Zappini

I have grave concerns with the anti-intellectual religious right. I think it'd be really, really helpful if all these pious individuals spent a little more time studying the Sermon on the Mount (from the New Testament, which is mostly about the life and times of Jesus) and a whole lot less time obsessing over the Ten Commandments (from the Old Testament, which has nothing to do with Jesus) and The Rapture.

I also have a hard time understanding any statement to the effect that the Christian Bible is the Word of God, without fault or error. Oh, really? How does that square with the First Council of Nicaea? You know, where competing sects sparred for the emperor's favor and the second place prize was death and irradication. Did all that remything simply not happen? Then how does one explain the Gnostic Bible and Gospel of Thomas?

And, of course, all Christians read the Bible in the original Aramaic, right? If I was obsessed about the True Word of God, I'd probably be very suspicious about any effort to translate or update the text. Seeing how humans are somewhat less than perfect.

Just as an aside, the Muslims have the strongest claim to getting their teachings verbatim straight from the top, without alteration. Even so, some recent archeology raises doubts about even that claim.

Maybe it's just me. But I don't know anything about the form of Christianity that's so prevalent today. It's completely unrecognizeable to me. Hate, fear, judgement, screaming, killing, torture, intolerance, greed, indifference, etc. All cool if done in the name of God. It all seems very unchristian to me. The very opposite of what Jesus was all about.

Of course, with this new unchristianity, questioning the obvious undermines one's faith. Whereas defending the ridiculous strengthens one's faith. So please don't make the rest of us uncomfortable and just play along. Trust us, if you repeat a lie often enough, you'll come to believe it as truth. Voila! The new religious experience.

I was raised Presbyterian (primarily). I had the great fortune of being mentored by two great teachers, Pat Mecham (Newport Pres) and John Shepard (Bellevue First Pres). We were taught that our spirituality was a personal matter. That we are judged more by our works and faith than our words. We certainly didn't run around calling everyone else a sinner and passing judgement. As if any mortal is even qualified to conduct such matters.

Pat probably had the most influence on my worldview and spirituality. Our youth group would study the Bible. We kids would ask all the familiar questions. And Pat would never tell us what to believe. He never claimed to know the truth. He'd just answer the questions as best as he could. He would even readily admit that every day he'd wake up and ask himself if he was a Christian. What that meant. If he really believed all this stuff. That level of candidness, and humility, is incredibly rare. It impressed me tremendously.

Of all the people I've met during this life time, Pat Mecham is one of the very few that I would regard as Christ-like. Not like he's a prophet or anything stupid. But in his commitment to the studying and teaching of the works of Jesus. Pat walked the walk.

I'm not agnostic, atheist, or true believer, or whatever. Mostly because I have no idea what any of that means. All I've got is questions.

I'm not sure if Jesus ever actually existed. Maybe. But nothing near the certainty we have that Mohammed and Buddha existed. If Jesus did exist, I'm pretty sure we'd get along just fine. On my good days, I try to be more like the role model that I imagine a real Jesus would have been. (Everyone who knows me knows just how hard that is for me. I don't do humble very well. Nor convincingly.)

So I've got no quarl with Jesus. It's all those ignorant and hypocritical Christians I can't stand. Best captured by the bumper sticker that says "JESUS SAVE ME (from all of your followers)". That line still cracks me.