I used to be more in Brian’s camp till one day, I decided to let Jesus speak for himself rather than letting the Kansan knuckledraggers speak for him, so I read the 4 Gospels.

Impressive, impressive guy. From his vantage point 2000 years ago he called most of the BS that people are pulling right today. I guess he was a keen observer and critic of human nature.

I’m with Carl Sagan. I’ve always sensed a Greater Power underneath the fabric of it all, but this Entity never felt to me like the lightning-snortin’, judgemental and often petty anthro-god of the Bible-thumpers. Rather, like something much larger and more sophisticated than ourselves.

So I think of Jesus as being rather the herald of this greater entity, taking on the mission to remind his people the Jews who they should look to. In fact his actions were quite in accord with his Jewish faith, as he set himself up to be that year’s Passover sacrifice, as a part of his multifaceted mission to redeem his people in the eyes of their God. Jewish or not, I find his teachings to be extremely germane and find myself living my life differently since having read them.

Interesting how many “civil Christians” came out of the woodwork once I became able to talk about Jesus and his teachings in a knowledgeable fashion. You are right, most Christians are quiet about it (just as Jesus taught them to be).

That said, I do not consider myself Christian, because my understanding is that to do so I would have to accept the rest of the Bible too– including all those verses the thumpers quote to justify oppressing women, gays, other races, etc etc. There are days I wonder if it’s really true that Jesus said he was not changing one “jot or tittle” of ‘The Word’. He sure flew in the face of it sometimes.

So now, when a self-styled “Christian” globally bashes some group, or when somebody else globally bashes “all Christians”, I tend to wince equally.