What a joke of a network and a shameful performance by the anchor...

Thanks for linking that BedellBrave. Douthat is a very good writer with a ton of insight.

I keep reminding everyone I'm getting old and as a pretty serious Christian (and political liberal--figure that one out), Aslan's book is really nothing new. I thought the interviewer did a real disservice in continuing to harp on his being a Muslim. People from just about every religious persuasion are interested in Jesus (even the ones who don't follow him). What wears me out is the seemingly consistent effort to categorize Jesus and his work politically. Aslan's not the first guy to try that (I've got about five books in my library that pretty much take the same approach) and I wish people of all stripes would just stop with that.
 
50PoundHead said:
What wears me out is the seemingly consistent effort to categorize Jesus and his work politically. [...] and I wish people of all stripes would just stop with that.
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Why? I find it hard not to consider the writings regarding Jesus through the a political lens.

Maybe the crux is our definitions of "political"? As someone who studied Attic Greek and, more generally, texts of the Greek and Roman antiquity, I personally have a pretty etymologically originalist understanding of "politics" as that which concerns and characterizes the polity – the res publica; how to live as the inherently and necessarily political animals that we humans are – and it seems that a great deal of the words of Christ (at least as they're recorded) are pretty overtly political in that sense.
 
I actually agree with both of you. Maybe I'd put it that this anachronistic and narrow sort of politicizing of Jesus gets old. I think the Jesus of Scripture actually challenges every aspect of who we are as fallen human beings - including our politics (whatever the name on the jersey). Our "Jesus" usually looks too much like us.
 
BedellBrave said:
I actually agree with both of you. Maybe I'd put it that this anachronistic and narrow sort of politicizing of Jesus gets old. I think the Jesus of Scripture actually challenges every aspect of who we are as fallen human beings - including our politics (whatever the name on the jersey). Our "Jesus" usually looks too much like us.
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You've stated it well BedellBrave.

jpx7, I"m just not much on folks trying to force the "rebel Jesus" (and his message) into a neat political box that, like BedellBrave says, often mirrors what is in the mind of the interpreter. I get that. We are all captives of our own experience. Parts of Jesus' message were certainly revolutionary in that they were other-worldly in a time when most religion stayed closely to the ground and the "here and now." Much ***ish rejection of Christ is that he wasn't in the "here and now" enough.
 
Oklahomahawk said:
Pfigster, I always took you to be man's man, a real man who could eat anything, no matter how spicy and just laugh at the heat. Did I misunderestimate you???
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I'll tell you guys a true story. My son-in-law knows I like hot sauce and brought some back with him from vacation as a gift. I can't remember the name, but it was advertised as "super hot." Bold purveyor of all things spicy that I thought myself to be, I doused some on my meal and took one bite. Jumping Jehoshaphat! I sprang from my chair flapping my arms like a schoolgirl at a pep rally and downed a huge glass of water to no effect. I seriously ran to the freezer and grabbed a bag of frozen peas to cool my mouth (an action of which I am reminded by my wife at uncomfortable junctures). Again, no effect. But then, I get the heaves because the stuff is so freaking hot I can't keep the food down. So I'm poised over the porcelain, alternating between losing my first few bites of dinner and trying to cool my mouth with the frozen peas. All the while, my eyes are watering like Niagara Falls and my sinuses are draining faster than the Nationals' pennant chances.

I will pretty much be staying in the range of my old reliable Frank's Red Hot from this point forward.
 
Oklahomahawk said:
Pfigster, I always took you to be man's man, a real man who could eat anything, no matter how spicy and just laugh at the heat. Did I misunderestimate you???
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Yes sir you did, I'm a gurl in heat........

Thanks for the laugh big head.......
 
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