2005 November 19, Saturday, 11:41
Anglican Archbishop Jensen, What A Scream
Had to laugh, this Anglican Archbishop Jensen, what a scream, maybe it was just the mood I was in but this tickled me, in taking his stance to waffle on something further he undoes his churchy scenario, I can just imagine how those other xtian churchy gits feel, specially the top one in England, the ones who don’t believe in any god anyway, but still insist on lying to the befuddled so here's what the Anglican's get told:
| Has All This Fervent Prayer For The End Of The World Amounted To Anything? Here Is A Demonstrable And Monumental Failure… writes Peter Jensen. DO YOU want this world to end, and a new one to begin? Rather surprisingly, the Australian Parliament begins proceedings with such a prayer. It goes something like this: "Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation." Here are some of the most famous words in history, known and said daily by many millions of people. And yet, do Jesus' followers realise they are praying, among other things, for the end of the world? Let's look more closely at it. There is the intimate opening, "Father", typical of Jesus, but untypical of the religion of his day. There is its brevity - just five requests. And there is the absence of religious palaver - no monumental or mystical flattery of God, just five short "asks". And what are we asking? Only for an apocalyptic cataclysm. Jesus is assuming you are very dissatisfied with the present state of affairs; that you can see the immense harm that human evil is doing to the world and in the world; that you want justice to be done at last; that you long for the present world order to cease and a new age to be ushered in; that you want to be there when it happens, even though you contribute to the evil; that you want the present world political system to give way to the kingdom of God; that you want the meek to inherit the Earth. We are saying, "Bring it on". I know we also pray for mundane things like daily bread. Even this is not as straightforward as it seems. An odd word is used here; it possibly means not our "daily bread", but something more like "tomorrow's bread" - let us eat today the bread which we will consume in the coming kingdom. But if the Lord's Prayer has this ominous, apocalyptic edge to it, why do we continue to use it? More to the point, has all this fervent prayer for the end of the world amounted to anything? Here is a demonstrable and monumental failure. How can we in all seriousness continue to pray for the end of the world? Why bother with Jesus? Why should Jesus, a first-century failed prophet, be of any interest to us at all? I have been asking, has Jesus Christ a future? It is hard enough now to wonder why he had such a great past. And yet, that is not fair. Jesus is better than that. After all, even an unbelieving H.G. Wells said: "Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history." For this there must be a reason. |
The answer is Stupidity…
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