Atheist Devotional #254 (WWJD about the Occupy Movement Edition)

It's true! I found some PROOF! :)
"And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated. And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the moneychangers, and overturned their tables." (John 2:14-15)

So Jeebus kicked off in the rapid service cue.

Feisty wee *******

 That's right, perineal pea! 

( Oh the pastor in me is really struggling BUT as this is the Atheist Devotional, I'll quell her for the most part and respect the context of your post. )

From an historical, not theological, perspective there are some similarities between what was going on in the Temple and what happens in banks and corporations today.   The merchants were there to take advantage of the people in that situation--They'd sometimes traveled far and would be in need of animals for sacrifice.  Easier to buy on site than leave and go to another, potentially cheaper, source.  Easier to borrow funds there (and on Temple grounds! they must be honest!).  The people came to the Temple for many reasons and emotions could run high making them much easier prey for the unscrupulous.  The merchants saw fish in a barrel.

One theological point:  They had taken a place of Holiness and made it common.  They had reduced the beauty of worship to the crassness of a Kmart blue light special.  And they preyed on the ones Christ called to Himself: The Last, the Least and the Lost.   And sadly, the priests looked the other way and occasionally joined in. 

Another historical point:  This is one of the passages used to excuse the Pogroms against the Jews.  Some Christians came up with the idea they ought not to be money lenders but they happily borrowed from Jews, who could lend.  When the note came due, this passage was often used to rationalize driving the Jews from town or outright killing them.   That is what happens when people take scripture out of context.  A text without a context is just a pretext for anything you want it to mean. 

Based on this picture alone, I wonder if he isn't beating them for showing up in first century Palestine in 15th century Italian garb.  Who's the artist?  I bet some of the clearer faces are from certain 1% type circles.

  Chris Hedges: Where Were You When They Crucified My Lord? - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/wher...

The Occupy movement is the force that will revitalize traditional Christianity in the United States or signal its moral, social and political irrelevance. - 2011/12/05

 Hmm, our Occupy Lubbock group is a little vague on it's priorities. "Corporations are bad."  "We'll stay here until...um...it's over"

So thank you for this article.  I'll be interested to read it.  Social Justice is a lynch pin of theology.  When you claim to follow a guy whose main interests were feeding the hungry, healing the sick and embracing the outcasts, you have to cultivate those interests yourself.

Personally, I think if the Church would get off her over inflated arse and set about doing what she was called to do, this would be a very different world.  But oh it's so much more fun to say "God Bless, keep warm" and go about building our wealth rather than building the KIngdom.

ACK, now you've got me nearly preaching and I promised myself I wouldn't.  

(Go ahead, ask me about the 1st chapter of Acts and the 2...oh shoot, I'm a Methodist, I can't pinpoint verses to save my life, the bit in Matthew about the sheep and the goats...We'll be here all day and over load the servers! ;-) )

 Do a google search for "Occupy Wall Street Chris Hedges" and you should be completely caught up.  

My problem is with capitalists that claim Jesus as their own.

 Thank you, I will.

as to that cartoon...ugh.  Too much to say,  not much of it nice, about that kind of political psuedo-religious thinking.  Ranks up there with the Buddy Christ from Dogma.

Ragamuffin I have to agree with you on the fact that if the church would just get out there and do the good it should instead of building wealth all would be much better off, then maybe I wouldn't think of god and religion such a scam

 It breaks my heart to hear people turned off from the Creator Covenant God who loves them because of the behavior of those who are supposed to serve the world, not profit from it.