Just found and read a fascinating article, “Betraying the Son of Man”.
Excerpt:
The most essential core of Jesus’ teaching was to reject all forms of earthly authority and live free. In order to “sell” Christianity, Paul makes the message how important it is to be a respectable member of society and do as you’re told. It’s significant that Paul emphasizes Jesus’ divinity, but never makes reference to Jesus’ own teachings. He uses the name of Christ like a weapon to bludgeon those who oppose him; he turns Jesus into a sterile godhead to be invoked, rather than heeded. By emphasizing Christ himself, Paul succeeded in pushing his teachings to the side–and thus, betraying everything Jesus ever stood for.
The sayings gospel, Q, shows that this was not always the case. It shows that Jesus’ teachings once held primacy, before Paul discarded those teachings and instead invoked Jesus as a mythic figure. With Paul, the Jesus Movement became the religion, Christianity. Christianity as we know it has nothing to do with Christ, and everything to do with Christ’s betrayer–Paul. In short, Christianity is the ultimate betrayal of everything Jesus ever stood for.
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i don’t know enough about Paul or the history of the church to comment on the factual basis of this post, but i think it makes a good point. something i recently posted on was the disparity between the teachings of Christ (ie, love, humility, compassion) and the actions of those proclaiming they are “doing his work” within this country. i think we can be quite sure that Jesus would reject torture under any circumstances, and beyond that i find it extremely hypocritical the way supposed “christians” will use their religion to promote their causes while simultaneously disrespecting and denegrating those who have differing opinions.
[...] From everything I’ve read about Christian history, Jesus was everything but a Christian. Christianity was founded by Paul, who never even met Jesus, and whose writings, while repeating to exhaustion how Jesus was divine, ignore completely any of Jesus’ teachings, and anything he ever did or said. This is not some “evil heresy” from an atheist; it’s right there in your Bible. You choose to deal with your perception of reality, not reality. We have no proof of what reality is. We cannot prove that what we live is in fact real. Fooled by the experience, we believe that we’re alive and this is reality. [...]