Thank you for the clarification Daviy. I spent three years studying law, and the last five attending two different Protestant churches, and since I have a special interest in Constitutional law, I have sought out the connections between Christianity and the Australian Constitution.

Every government of every description acts as a church. Almost every government has a constitution. Under Mao in Red China it was the little Red Book. I happen to believe that Christianity, not a sectarian church, is the very best system of government ever devised, and that point two-five of one percent of the population has hijacked the Australian Christian Church; those mentioned in Luke 11 Verses 46 and 52.

Australia was constituted as a universal catholic church, under one representative of Almighty God; currently Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second. From 1215, when the Barons, advised by good churchmen decided the Gospels, of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, would be the English Constitution, and extended its protection to every subject of the King, by the Magna Carta and Coronation Oath 1688 the English and United States have rarely looked back.

The central philosophy of the Christian faith, is that Almighty God keeps his word and is faithful, and is a trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The government of England was always carried out through little c courts; The same as in Ch III Constitution. To divine the will of the Holy Spirit, the Scripture in Matthew 18 verse 20, was called upon. Where two or three are gathered together, there am I in their midst. This was the all powerful divine board of review, a Justice with a jury, that guaranteed the just terms, cited in Section 51 (xxxi) Constitution. Until 1927, jury trials were universal in the Commonwealth until misguided governments abolished civil juries. In 1996, the High Court ruled the establishment of one man Courts illegal. It ruled parliament is not infallible, and cannot become a substitute Pope. Without jury trials, as of right, the government is atheist. The Liberal/Labor lawyers Parties have destroyed the Commonwealth, and divided the Australian Governments amongst themselves

Well said in the article, and by Daviy.
What Jesus actually stood for is the opposite of what the Christian church says and does.
The fact is that the Church is pandering to the very human, animal urges for comfort, community and for "others" to denigrate.
Allowing the church to remain respectable when they obviously still harbor paedophiles and support jingoistic war presidents is not acceptable. I've nothing against private religious people, but organised lying to the masses, based on a lie, perpetrated by child abuse (more lying) is just plain evil.

Christianity has much to offer the world that is floundering in its search for meaning and purpose. Philosophers that draw from the cesspool of crass materialism are all the poorer for the effort and offer nothing more than despair and death. The last thing that is offered is peace and hope.

The Bible is a collection of beautifully crafted mythological truths or which allow us to search for them something the churches have resisted because they have always claimed to be the only arbiters of the truth. This is because they seek to control and augument their power and hold over men and women. Nothing else.

The wisdom of the ages is available to all if the effort can be made to read and interpret for yourself what is said.What happened and what history bears testimony to are the additions power-crazy men who love the smell of candlewax and incense have added.They have invented doctrines and elaborate costumes and crazy caps and hats to go with the whole sheebang to look good. Actually they are the most hideous specimens of humanity.

socratease

I do thank you, Socratease, for your flattering description of me and my fellow-Christians (smile).
The discussion seems to be dividing into praise of Christian ideals and disgust at the Christian church. The church is the institution which imperfectly embodies the Christian faith. As institution it constantly falls short of its ideals. It is important to live in this tension.
Pursuing this as a divide (praise for Christian ideas, disgust at the church) will obscure one of Christianity's central insights: to live well, we need each other. We need community. I gain strength from the communities I live in, and especially from the community of Christian believers. Christianity's emphasis on the communitarian is a critique of the individualism which leads to so much evil in our society.

In several places in the article and in posts there has been mention of Jesus and his philosophies separate from Christianity. Here is a link to a non-Christian view of 'The Sermon on the Mount' for those interested in seeing what alternatives to Christianity Jesus has to offer.
http://www.david-young.com.au/ezines/Sermon.html

Peter the Believer,

Would it not have been more powerful had the Christian trinity not developed from a duo godhead (Tertillian)and was not a replica of the Serapis godhead? If an anthropologist sees repetitions along a basic theme, is it not reasonable to assume a common cause? The common cause being a societal imerative synthesizing religion constructs in play.

Given the Serapis trinity predated the Christian one, it makes it harder for a religionist to convince the skeptic that it is unique, because it is not.

Also, trinities are known to various religions throughout the world, even to traditional Hawaiians. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Ghost): Nothing special in comparative religious histographies.