Haters and Scripture

I went to the Council Grove Christian Church, a fundamentalist independent church which functions under the governance of a local board, and found a congregation that thrives on hate. I was almost taken in. I went for two weeks and my treatment was open and welcoming. This week a small video was shown that showed the nation of Qatar. The Pastor decried the wealth of the Qatari and the fact that they invited persons from other Asian nations to work for their people. He stated that the people were crying out for G-d and that they needed Jesus. I noticed that in the evening they would have a supposed expert on Communism that would tell you why it was still a threat and next week someone would talk about Mormonism. Such falsehoods here expressed made me wonder whether their smiling faces were all the way to trick the Rabbi into coming their direction.

Jesus never once spoke against any other religious faith. He spoke about Jews and how Jews should act, not believe. Some churches thrive on instilling fear in their people and then like a parasite they feed off of that fear and stroke it and teach it. It is much easier to teach hate and fear than it is to teach the duty to love ones neighbor. In Jesus day, the Mormons of the day were called Samaritans (still are) and the Jews hated them, not because they did not keep the Torah, but because they were not following the authorities in Jerusalem. Mormons have many laudable qualities, openness being excepted as they have none. They are getting back what they give, but lest someone throw a stone at my house, which I believe is built on rock and out of stone, I will defend the right of a person to follow their teachings. I am not afraid of a defeated "ism" or an "ism" like capitalism which has no protection against greed. I have no fear of Mormonism, Islam, Buddhism, etc. My faith is right for me and the existence of contrary views does not challenge me.

I went to the web site of this Council Grove Christian Church and found that they believe that the bible is inerrant. For those of you that still feel that the bible does not have any errors, I recommend Bart Ehrman's new book Forged.  This book will show you why the Bible is not free from errors. In fact he argues strongly that forgeries made it into the new testament. Based upon his criteria, the book of Deuteronomy is a forgery and was not sanctioned by Moses. However, I have told you before, the only portion of the scripture which was written from on high were the 613 mitzvot or commandments. All the rest of scripture is written by man and must be read within the context of its writing so that you can discern what comes from G-d and what does not.

Council Grove is not the desert or the wilderness in a physical since, but Council Grove, Kansas is intellectually the desert and yet there are those who seek to water in this desert. Mrs. McClintock asked me to lead a group which would talk about the hot issues of the day: political, scientific, and religious. There are those who hunger for truth here.

So long from the desert.