Saturday 26 April 2008

Jesus and Family


Do Xians love their families? According to Jesus, they shouldn't. First he preaches that children who don't honor their parents should be killed - as the OT law says (Matt 15:4-7); but then he contradicts himself: we should not call our fathers dad, since only god can be "father" (Matt 23:9). We should abandon our families for god (Matt 19:29), etc.

In one particularly telling passage Jesus, in Luke 14:26, instructs his followers to hate their father mother wife children brethren and sisters. Wow. It doesn't stop there though. He even says that one must hate oneself in order to be a follower of him. So, how many of you Xians hate yourselves? Is that healthy?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Loving God over our parents is not the same as not loving our parents; as humans love is inevitable. But would our parents get their lungs crushed on a cross to save us? And, if they did, would it not inevitably be the result of a subconscious desire to propogate their genes?

And isn't our love for mummy a subconscious desire to dishonestly accumulate sustenance? Although that means that our love for God is down to the genetic advantage presented by emotional crutches.

So you only love them both because you're a selfish bastard. And, let's face it, one gives you $12 for Christmas and the other gives you eternal paradise. Fuck your mother and go to heaven.

GCT said...

"Loving God over our parents is not the same as not loving our parents; as humans love is inevitable."

Jesus tells us to hate our parents.

"But would our parents get their lungs crushed on a cross to save us? And, if they did, would it not inevitably be the result of a subconscious desire to propogate their genes?"

I believe that some parents would put themselves on a cross to save their children. Whether it's a result of selfish genes wanting to propagate or not is another question.

"And isn't our love for mummy a subconscious desire to dishonestly accumulate sustenance?"

I'm self-sufficient, yet I still love my mom.

"Although that means that our love for God is down to the genetic advantage presented by emotional crutches."

Are you saying that you love god because it's an emotional crutch?

"So you only love them both because you're a selfish bastard. And, let's face it, one gives you $12 for Christmas and the other gives you eternal paradise. Fuck your mother and go to heaven."

Well, considering that you know your mom exists, but you don't know that god exists or that paradise exists, I think the more rational response is to love one's parents. And, I'd rather not engage in Oedipal games. The main point, however, was that Jesus said that one should hate one's family and hate oneself, which you seem not to deny.

Anonymous said...

One of the commandments is to honour thy father and thy mother. And if you don't obey them you go to Hell. But as Abraham "stretched out his hand and took the knife to kill his son" so my scizophrenic mother would do the same.

But when my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.(Psalm 27:10).

I hope you now see how much of a better person than you I am.

GCT said...

"I hope you now see how much of a better person than you I am."

Ah, I see now. It's so hard to tell satire from the real thing when the real thing is so patently ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

You cannot really love someone you cannot have a conversation with. No man can love God, because God not only never speaks, but is incomprehensible, assuming he even exists at all.

Christians hate themselves, hate the world and hate each other (most of the time). How many Christians are at the top in their profession (I'm not talking about being a vicar or missionary)? How many are weak, apathetic, schizophrenic, depressed or unhappy? Or strange? An awful lot!

Humanity has moved on and Christianity should be confined to the waste paper basket. It is irrelevant, contradictory, unverifiable, irrational and absurd.


Jon
At antichurch.co.uk