Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: jag@cello.cellbio.duke.edu (John Graves) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Jesus was some guy. Message-ID: Date: 3 Oct 90 07:35:31 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Duke University Medical Center -- Durham, NC Lines: 89 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu Rob Bernardo noted that I said >I certainly call myself a Christian as do the other members of the >Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship. But we do not accept the >inerrancy of the Bible, nor for that matter of any book. And we believe >that Jesus was fully human and fully divine, but so are you and I. and asks: Then what *do* you believe? Unfortunately his email: rob@mtdiablo.Concord.CA.US did not work. I am posting my reply to him which youUall might find interesting, if not I apologize. First, we are non-creedal. We encourage members of our congregations to read the Bible, do Biblical scholarship, read philosophy and theology, other religionsU texts, and great literature of all sorts. We affirm the worth of each human being and acknowledge the interconnectedness of creation. We promote the use of the democratic process in church government and in the world as a whole. Why do many of us like Jesus? UU Minister David Rankin says we respond to Jesus because: He was a protester: a man who called the leaders of the time a breed of vipers and told them their hearts were wicked. He was a heretic: who challenged the priests of the Temple and belittled the religious laws and customs. He was a third worlder: He ministered to the hated Samaritans and spoke kindly to unacceptable strangers. He was a man of the world: He ate and drank with notorious sinners and prostitutes. He was a radical: He took no thought for his own reputation and comfort, but followed the Law of Love. He was a hero: He stood bravely before the judges, without bending, without denying the charges against him. He was a martyr: He mounted the Cross, forgave his enemies, and gave himself to the mercy of God. These were the memories of the Jesus which remained long after the grief of the Crucifixion. They moved Peter to write "by your good works ... Glorify God." They moved James, the brother of Jesus, to write "Faith without works...is dead." In brief, that love is to be actual - love is to be incarnate - love is to be seen in our lives in the world. The perversion of the original Gospel began with the Apostle Paul, who transformed the human Jesus into the abstraction of a Greek divinity. It was extended by the Gospel of John to make Jesus not a model of life but an object of piety in the sky. It was sealed under the rule of the Roman emperors when it attained the status of an official religion. It is now possible to invoke his name to begin a football game. It is possible to be a Christian on Sunday and a bigot the rest of the week. We believe in the Jesus who spoke with authority, who demanded action, and who demanded that we love one another. Such a faith commands us to makes the world fit for living. It gives to history a higher meaning. It affirms the freedom of the human spirit. It demands the discipline of obedience and humility. It requires the attributes of love and deep compassion. It is a faith that exalts life and illuminates it purpose. As Kierkegarrd said, We never become a Christian - we are always becoming a Christian. We believe that Unitarian Universalism gives us a place where we can become Christians and share with those who are also searching for life and truth, but who do not wish to call themselves Christian but who share our basic beliefs of love, respect, and peace manifested through action in the world. John Allan Graves *Unitarian Universalism* jag@cello.cellbio.duke.edu A church where you don't have to Duke Divinity School check your mind at the door! disavows anything I say! [Let me point out that our earliest source of information about Jesus is actually Paul. There is certainly a different flavor to the Synoptics, John, and Paul. But the Synoptics aren't any more a transcript of Jesus' sermons than John is. The idea that Paul took a simple gospel and introduced all the business about Jesus being Son of God seems to me unsupported by the evidence. If you want to believe that it's all a creation of the Early Church, I'm not going to stop you. But you'll need to "demythologize" all of the NT documents. You can't just blame it on Paul. --clh]