These comments describe what right-wing so called conservative Christian religions, especially the "Catholc" church is really all about.

Monotheistic creationist-religion is an exclusively exoteric institutional power-and-control-seeking entity, the intent of which is controlling and managing the entire human world, and even the entire natural world too.
The "sacred" power that such religion claims it brings, or would extend into the human world is, it says, the "Creator-God" of the universe. Whereas, in fact, the power that such religion actually execises, or would everywhere exercise, is that of the (by them) humanly governed political, social, economic, cultural exoteric INSTITUTIONALIZATION of the totality of humankind. All in the name of "freedom" of course.

The institutionalizing power that such monotheistic religion exercises, or would everywhere exercise, if allowed to function at will and unimpeded, is of an inherently intolerant nature - because it is self-possessed by a reductionist, and tribalistic, and exclusively exoteric mentality, that cannot accept any non-"orthodox" ,extra-tribal or extra-institutional, non-monotheistic, or otherwise, free and Spiritually liberating esoteric exceptions to its self-appointed "Rule".

Jesus of course was not ever in any sense a Christian. He was always essentially A Jew who appeared and taught on the margins of the tradition of Judaism as it was in his time and place. While he was alive he taught and demonstrated a radical, universal, non-sectarian, non-Christian Spirit-Breathing Spiritual Way of Life.
He was, as we all know completely unacceptable to the ecclesiastical establishment (with its power and priveleges) of his time and place.

Just as Jesus would be completely unacceptable to all of the dreadfully sane self-righteous Christians who attended the World Family Congress. And at the Vatican or any of the seats of power of every state religion whether Protestant, "Catholic" or "Orthodox".

In contrast to all of the posturing and bombast of the above pharisees and their worldly power games Jesus was a rather humble, simply human, being. He had no social or political power and demonstrated freely given non-judgmental compassion to the socially and politicaly powerless. He demonstrated no concern for the search and exercise of worldly power.Indeed he was scathingly critical of those who, in his time and place exercised such powers.

He taught and demonstrated a Spiritual Way of Divine Communion as a constant life-experience of heart,and mind, and body. About authentic human freedom without any tradition-bound or political requirements.

Jesus never-ever talked about making an institution that would become an "official" power-and-control-seeking religion. Nor was he talking about a "God" that should become the "official" "Deity" of the entire human world.

Jesus of Galilee felt a profound disposition of compassion for all people in their ordinary, natural, human condition - not just as subordinates of the Roman State. Or as members of the then "official" (Jewish) religious institution that was essentially a political entity too.
Jesus stepped out of the spheres of both the power of the State and the power of "official religion" - and, basically, he taught everyone else to do the same.

Which is of course precisely what he would do in the now-time of 2013, if as if out of nowhere he happened to reappear.

Dear Daffy Duck,

Buddhism which does not postulate a God also is responsible for oppression. The atrocities of the Sri Lankan government toward the Hindu Tamils were supported by the Buddhist clergy. The Japanese officer corps in WW2 were almost all Zen Buddhists. They were a notably violent group of men who were responsible for the rape of Nanking and the other atrocities committed by their forces in WW2. Hindus in Gujarat have slaughtered Muslims. The Marxist entities with their gulags and other forms of oppression have other done in millions. It is not just the monotheistic religions or even religion itself that is oppressive. It is the idea of a group believing that they have an essential truth denied to other humans which gives them the right to force that on the other humans that is the problem. It is broader than monotheism although the monotheists have been terribly oppressive.

in all of recorded history, very few societies have made a u-turn - unless as in Germany and Japan and Italy after WWII they were forced to.

Those countries are few but they stand out: South Africa, Myanmar, Kazakstan, Russia today, and probably China tomorrow; in ancient times, only Niniveh repented in sackcloth and ashes, and God relented.

Our 'modern' west with its selfish blathering on about 'choice' promoting 'free' love (what an oxymoron!!)and same sex marriage and abortion and euthanasia are committing collective ethical suicide, and it'll be the old 'evil empires' of Russia and China that will ironically be the light upon the hill with their notions of what a civilization should really be about.

Go figure!

Babette,
Thanks for a very interesting article that agrees with my own personal experience, having been brought up in a Communist system (where we learned more or less all those things listed in some of the posts here about Christians, especially the Catholic Church) and now following, thanks to the internet, the developments of the Christian scene in East and East-Central European countries. For instance, Catholics (and I presume also the Orthodox) there are complaining about the shortage of older (i.e. more experienced) priests, not so of younger recruits who often come from atheist families. Indeed, Communism served as a good fertilizer boosting the regrowth of Christianity, Catholic or Orthodox (and Islam).

Rhian,
I checked the article, there is no mention of “Christian family values” only of “Christian values” and of “natural family values”, that are shared not only by Christians and other traditional religions, but also by Communists, and until recently also by most other atheists. Where Christians and Communists differed was not in the traditional understanding of family.

david f,
I think we both know where we two agree and where we do not. So just let me remark that comparing the gulags and the Inquisition is not unlike comparing an American believer in a 6000 years old Earth with a medieval Christian or Jew, who, I suppose, believed the same thing.

On the other hand, I agree that Marx probably used the Christian idea of a “divine kingdom on earth” as a blueprint for his Communist utopia. Lenin even explicitly stated that his Communist party was organizationally modelled on that of the Catholic Church.

Dear George,

We are fragmented beings. We contain many inconsistent ideas. Possibly part of our survival is due to our ability to contain these contradictions and somehow go on. I think that the part of the mind of a twenty-first century American who believes in a 6,000 year old earth is not too different from the part of the mindset of a medieval Jew or Christian that believes the same thing. The modern American has information that challenges the idea of a 6,000 year old earth but has chosen to ignore it. However, even in earlier times there were Christian and Jewish thinkers who questioned a literal interpretation of the Bible. St. Augustine, Spinoza, Astruc, Thomas Hobbes and Maimonides are examples. Part of our mindset is probably not too different from that of our remote hunter-gatherer ancestors.

I have no direct experience of either of the gulags or the Inquisition. My ‘knowledge’ is through literature and memoirs. Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquisitor in the ‘Brothers Karamazov’ and Koestler‘s account of being questioned by OGPU agents in “Darkness at Noon” makes me equate OGPU agents and inquisitors. Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” makes a parallel between the witch hunts in colonial Massachusetts and the McCarthyite inquisition in post-WW2 United States. I think the parallels are reasonable.

One figure heroic to me stands out. Sebastian Castellio (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_Castellio) protested the execution of Servetus in Calvin’s Geneva at a time when both Catholics and Protestant burned dissenters at the stake and most of their approved Servetus' execution. Even though Castellio disagreed with Servetus he maintained Servetus had a right to have his views. Castellio wrote: “To kill a man is not to protect a doctrine, but it is to kill a man.”

Chinese philosophy recognizes seven emotions – joy, anger, grief, fear, love, hate, desire. I think it reasonable to assume hunter-gatherers, medieval Jews and Christians along with ourselves have those seven