An Unintentional Journey

This is a blog of an experiment. I am following Jesus, and only Jesus. No Paul. No Old Testament. I can’t do what He did, but I can live as He did, in among sinners. It is time to report from this curious trench of warfare.

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And you follow ...?

I base my Christianity on Jesus, even though Church follows Paul instead.

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... but the Bible says ...

Have you ever noticed that when some Christians defend their views, they cite passages from all over the bible, but rarely quote Jesus.

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... what do you mean not Biblical?

You do realize practically nothing of what you do in church is actually Biblical, or even Gospel founded. 

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Cherry Picking  ...

Most conservatives don’t even realize they cherry pick their scriptures. Unless they consider women unclean during their periods or had the house blessed after mildew, they are cherry picking.

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Conservative churches behave like cults ...

One of the main hallmarks of a cult are charismatic leaders. The second one is that you do not question the leader or their interpretations of scripture. While the charismatic aspect may be lacking in many churches may be lacking, the do not question the interpretation of scripture, vis a vis leadership, is not. This was made clear to me when I told a conservative that I had been taught what he got, but that I was also taught other interpretations and interpretation methods. He gave me blank stare. He was unable or unwilling to step out of his single view of scripture, even when I pointed out to him areas where he already had. You know, do you eat pork or shrimp? Or, did you call in a priest when you had mildew. Or do you consider your wife unclean when she has her period? Nope. He just couldn’t wouldn’t allow himself to get it. Lie most cult followers, willful blindness.

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... put idols where they should go ...

It seems to me that what is called Christianity these days is in reality a version perverted by the idol of Church ... at least for the most part. Magisterium is nothing more than the self justification of “church authority” as their power to interpret scripture over anybody else. One of the very few things the protestants took with themselves when they left. This alone is reason enough to go back to the gospels and study Jesus all the more.

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An Inadvertent Snapshot ...

I was an accidental observer to something like the link below. It was an amazing upbeat experience, but not without the gravity of the customers’ situations always being omnipresent. These people had nothing but what was on their backs or in their packs. No pot to piss in. At least one was drunk. There were a couple that appeared to be high on something, almost falling asleep during the cuts. Women perked up the most. They smiled more on leaving. I had a re-orienting of values and priorities that day. It started by witnessing the line up, all homeless. But it was kicked into high gear by what I witnessed outside the window. Because of the location there was an area where homeless late teens, early 20′s seemed to gather. There was a couple that caught my eye, it seemed they were trying to do something together, but I couldn’t figure out what. Then I saw the needle in the guy’s hand. She suddenly lay down on her back and pulled her shirt down exposing a shoulder. He injected her there. There was a familiarity in what they did. 

The first thing that rolled through my mind was the stories of everyone I saw that day, both inside and out. 

“Everybody has a story” .... are any of us taking time to listen?

Then I asked myself what Jesus would think about what I saw that day. What would he say? How would he respond? I think he would simply treat them as human, and listen to their stories. He would simply ‘be’ with them. No Bible thumping. For those of us that truly try to emulate Jesus, we need to keep this in mind.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/rolling-barber-ottawa-haircuts-homeless-1.4757317

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Who is following Jesus these days ....

No, I am serious. It is a very pertinent question. Let me translate that into asking, “Who is following Jesus or who is following  ‘church’?”. I put that point home one day to a close friend in a discussion of sorts, and I asked him, “What did Jesus have to say about “X”?”  ... he was forced to say, “Nothing,” in other words, his belief was not founded in Jesus.  This is where I started thinking about faith being founded in Jesus or church. I was lucky. I know a few others who are lucky to have been able to do that. A long time ago I decided I would be Christian, but denomination X for the purpose of worship. I noticed two high profile ‘losing faith’ stories in the past few days, an author and a musician. I have to wonder if being able to separate church from Jesus could have worked for them. Why do they have to quit the whole kit and caboodle? Why not just follow Jesus?

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Oh, Where, Oh, Where, is Their Science?

Oh, another irksome thing cropped up a few weeks ago. Somebody remarked to me that C-14 dating wasn’t flawless. So I went out and looked. The article at the bottom is one result. Summed up: accurate enough and calibrated to about 20,000 BC when the error of of the measurements becomes larger than the the level of C-14. 

I read a lot more - try the Wikipedia entry on Radiocarbon Dating, click on the ‘talk’ button. And go into the last archive. It was 2011 when they had their last discussion on creationism and what they consider as the flaws of the C-14 dating. The response was unanimous, show us your work in a peer reviewed journal. 

