Andrew Dawson emailed this to me and although I’d seen it before, I felt it was worth posting. It has a rare characteristic, a church sign that makes sense. I thought it was kind of witty.

For some unknown reason, God unleashed his rage upon a statue erected in His one and only son’s image. A 6-story tall statue of Jesus was struck by lightning and completely obliterated.

six-story statue of Jesus Christ was struck by lightning and burned to the ground, leaving only a blackened steel skeleton and pieces of foam that were scooped up by curious onlookers Tuesday.The “King of Kings” statue, one of southwest Ohio’s most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati.

The lightning strike set the statue ablaze around 11:15 p.m. Monday, Monroe police dispatchers said.

They are going to rebuild it though, but instead out of something fireproof. Although that kind of reminds me of a quote by Doug McLeod “I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence”.

It has always confused me that there is such a strong correlation between some of the most Christian folks and Conservatism. My reading of the Bible has led me to the conclusion that Jesus was most likely what today most people would consider a liberal. Think about it. I’m not trying to ‘claim him’ for my party or something like that when you consider I highly doubt his actual existence, just making a point.

Here’s Wikipedia‘s definition of liberal:

“Liberalism (from the Latin liberalis, “of freedom”^[1]) is the belief in the importance of liberty and equality.”

Doesn’t Jesus frequently preach equality and defense of fellow human beings’ rights? He seems to care for the poor and argues against an obsession with worldly possessions. In fact this behavior would cause me to label Jesus as a bleeding heart liberal. Yet today’s Right seems to be very concerned with protecting the wealthy and generally ignoring the needs of the poor. Jesus didn’t seem to really hate anybody either. When I look at the Radical Right I see tons of hate, especially hate directed toward the LGBT community.

As I mentioned above, I have major doubts about the actual existence of this miracle man but if he did exist as the Bible portrays him, he was a liberal by today’s standards. This post is all by no means all encompassing, just something I’ve been musing recently. What do you think? Why do the most Conservative people think they represent Jesus when their actions are the exact opposite?

Not too long ago, I discovered a shirt shop called Single Second on the interwebs. They had some interesting stuff, but my favorite was a shirt depicting what appeared to be a soulless, zombie Jesus.The shirt looks even better in person. I emailed them and here was their explanation of it:

The bible is full of contradictions that Christianity has done an excellent job of covering up. They only want their followers to know a fraction of what’s in the bible, the positive things. Faith is blinding, I know this because if it weren’t, people would read passages like Matthew 10: 34-37 and question what they’re reading. Instead they choose to ignore it.

Ah Matthew 10: 34-37, a good passage.

³⁴“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵ For I have come to turn
” ‘a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law -
³⁶a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’^[a]

³⁷“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; (NIV)

The one about the jealous and violent Jesus Christ. However you interpret the shirt, it is pretty cool. Check them out if you have a chance.

The Vatican recently forgave the Beatles and although it’s slightly old news at this point, an aficionado like myself is practically obligated to report on anything Beatles related. Basically the Vatican was pissed about the Beatles being a bunch of drug using, hippies that were bigger than Jesus. I find the implication that their messages were Satanic simply laughable. Look:

On the front page of the L’Osservatore Romano, the paper admits that the band once “said they were bigger than Jesus and put out mysterious messages, that were possibly even Satanic”, but also asks: “what would pop music have been like without the Beatles?”

Seems like a crafty little distraction to pull at this time. Everybody look away from the priests, the Vatican said good things about the Beatles.

I hate how people try to justify things like Haiti as a divine act that is part of a “master plan”.

Anybody care to explain how Haiti was a good thing? I cannot fathom anyway that this was an act of a loving God.

This is the slogan for a new campaign I saw. The folks over at NotJesusFault.com have a nice shirt design displaying an image of Jesus and this phrase.

The message behind it is a good one. I’ll let them explain:

Jesus never intended to found a religion, much less be the object of its devotion.

The followers of Jesus — the disciples and the early Christian Church — made him into something else. The hierarchies of institutional religion made him God; doctrine and dogma distorted Jesus’ identity by making him divine. Church leaders enshrined this exceptional human being as “the only Son of God.”

But he wasn’t.

And it’s not his fault that Christianity has made him out that way. Jesus had nothing to do with the development of Christianity — nor has he had anything to do with the many stances and moral positions the Church has taken over the ages. In general, what has been done in Jesus’ name has been done completely without his knowledge or consent… and long after his death.

But this is clearly not consistent with Jesus’ message. Jesus reached out across different religious traditions to recognize and value each human being. His focus was not on promoting one religious perspective; rather, he emphasized our shared humanity and the interrelatedness of all people.

Jesus sought to unify rather than divide, and his intention was to promote freedom over unquestioning conformity to institutional authority. Jesus never intended to be the “founder” of a religion that would be oppressive and exclusionary.

In other words, Christianity isn’t Jesus’ fault. It’s ours. And, in the end, we’re the only ones who can fix it.

Basically, Jesus was a philosopher. He had no plans to create a religion or anything like that. Today’s Christianity is a perversion of his original teachings. Like they said, this shirt isn’t for the atheist OR the theist cause in particular. It is more about being a better person. Look at all the good and kindness that Jesus spread for inspiration, not some hodge-podge book of hatred. Also, if you buy a shirt 50% of their profit goes to non-religious charity!

This might be going too far, (and I am definately going to Hell for this), but it’s funny, right?