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Comte de Sats Germain | 28 days ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag +1 
 I understand that feeling. I resolve it by ignoring the idolotrous Zionism rampant among supposed followers of Christ, and recognize the apparent nature of Jews - they suck. I'm not hating ; in some ways I like them. Jesus chose to enter the world from the lowest point. God chose the absolute worst people on earth to build an ark out of. That makes the story even more powerful. It reminds me of something I heard a real follower of Christ say once : "Christians go low."
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Gojiberra | 28 days ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 I never thought of it like that... Could it be this is the story of the most barbaric people of their time? That's a fascinating story inversion. I always just assumed they were the best of the time and everyone else around them would have been worse.
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Comte de Sats Germain | 28 days ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag +2 
 IMO (gotta recognize the chance I'm wrong) people in churches want to believe their tradition is the best, so that means the Jews must be the best people. Its pride. And pride is the foundation of idolatry. That's the same motivation for believing everything the bible says is literally true. Its definitely not... Almost any part you look at, there is clearly symbolic meaning. To insist on literalism is like giving yourself a lobotomy. IMO. When Jesus said he'd return with the sword, the sword is symbolic. If it was literally true, he wouldn't need a sword, there's an infinite number of ways an omnipotent god can punish people. So what's the symbol? A sword divides this from that. Its the rational mind. A person who denies the rational is denying the world God made. But the repeated lesson the Jews were supposed to learn was, you need both rationality and humility. The two are not opposed - they are actually codependent. Just like how God is both merciful and just - for most people, mercy and justice are opposites and irreconcilable. But there's a better way of seeing it, which is that they're codependent. 

Here's an example : king David orders a census to find out how many men he can round up and send to war. God punishes him by sending an angel to Jerusalem and blow up buildings. Basically God takes the other side in the war. Why? Sending men to die in a war isn't justice or mercy. Justice is leaving the innocent alone, not going to war, seeking nonviolent means to resolve a dispute. Killing people sure isn't merciful. Its also not rational or humble. The whole affair was just a fit of pride. Me me me me me... David was an egotistical asshole. He was a brigand before winning his throne, and then continued to act like a brigand. He has a story arc of character development and he grows into a man with perspective, and wrote the Psalms. So... If you're humble, you can be rational. If you're rational, you can be just. If you're just, you can be merciful. All of these are opposites to the initiate, but one to the experienced person.

So yeah, what I see in the history the Bible presents is the worst people slowly learning not to be so bad. They wrote the stories down, and I think that's a sign of humility, maybe the beginning of a recognition that they did wrong. But that's at odds with an apparent pride, which I see mirrored in Christianity. And look now at what they are doing to Palestinians. Those people haven't gotten to the humility lesson, despite 3k years of learning it. But the Jews that didn't go to Israel are Zionism's biggest critics. Maybe they learned.
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Gojiberra | 28 days ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag +1 
 "what I see in the history the Bible presents is the worst people slowly learning not to be so bad. They wrote the stories down, and I think that's a sign of humility, maybe the beginning of a recognition that they did wrong"

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Gojiberra | 27 days ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag +1 
 I like this very much. David is especially one that I struggled with. I was always on Jonathans side, who basically sidelined himself into death for David's ascendance. David was Such a horrible person  in so many ways, but also one of "God's favorite". It made me realize that I can't judge people. 

it also gave me hope, if David was so bad and he was still able to apologize and be forgiven, maybe I can run around and cut up a bit more... No I'm kidding.
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Comte de Sats Germain | 27 days ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 Maybe you can. I seem to remember a verse saying God doesn't want boring people. Or maybe that's just how I interpreted it... "neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out..." Something like that.