Being the pacifist, I am(right), I caught myself reading this which linked to the page for the sermon of the mount and on that page I find this word: Typology and after reading it I feel a little betrayed, little dissapointed to see the implicit agenda in all that, now of course it's obvious but you could claim syncretism, etc, I remember catholic masses where there were references to the tanakh as though announcing the coming of Jesus but this seems twisted altogether.
Which is not to say that if God was a person I wouldn't want Jesus from Nazareth to be it the most, even more than Buddha and yet I believe Buddha Gautama's method to be quite enlightening.
One thing I've always liked about Quakers is the standard of truth, Friends of the Truth, considering the message of Christ to be true and considering truth and knowledge thereof and consistency of speech and action with it important factors in one's own application of honesty and not bearing false witness.
Islam considers Jesus(peace be upon him) a prophet, and I don't mind...they think(just as in judaism) that it's heresy to think anyone could be God's son, and yet they do consider him a beloved prophet of God and the messiah. Fine by me, for me Jesus' message is more important than wether he was actually God or not, wether he had magical powers and could actually raise the dead and so forth, I do believe he fulfilled his message when he symbolically got killed for us all as his getting killed was consistent with his overall message from my point of view. Sometimes I am annoyed by Christians who seem offended by this, so that if it wasn't because of the belief that he is perfect, the son of god, born out of the holy spirit, and has magical powers, if it wasn't because of that belief, they probably wouldn't consider his message valid and true, and I think that is missing the point, especially as his death is an example of Love, forgiveness and friendship. Then there's the other annoying camp, who think of everything he said as an instruction to enter the kingdom of heaven...however if you look at the bible, the people Jesus hung out with and the persons he helped, forgave, spoke unto, you could infer as some liberation theology does that he was more concerned about this world and his message was a message relevant to this world, than just a pass to salvation, which shouldn't be the point, right and wrong shouldn't be based on self benefit...because they're not, otherwise they're only wrong.
The muslims believe he was born of a virgin birth...so do most christians...I don't care who the father was...I think we should love him anyway and try to understand him, and learn from him...just like if he was a child.
I find it funny...for some reason I think that at any given time, Muhammad, Buddha, Jesus, Zoroaster, etc would get along better than their corresponding followers.
So I became a vegan, funnily enough I wrote a letter to the Friends Journal once in response to someone else's letter in response to an article written by a Friend entitled "Are animals our neighbours" or "are animals our Friends?", without any hint of vegetarianism that I can recall in my letter, i months later received a letter from a Friend Gracia Fay Ellwood, thanking me for the letter in defense of the planet and animals and telling me to "trust it will help Friends expand our horizons further"...now that was cool, then it said(this was a postcard, really nice design on the outside) "I invite you to subscribe to our online journal the peaceable table." The funny thing is: I wasn't even vegetarian at the time...I think I gave it a try for a while but gave up, so looking back, it's cool to go to my mail treasure box and be able to pull out this postcard which is a great inspiration and now serves as a great form of encouragement, it is somehow even better in terms of friendship and community than having my letter published in the friends journal, despite the fact that one thing led to the other...it was much like that feeling of not being alone.
How does it all relate? well to me Jesus' message is very much about consistency, ethical consistency in the way one handles things and self honesty...in light of that, I happened to be listening to straight edge hardcore punk band Gorilla Biscuits and the song was cats and Dogs, these are the lyrics:
Man's best friend is beautiful and affectionate, an ideal pet.
Cats are the same, we make up their names and our love for them is real.
Listen up, I gotta ask you, how can we be so cruel?
You say you care, that's a lie.
My true compassion is for all living things and not just the ones who are cute so I do what I can.
I wanna save lives and I've got a plan.
Under the table he'll eat your dinner like the veggies we can't stand.
What kind of meal would he make?
We don't want to ask it.
Tradition is all that keeps him alive.
Listen up, I gotta ask how can we be so cruel?
You say you care, that's a lie.
My true compassion is for all living things and not just the ones who are cute so I do what I can.
I wanna save lives and I've got a plan.
Why am I so upset.
Don't even own a pet.
I am not trying to press my will.
I am not the first to say...
THOU SHALT NOT KILL
Full is all you want to feel.
We eat to stay alive, but it's their lives we steal.
I think we'd like to change,
but most of us are stuck, that's why cats and dogs have
ALL THE LUCK
So from a Christian perspective it would seem to me as though eating animals and or use them for our own benefit as a species would imply something along the lines of saying it would be fine and dandy for a "superior"(more intelligent, developped, etc) species from another planet(although not necessarily) to come and use us as slaves, breed us for food, etc...just because they can and it's convenient...this of course reminds me of our nature, what i call the human flavour(pun intended) of existence, how convenient this form is to exercise dharma or the golden rule or simply fairness and honesty...how even if we find something in nature that is fubar it doesn't mean that it is ethically correct for us to use it as a means of justification but serves as an example of what does not work towards harmony.
So that's a bit of my Christianity on the plate.
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