Modern-Day Pharisees
For once, I don’t have much to say…try to act surprised!
I do, however, have two brilliant pieces to share with you that are worth contemplation no matter what your religious beliefs: Glen Martin’s broadside against today’s evils (“The Cloaking of Evil: Jesus vs. the Beast of the Apocalypse” and Al Franken and Don Simpson’s satire (“Supply Side Jesus”) on the political misuse and abuse of religion.
(Thanks to Henry for passing along the Martin piece!)
Thanks for reading.
Quotes of the Day:
“I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus, very different from the Platonists, who call me infidel and themselves Christians and preachers of the gospel, while they draw all their characteristic dogmas from what its author never said nor saw. They have compounded from the heathen mysteries a system beyond the comprehension of man, of which the great reformer of the vicious ethics and deism of the Jews, were he to return on earth, would not recognize one feature.”Thomas Jefferson (letter to Charles Thomson, 9 Jan 1816)
“Now, which of these is the true and charitable Christian? He who believes and acts on the simple doctrines of Jesus? Or the impious dogmatists as Athanasius and Calvin? Verily I say these are the false shepherds foretold as to enter not by the door into the sheepfold, but to climb up some other way. They are mere usurpers of the Christian name, teaching a counter-religion made up of the deliria of crazy imaginations…”Thomas Jefferson (letter to Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, 26 June 1822)