What is real Christianity?
The Rev Dr Giles Fraser, lecturer in philosophy at Wadham College, Oxford, explains in The Guardian, 24 December 2004,that Jesus wanted people to renounce wealth, power and violence.
So, why do some American Christians worship wealth, power and violence?
Christianity became the official religion of the Roman empire with the conversion of the emperor Constantine in 312. The Nicene Creed was composed in 325 under the sponsorship of Constantine. Nicene Christianity is not real Christianity. Nicene Christianity seems to allow its followers to worship wealth, power and violence.
Jesus described his mission as being to "preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and to set at liberty those who are oppressed".
He insisted that the social outcast be loved and cared for, and that the rich have less chance of getting into heaven than a camel has of getting through the eye of a needle.
Jesus set out to destroy the imprisoning obligations of debt, speaking instead of forgiveness and the redistribution of wealth. He was accused of blasphemy for attacking the religious authorities as self-serving and hypocritical.
Nicene Christianity forgets that God "has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly, he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty".
The influential US Christian commentator Jim Wallis recently wrote an attack upon "Bush's theology of empire", helpfully illustrated with a picture of Bush made up to look like the emperor Constantine. "Once there was Rome, now there is a new Rome," argued Wallis.
St Augustine came up with the un-Christian idea of just war, changing Christ's pacifist message to the needs of the imperial war machine.
Like Constantine, George Bush has borrowed the language of Christianity to support and justify his pursuit of wealth and empire. As with Constantine, the Christianity of this new Rome offers a carefully edited version of the Bible.
Real Christianity speaks of forgiving enemies and turning the other cheek. Bush talks of military service.
The story of Christmas asserts that God is not best imagined as an all-powerful despot but as a vulnerable child.
The Nicene religion distracts attention away from the teachings of Christ. It's a form of religion that concentrates on things like belief in the virgin birth while ignoring the fact that the gospels are much more concerned about the treatment of the poor and the forgiveness of enemies.
It's time to go back to the words that Jesus actually spoke. It's time to reject the fake Christianity that is found in the USA.
The Rev Dr Giles Fraser, lecturer in philosophy at Wadham College, Oxford, explains in The Guardian, 24 December 2004,that Jesus wanted people to renounce wealth, power and violence.
So, why do some American Christians worship wealth, power and violence?
Christianity became the official religion of the Roman empire with the conversion of the emperor Constantine in 312. The Nicene Creed was composed in 325 under the sponsorship of Constantine. Nicene Christianity is not real Christianity. Nicene Christianity seems to allow its followers to worship wealth, power and violence.
Jesus described his mission as being to "preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and to set at liberty those who are oppressed".
He insisted that the social outcast be loved and cared for, and that the rich have less chance of getting into heaven than a camel has of getting through the eye of a needle.
Jesus set out to destroy the imprisoning obligations of debt, speaking instead of forgiveness and the redistribution of wealth. He was accused of blasphemy for attacking the religious authorities as self-serving and hypocritical.
Nicene Christianity forgets that God "has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly, he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty".
The influential US Christian commentator Jim Wallis recently wrote an attack upon "Bush's theology of empire", helpfully illustrated with a picture of Bush made up to look like the emperor Constantine. "Once there was Rome, now there is a new Rome," argued Wallis.
St Augustine came up with the un-Christian idea of just war, changing Christ's pacifist message to the needs of the imperial war machine.
Like Constantine, George Bush has borrowed the language of Christianity to support and justify his pursuit of wealth and empire. As with Constantine, the Christianity of this new Rome offers a carefully edited version of the Bible.
Real Christianity speaks of forgiving enemies and turning the other cheek. Bush talks of military service.
The story of Christmas asserts that God is not best imagined as an all-powerful despot but as a vulnerable child.
The Nicene religion distracts attention away from the teachings of Christ. It's a form of religion that concentrates on things like belief in the virgin birth while ignoring the fact that the gospels are much more concerned about the treatment of the poor and the forgiveness of enemies.
It's time to go back to the words that Jesus actually spoke. It's time to reject the fake Christianity that is found in the USA.
