell” —- http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2007/08/15/eternal-fire-wh/
(Source: morristibbs)
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