I am reading Brad Jersak’s book, “A More Christlike God” and this quote really struck me. It is from Bill Maher, who is a satirist from the US and very much not a Christian, which is why it seemed very powerful to me:
“If you’re a Christian that supports killing your enemy and torture, you have to come up with a new name for yourself. ‘…Capping thy enemy’ is not exactly what Jesus would do. For almost two thousand years, Christians have been lawyering the Bible to try to figure out how ‘Love thy neighbour’ can mean ‘hate thy neighbour.’…
“Martin Luther King Jr. gets to call himself a Christian because he actually practiced loving his enemies. And Gandhi was so f*#%ing Christian, he was Hindhu. But if you’re endorsing revenge, torture or war, … you cannot say you’re a follower of the guy who explicitly said, ‘Love your enemy’ and ‘Do good to those who hate you.” …
“And not to put too fine a point on it, but non-violence was kind of Jesus’ trade-mark – kind of his big thing. To not follow that part of it is like joining Greenpeace and hating whales. There’s interpreting, and then there’s just ignoring. It’s just ignoring if you’re for torture – as are more Evangelical Christians than any other religion. You’re supposed to look at the figure of Christ on the Cross and think, ‘how could a man suffer like that and forgive?’ …
“I’m a non-Christian. Just like most Christians.
“If you ignore every single thing Jesus commanded you to do, you’re not a Christian – you’re just auditing. You’re not Christ’s followers, you’re just fans. And if you believe the Earth was given to you to kick ass on while gloating, you’re not really a Christian – you’re a Texan.”
- Bill Maher, “New Rules”
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