Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: mmh@cs.qmw.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: The Bible and Us: a book review; comments on Mary and Protestantism Message-ID: Date: 1 Oct 90 00:00:17 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Computer Science Dept, QMW, University of London, UK. Lines: 28 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article rjb@akgua.att.com (Robert J Brown) writes: >Does brother count MH ? Jesus said anyone who does God's will is >his brother/sister in Matt 12:50 and Mark 3:35. Isn't a brother >or sister a friend (under the best conditions)? Is this a senti- >mental view of Jesus? > Yes, with a bit of searching you can find things like this. My point is that the scriptural justification for the notion that Christianity is all about "establishing a personal relationship with Jesus" is no more than the scriptural justification for the Catholic church. I think concentrating exclusively on the "personal relationship" idea is unbalanced; I don't deny it as one aspect of Christianity though. >At your convenience, would you please expand on the "20th Century >marketing trick" ??? > Sales techniques involve things like building on people's fears. One of the greatest fear in the 20th century is the fear of loneliness. There are a lot of lonely people looking for personal relationships - if Christianity is put to them on this basis they'll accept it. But I don't think Christianity should be sold like a consumer product, particularly if this leads to an unbalancing of the Christian community. Matthew Huntbach