Dear Donna
first a technical point.. there is no 'Matthew 31' I think you mean Mat 25:31 etc...
but you would have done well to quote the 31st verse..and remind us of the context of our Lords words

"When the Son of Man comes in His glory... he will separate the sheep from the goats" etc...

After this, he asks them the questions you quoted.

We need to be very clear on our Lords intent, and the appropriate application of his Words. The 'hungry' he is referring to, (if one takes the Old Testament background into consideration) are those who are disadvantaged through no fault of their own, "The alien and the fatherless". Sure.. but NOT those who come to the land of Israel to intermarry with Israelites, NOR those who sought to lead Israelites astray to idolatry..

in other words.. there was a FRAMEWORK and limits to the allowable behavior of non Israelites in Israel.

Just so, it is futile to refer to those, who were one weekend laughing it up in Macca's in Jakarta.. having EVERYTHING that assylum 'is', as those deserving of compassion the week following simply because they made a dangerous boat voyage as economic opportunists deliberately and maliciously flouting Australias laws on Immigration, and claiming to qualify as 'The alien and the fatherless' as mentioned in the Old Testament.

Far from being 'The hungry who needed food' they were the 'criminal who is deserving of incarceration'

Far from being the 'naked who needed clothes' they were the opportunists seeking to que jump others'.

The values which are 'Christian' and thus "Judao" also, are 2 fold

1/ Love God with all your heart
2/ Love your neighbour as yourself.

Having lived in Malaysia for around 8 yrs, I know for a fact, that if I as an Australian tried to flout their immigration regulations, I would be deserving of the full force of their laws. In just the same way, we treat those seeking to enter Australia illegally as we ourselves would and should be treated by others.

Donna, just love reading your stories ....... dunno why? Provocative perhaps. But "Christian values" coming from the Smirk Costello along with his dillsong appearances is about as mad as it gets.

Most people can develop values ( ethos, morals and ethics) such as goodness, love, curiosity, inquiry, justice, peace, joy, humour, generosity, understanding, empathy, excellence, etc and maintain a paradigm considerably higher than that presented by the Christian hierarchy.

e.g.
The Christian hierarchy will come out promoting grace, faith, love and hope as the message supposedly coming from teddy (god) and expecting to deliver joy and peace. However these amount to fake values when one sees unashamed discrimination, unashamed belief stamping, unashamed indoctrination of superstition, mythology, miracles, magic and bad science, unashamed subsidies from governments, unashamed ingenious psychological efforts to control minds and bodies, unashamed promotion of a life of self-deception, unashamed physical and emotional dependence, unashamed rote learning in wrong order, unashamed chanting and talking in tongues, , , , , etc.

Pete was there for the votes. No religious 'wonderment' about that!

Keiran: Please you are getting man-made religion mixed up with Christianity.
Religion is the bells, smells, pretty frocks? for the preachers and funny hats with elaborate ceremonies taken from paganism and total hypocrisy this is far from what Jesus taught very far indeed. numbat

Numbat, this is a cop-out, and you know it.

>>you are getting man-made religion mixed up with Christianity<<

This is the argument that you, Boaz and the rest use to excuse all the crimes perpetrated in the name of Christianity over the ages. It goes like this: crimes against humanity (e.g. the crusades, the inquisition, burning witches etc.) by definition cannot have been perpetrated by Christians, because real Christians don't do that stuff.

The logical fallacy of your statement is in the fact that Christianity, like every religion, is “man-made”. Think for a moment: how exactly would you, in the twentyfirst century, be aware of Christianity if its foundations hadn't been created, and its associated rituals perpetuated, by men? Even Jesus left no personal records behind – everything is in reported speech, written and interpreted by others.

As far as I can tell, the only direct communication between the “Christian God” and his people was when he wrote on Moses' tablets. But there again, this was a message to the Jewish people, since Christianity didn't exist at the time.

All religions, bar none, are created by men, for men.

There is a subtext to this thread that fascinates me – let's call it Hillsong-envy.

The amount of money these guys raise from their congregation that goes straight into direct-help projects in needy corners of the world is prodigious. Yet other, supposedly Christian, congregations who cannot raise a hundredth of this amount (and then use it to re-roof their church building) exhibit a most un-Christian amount of envy.

I am not a religious person, but I have a great deal of admiration for their charitable works. This position is possibly coloured by the fact that every member of Hillsong I have met (and they are very clannish, almost masonic) exhibits the kind of love-thy-neighbour characteristics that would send Boaz into ecstasy.

Interesting juxtaposition, charity on one side and envy on the other.

pericles: You are getting man-made - What would you know about Christianity?
This is an arguement - Again what would an unbeliever know about true Christianity?
As far as you can tell - that says it all!
All religion bar none - Again your anti-religious bias is showing as well as your total ignorance.
Hillsong envy - You must be joking! By the way didn't they get into some strife recently for alleged wrongful use of Government, tax payers, money, after all they are man-made religion.
How do you know what other groups raise or what individual Christians do with their money - ignorance once again, have you no shame at all?
I am not a religious - We can readily see that, more the pity. But one day you will be and be so thankful.
Interesting jux. - Your views from utter ignorance only.
By the way I would much sooner live in a not perfect Christian nation than live in an islamic or other pagan nation and if you were truthful SO WOULD YOU! numbat