Why I Love Jesus Through Religion. Part 2: Politics and War

So I continue my look at the “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus” video.

The second line of the poem is:

“What if I told you voting Republican really wasn’t his mission?”

Suffice to say there is no political party or candidate for the presidency that is completely in line with Jesus’ teachings.

“What if I told you Republican doesn’t automatically mean Christian.”

Obviously. Neither does Democrat nor Libertarian nor Green nor Socialist nor any other party. Nor does it mean their followers aren’t.

“And just because you call some people blind doesn’t automatically give you vision.”

Once again, obviously this is the case.

“I mean, if religion is so great, why has it started so many wars?”

Alright… saying religion has started wars is like saying the candlestick led to the killing of Mr. Body in the board game Clue. People start wars, not religions. Humans have been fighting since time immemorial and it hasn’t been always about religion. Even the crusades were about a rival people, who happened to have a different religion, who attacked and conquered land that another group considered their own and so fought to get it back. The Church had a political and monetary stake in it. The leaders of the Western Church wanted to have clout with the Eastern Church with whom they were not on good terms and having property in the Holy Land was a huge asset as well. Yes, they used religious language to get people to fight but the fighting would have happened anyway. In a culture where there was no separation between Church and State this is to be expected but not condoned. As I said in my previous post, religious people slip away from their religion’s truths from time to time.

I use the candlestick here on purpose. The candlestick is supposed to be a form used for holding a light. It is a thing of beauty and purpose. When used correctly it illuminates the whole house and gives beauty to it. Hitting someone with it, misusing it, does not make the candlestick evil.

I’ll leave this here for now. The next line of the poem needs a response in itself so we’ll do that next.

Please respond as this moves you. I haven’t said anything personal on the matter yet, choosing instead to answer the questions. I’ll get to personal response later. Please add any other points of your own to the ones I’ve so far talked about and remember, I’ll get through the whole poem eventually.

Peace and Good

David

(The Democrat/Republican images are common on the web. I'm not sure exactly where I picked them up. The other photos are my own.)