The Opinion "Jesus died for your sins" has itself died, having been gutted with a kitchen knife by professional language assassin Sarah Palin. The Opinion was not quite 1,700 years of age.
The Opinion had enjoyed a very active social life for centuries as it reminded people who were too poor to be wealthy that they had better behave or 1. they would hurt Jesus' feelings 2. they would piss off the old man and be burned in a lake of everlasting fire 3. be diddled by a Catholic priest 4. they might get just a bit too big for their britches and face a comeuppance of biblical proportions. The all-pervading canopy of guilt and suffering that the gruesome sacrifice entailed often sufficed in making lives that already sucked just a little bit more depressing, just a little bit more unworthy, hollow and removed--one can never be Jesus, and one can never ease the suffering of God--but, other than that have a nice life and try the lobster.
In lieu of flowers the family of the deceased Opinion suggest that perhaps the young men and women who have died and continue to die in combat in our various wars, currently throughout the Arab lands, are the ones dying for our sins. Others who die for our sins are the children of the Followers of Christ, children who die for lack of medical care and a surfeit of biblical literalism--children of a god who can't always be expected to help out. Every day we put a variety of people up on a cross to die, so that we won't have to sell our SUVs or turn down the AC in summer or confront the future as something that is living now. Every day we participate in this waking dream, and do what we do, for good or ill.
Truly, people die every day in this world, often simply for the sin of having been alive, and sometimes this quid pro quo seems a fair bargain, while other times it plays out as a heartbreaking tragedy--so it goes.
Every night and every morn
Some to misery are born.
Every morn and every night
Some are born to sweet delight.
Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.
William Blake
Be well, be wild, love dearly, sing from your heart, and steer clear of Raptor Jesus. I fear He loves you not.
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I have never understood the logical underpinning of that statement about Jesus dying for my sins. How does one thing, the dying, relate to the other unconnected thing, my sinning? Non sequitur, if you ask me. It's like saying "Jesus ate a pizza, because you were hungry." I guess I'm just not a good Xtian.
ReplyDelete"Opinion suggest that perhaps the young men and women who have died and continue to die in combat in our various wars, currently throughout the Arab lands, are the ones dying for our sins." - No they are dying BECAUSE of our sins, big difference.
ReplyDeleteMagical thinking is like our vestigial tailbone -- still there but not very useful.
ReplyDelete@Rick Warden.
ReplyDeleteI've always thought the phrase "Jesus died for your sins" was bad grammar also, although it was endlessly repeated in Sunday School. I kept thinking "It's not the sins that need saving, is it?"
It's a shame that the phrase has been used to emotionally beat people up, because the original intent of the Jesus story was forgiveness and reconciliation. But we can't have any of that in times like these.
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ReplyDeleteWell, if JESUS died for those of us who jerked off, smoked pot, lied to our parents, teachers and the cops and so forth--how many fucking times does he have to die for somebody like Biggus Dickus?
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ReplyDeleteJesus died for our sins?
ReplyDeleteMore like, Jesus took a three day nap
for our sins.
He was dead, then God was like, *Oh shit, my son is dead* and he brought him back to life.
My son died, so, I know what God felt like...
except I can't bring my boy back.
God is a pussy.
I think He was reborn as a blond as part of an "Extreme Makeover Deity" show. I know this is true because I read it somewhere on the Internet. Actually, I think I just read it here. Man, news is fast!
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