Sermon on the Mount
by Peter K Bullock,
Recently I was subjected to a YouTube presentation which used some sound bites from an Obama speech. Wherein he was pointing out what parts of the “Bible” we would use to guide our nation; a Leviticus line that supports slavery, a Deuteronomic line that says children should be stoned to death if they refute the faith or the Sermon on the Mount which would render our defense system irrelevant. His point was that the Bible says many different things, all of them contextual, and not to be used selectively, as so many on the “right” do.
The presentation went on in a rant reminiscent of fascist propaganda in its’ claim that Obama disbelieves or dierespects the Bible. He [Obama] then adds that people in general “aren’t reading their Bible.” The presenter was aghast that anyone would suggest that people don’t read their Bible, because good cultural evangelical born again Christians DO read the Bible; of course, literally, uncritically, without insight or appreciation for the developmental character of the Holy Script. Of course they read “their” Bible, and do so in the same way that magical thinking, fantasy prone and literalistic children do. The more insidious suggestion is that Obama is not a good moral man, much less a Christian. As for taking the Sermon on the Mount seriously, one might point out:
When you claim that Jesus is the Lord of your life and yet fail to acknowledge that your policies ignore his essential teaching or turn them on their head
(you know, Sermon on the Mount stuff like never returning violence for violence and those who live by the sword shall die by the sword)
you are doing something immoral.
Dr Robin Meyers
Why the Christian Right is Wrong
UCC Minister
(Obama belongs to the United Church of Christ)
As long as one wishes to throw stones while living in glass houses, one could be reminded that McCain’s whole life has been devoted to militarism – and he is a self admitted adulterer – and he and his cartoon running mate are proven guilty of bearing false witness eg, the Keating affair, and she being called on her use of unethical power in a recent Alaskan legal decision.
One final observation. Those who make the “country first” “the Bible” and the “flag” as idols are guilty of the first of the 10 Commandment (you shall have no other gods before me), but, what can one expect from a Sunday School level of moral development, lack of reflective insight or sadly, just plain ignorance.
If anyone is interested in seeing the video that prompted this -- here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi-V_ilJu0w
2 comments:
"Subjected" is a good word to use the synonyms for this are: "accountable, apt, at one’s feet, bound by, captive, collateral, conditional, contingent, controlled, dependent, directed, disposed, enslaved, exposed, governed, in danger of, inferior, liable, likely, obedient, open, prone, provisional, ruled, satellite, secondary, sensitive, servile, slavish, sub*, subaltern, subjugated, submissive, subordinate, subservient, substract, susceptible, tentative, tributary, under, vulnerable" The word is a reminder to anyone who reads this blog that when one watches and believes videos of this sort that use and abuse another's words out of context, that they enslave themselves to ignorance. Bravo Peter!
Btw for those who don't know, the Antonym for "Subject" or "Subjected" is "Master" or "Mastered"
Is it too much to ask that people who are yet undecided in this election choose to master their ignorance and listen to what was really said in the speech by Sen. Obama? Link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Kh-xzerjE
It isn't just intelligence that leads one to making decisions i.e. who I want to have as my president. We need to look at the mistakes we've made (personal or otherwise) realize that changes that must come about and voice our decision (or not) but go forward. For me I use intuition and most times (lucky me) it turns out more right than not. I could "feel" Obama was the person to lead this country. Thank you people for making this change come about. Thank you Peter, my friend.
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