But this bothered me. Why would somebody ignore proven science? The answer was simple. It was what they learned, and they were sticking to it. It didn’t matter in their lives, and as long as their beliefs were intact, all was cool. Then along comes science saying what you learned is false. That glorious 7 day creation is a myth, and your sacred book has now lied to you. Yeah, I can see why they get real defensive real quick ... especially when it’s sacredness has become an idol, something not to be touched.

I got lucky. I grew up around science. I worked around scientific endeavours, and had hobbies rooted in it. When I went to the University of Saint Pauls, I ran across theology professors rooted in philosophy, and the Biblical professors rooted in a methodology as rigorous  as the scientific one. It was also a very liberal place. Looking back it seems that for the most part it was a very Jesus Only oriented community. Given the range of denominations that was there when I attended and given the range of interpretation, the only safe topic was Jesus himself.  Maybe this is why going to simply Jesus does not bother me. Its how the early Christian me was formed in many ways. You can’t argue with his words. Unfortunately words are always being put in His mouth. This Jesus Only experiment is in part a filter in the hopes of recovering the Authentic chosen one. https://ncse.com/cej/3/2/answers-to-creationist-attacks-carbon-14-dating

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“Go forth and baptize” doesn’t mean what you think it does.

The “Christianity’ of the earliest church is no where near the abomination it has since become. So, baptism then meant something a lot different. I was considering this after listening to a Bible thumper and his distorted view of scripture. Most churches these days are not Christian, and at best only partially so. A few are trying to get back to the roots of their faith, but it is a hard slog, and an uphill one. There are so many layers piled on top of the original faith it is difficult to uncover that original nugget that Jesus intended. The ecumenical councils were political conferences rather than theological. Oh yes, they decided theology, but they arrived at their decisions via political mechanisms and theology itself frequently took a back seat to the church maintaining control over the populace. If you look at just the Gospels without the learned distortions and contamination, that nugget starts to become self evident. I am learning how to free the nugget, let it loose from the bondage it has been place under, in the hopes it will begin to blossom once more. It is that nugget that I want blossoming in my heart. There is intrinsic beauty in Jesus Only Christianity.

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It’s harder than I would have thought ...

Yeah, ‘Jesus Only” left me with the tiniest number of options. Other than berating the pharisaic tendencies of most denominations, what’s left? Love your neighbour. That is the only thing left. No judgement except for those that should know better ... read ‘denominational hierarchies”. I have been left with the idea that more people follow church than actually follow Christ. I have had to come to that conclusion because of the oft used “What did Jesus Say?” for a lot of things. The most common response to that question is “Nothing, but ...” ... you can fill in the blank with any number of, well, excuses really. People have forgotten how to think for themselves, and those that do, find themselves at real odds with religious authorities. 

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Beginnings ...

Argh. No exclamation mark needed. It’s not that bad. I was trying to figure out how this damn thing got started in the first place. It occurred to me that there have been more than one beginning, including a big one, and roots that go a lot further back. This is more complex than I would have thought.

The big one came in my first year of my theology degree as an adult student. It was looking at the Bible as other than “the word of God”. How as it put together, different sources in books, Yahwest and Priestly come to mind. Oh, and Q source in the Gospels. And Edits along the way in the early years. And the shit that went down at the Nicean Councils? Holy fuck. It didn’t take long to realize that I would have to define Church and Christianity on my own because, well, which denomination is correct, or even most correct?

I decided then to be Christian but denomination X for the purpose of worship. I go to be with fellow Christians whether they believe as I do or not. I have had to be careful at times. I watched a more liberal church get hijacked by seven day creationists and got caught in the crossfire. That was the big beginning.

Other beginnings include an art ministry, a music ministry, and this experiment. I have been doing this for a while now, at least consciously that is. It maybe that my first year university decision simply evolved over the years and only surfaced a while back.

I like writing essays. My degree was essentially a paper driven one. It’s only a bachelors but take a bit of pride as more than one prof said to me, “you realize this is a master’s level degree almost everywhere else?” I graduated on the cusp of a Magnum cum laude. Not bad for a guy drying out from a pretty long bout of alcoholism.

I am going to draw a cartoon of Jesus talking to somebody.  Jesus is saying, “I am the way, and the truth and the … will you pay attention! Look at me! Stop looking at Paul!!” That pretty well sums it up.

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Trying Jesus Only

At best, I am an irreverent Christian. At worst, I have been labeled a heretic. I have a degree in theology, obtained at “that hotbed of liberalism”, as one seminary referred to the Roman Catholic university I attended. I got a more realistic view of the Bible and began adjusting my theology accordingly. As you can imagine I hit potholes all along this journey. Then I decided to try an experiment. What if I dumped all of the Bible except the Gospels. What if I lived according to just that, and say, tell Paul to take a hike. 

So, that is what I did.  This is that story.