That thing that we all call the “church” was doomed from its inception. Frail, flawed human beings are going to fail, including in their conception and execution of the church. They are going to place themselves first, their wants, their needs, their narrow interpretations of a boundless deity who created a universe so vast we can barely comprehend the size, let alone all that is within it.
And you know, now that I think about it, Jesus didn’t preach creating churches, planting church seeds, none of that. He didn’t demand confessions or tithes or looking down one’s nose at those less “Christian” than he was.
Instead, he taught his disciples to simply spread the good news. And he said where two or more are gathered in my name was sufficient. It didn’t need a building, an organization, a tax break, an organ, a choir, hymnals… none of that. No megachurch, no TV stations, no fake games by the power mad.
And speaking of those power hungry, where I see those things, I see too often people, very often usually men, who seek nothing but power and dominance over others, as well as fame and fortune. Creflo Dollar, anyone? Pat Robertson? Jim Baker? How many people must these con men fleece before your heart awakens to the truth.
What truth? Jesus never needed those men. Neither do you.
Christianity, as religion, is as much a sham as the Old Testament rules were – rules that God gave Israel not because he wanted to but to show Israel that rules alone are never enough.
Maybe Jesus gave us the church to teach us the same thing – that we need to grow up, look past rules, look past the church, and learn to just love. Maybe it’s time to be the adults that Christ and so many other religious leaders have told us to be, to be kind to one another, to cherish one another, to lift up one another.
Because in far too short a time, we will all return to the stardust from which we came. And all that will be left are memories. If you live a life of rigidity, coldness, cruelty, all in the name of some hellfire breathing thunder god from Mt. Ararat, just what sort of memory will you leave? Not one that people will hold to, or cherish, I can guarantee you that.
Liz - Day By Day 
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The Catholic Pope in all his self-proclaimed infallibility boasted this week that no way on his god’s green Earth will there ever be females in any role of authority or responsibility in said church.
Curious.
Women held major roles of authority at the very start – including Mary, but that makes no matter to him and his misogynist minions.
Might this Pope be himself among those their Bible calls a ‘false prophet’?
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Cara:
With your permission allow this addendum.
Your post brought to mind to recall this satire from 10cc: ‘The Second Sitting for the Last Supper’ (‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJp9Nu6Zq80’). I’ve been humming it all day now thanks to you.
=:-)
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Cute, and appropriate. I’d not heard that one before.
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“Maybe Jesus gave us the church to teach us”
It took a while, but I finally noticed the church was busy relating the story of Jesus as a cautionary tale. A kind and just man made the ‘spiritual leaders’ look bad in comparison, so false charges were pressed, into the slammer he went to be tortured. , Hoodlums wrecked any pretense of order at the civil ‘trial’ and away he went to a slow and excruciating death ( it would have been in the usual flow of events ).
So. The king commissioned the Bible. Whose point of view was made abundantly clear and what the state did once it would do again were you silly enough to emulate the protagonist Emmanuel. You really have to love Hegelian dialectic – and hidden messages sitting in plain sight.
I do collect cheerier thoughts than that.
http://oldephartte.blogspot.com/p/beliefwonder-dogma.html