They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love...

Jesus said, "Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" (Matthew 7:16)

Or, as the friendly angel in a Star Trek episode made the children chant: "As you believe, so shall you do, so shall you do, so shall you do."

The purpose of this blog is to, as I am called by Christ to do, promote a Christian ideal. And also, as Jesus so often did, to point out the hypocrisy of those who claim to follow and love him but whose fruit just doesn't bear that out.

I see a lot of people with WWJD bumperstickers...and I'm not convinced they actually know what Jesus would do.

Our president has made much of his belief in Jesus and how he answers to a higher power. This site is going to examine his fruit in great detail and attempt to determine if he's offering us grapes and figs or thistles and thorns.

It ought to be easy for those with eyes to see the difference.

Let's take something that came out today.

In Secret Unit's 'Black Room,' a Grim Portrait of U.S. Abuse, as reported by the New York Times.

Would Jesus have told his disciples "No Blood, No Foul" or advocated any form of torture, no matter how mild, to achieve his ultimate goal of fulfilling his Father's mission?

If Jesus wasn't lying about any injury to the least of his bretheren being an injury to God...Why aren't Christians rioting over the torture of these people as though they were torturing Christ?

I listen to a lot of the conservative talk radio hosts, who claim Christian virtues as quickly as they claim patriotism, and in fact don't draw a distinction between the two.

There are some problems with that, and if you believe in Jesus, you'd remember some things he said.

The "render unto Ceasar" quote from the Messiah argues for a seperation of church and state more effectively than Jefferson's writings on the subject and to a Christian ought to carry more weight.

It seems difficult to read the book of Matthew and come away convinced that Jesus would be a pro-war activist who would ridicule Cindy Sheehan and call anti-war activists the greatest threat to this nation next to Al Qaida. He didn't say blessed are the peacemakers after the evil ones have been destroyed. He said not to resist an evil person and to turn to him the other cheek.

Hard to get a doctrine of pre-emption out of that.

We hear the President constantly telling us that September 11th changed everything.

Did September 11th change the bible?

Does Jesus really think that the 3,000 people killed on that day justify the deaths of nearly that many US soldiers and between 30,000 to 100,000 civilians in Iraq?

Could one of you Conservative Christian Theocrats please explain to me why you honestly think Jesus is on your side and not the side his words would seem to indicate?

For more on this topic, and an explanation of Just War Theory, please visit this page: Serving God and Country, an article in today's Columbia Missourian.

A related article from the same paper gives Official Denominational Positions on the War in Iraq.

The frightening thing is that it pretty much breaks down into those denominations which are eager for the Second Coming and an angry Jesus who will seperate sinners from saints during the Battle of Armageddon, and those who are accept that Jesus knew what he was talking about when he said that none shall know the hour or the day and are willing to let God start Armageddon when he gets around to it.

I would also like those in the former camp to explain to me how, exactly, they came to the conclusion that they could do anything at all to hasten the coming of the End Times, and what makes them so certain they are working for the right side if they are trying to force God's hand.