Since this is the issue you have decided to question I will play along. I will give you that he had an issue with the organized church in Jamaica. I also NEVER said rastafarians are Christians. I said they like the Bible. BTW, I know what rastafarians teach. So Babylon is the church? Really? Love to see a source for that. The funny thing is you are trying to come after me because of my name on CF. I have been on CF for a long time. I chose this name when I was still in HS. I never changed it because I enjoyed Marley's music. The fact this is all you have shows how little you really have to say.
Let's not forget that Russia still has yet to announce the final conclusion of its investigation into the downed Russia airliner.
Luke 23:66 to 23:4: [rquoter]66 At daybreak the nation’s leaders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law of Moses got together and brought Jesus before their council. 67 They said, “Tell us! Are you the Messiah?” Jesus replied, “If I said so, you wouldn’t believe me. 68 And if I asked you a question, you wouldn’t answer. 69 But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right side of God All-Powerful.” 70 Then they asked, “Are you the Son of God?” Jesus answered, “You say I am!” 71 They replied, “Why do we need more witnesses? He said it himself!” Everyone in the council got up and led Jesus off to Pilate. 2 They started accusing him and said, “We caught this man trying to get our people to riot and to stop paying taxes to the Emperor. He also claims that he is the Messiah, our king.” 3 Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” “Those are your words,” Jesus answered. 4 Pilate told the chief priests and the crowd, “I don’t find him guilty of anything.”[/rquoter] From the context, I think the implication is that it was a trumped up charge leveled at Jesus to justify a punishment from Herod. When the Jews are questioning him, the focus is on whether he'll claim to be God. Then all of a sudden, they are talking about taxes with the Roman leadership. And all of this is after they had earlier tried to pressure and trap him into saying you shouldn't pay the taxes, and he said you should. And, thinking more broadly about his attitude toward the Romans, he doesn't really seem to have any bad thing to say about them that I can remember. He hangs out with tax collectors. He heals a Roman centurion. What anti-Rome thing did he ever do?
Jesus has likely walked in Syrian lands many moons ago, just as apostles Paul, John and Phillip walked towards Turkey to settle, as did Mary. Jesus was not blonde and blue eyed. His early followers were labeled terrorists and heretical insurrectionists, some whom were crucified, beheaded or fed to the lions. Just as some Muslims drink, eat pork, and sleep around, being Christian and acting Christian are two different things. The secular side of me wants more screening and more security if/when we take in refugees. I can't make the ethical calculus of what a success rate is. Preferably zero terrorists, but if one out of a hundred thousand later pokes his filthy face on the news, could I answer that? Probably not to the victims families. But are we really the best and strongest nation? Is this a nation under God like many Americans feel in their bones? Maybe the pussification of Merca runs deep.
Teaching there is no other God? Those things Romans sure don't like. Also you fail to understand the ministry that Jesus had. He was sent as a messenger to Israel. He came seeking the lost sheep of Israel. The remnant that remained. Other's were tasked with confronting the Gentile world. To say he didn't really care about Rome is to misunderstand the purpose of Jesus ministry.
When did Jesus do anything that had anything to with this? God also gave us minds and we are responsible for protecting our family and nation from outside attackers. Yeah, but you can use common sense to eliminate some ways for enemies to enter.
I love how "Christian" our right-wingers are when it comes to actually having to use Christian values for something other than abortion.
The Jews? The Jews don't get involved until the last gospel - John. And part of those charges were his opposition to Roman taxes. He even overturned the money changing tables in the temple. I'm guessing that is pretty anti-Roman - not sure how people could pay the tax without buying Roman currency. As a Christian I also have secular beliefs. I certainly don't see any harm in reducing risk of a terrorist attack by not allowing 10k refugees into the country. I don't think Jesus would oppose such actions.
I love how others project their expectations of what Christianity is onto people who claim Christ. When talking to my Kenyan friends about the refugee situation they don't see anything wrong with not allowing them in the USA. If they could they would stop the flow of Somalians into their country because of the massive pain and suffering it has caused, but hindsight is a thing...
You really want some to respond, don't you? Could you clarify what you mean rather than making your typical starwman arguments?
I think a blanket block on all Syrian's refugee into the USA is not common sense. I think that's fear driven (understandably so after recent events) and is an over-reaction. Caution and being smart is definitely warranted. We were already doing that with how few refugee we allowed in for the past few years. After the world saw photos of the dead baby, we reacted to that in a very small way with a 10k allowance of immigrants from Syria. That allowance still go through the same process - very thorough reviews and long delays. It's not like we open our arms and said, come in now. And 10k, frankly, is a drop in a bucket and is symbolic more than anything. There are also other ways of going about this than a total NO. Perhaps we prioritize certain type of families, review the checks and see if they can be more thorough, maybe even have some requirement for monitoring over some period of years or travel restrictions... those can be worked to come up with an even better approach and I think that would be common sense and sensible reaction.
Didn't the US accept a decent # of Somalian refugees in the 90s and is still continuing to accept several thousand every year (mostly from the camps in Kenya). Last time I checked Al Shabaab is not running amok in Minneapolis, so I doubt accepting a couple thousand of Syria refugees will create some kind of ISIS stronghold.
Answering the question "what would Jesus do?" can be quite difficult. There's plenty of disagreement on what a Christian is, or what it means to be Christian. There are many who feel that being Christian means striving to be Christ-like. For these, the teachings, parables, words, and actions of Christ are an example for how one should live their own life. If one does not feel that it's important to be Christ-like, then the entire question "WWJD?" is moot. But let's say it's not moot. Now, asking WWJD about choosing the best ice cream flavor or best way to repair a car may be pretty hard, since ice cream and cars didn't exist in his time. Asking WWJD about global economic/political policy is hard, because there are numerous economic and political policies at play presently that never were in his time. It's a great debate to have, but difficult to resolve. However, the bible is not lacking in examples when it comes to Jesus helping people in need. Or sacrificing his own health or safety to save others. Now, we can re-frame the question to whatever scale you find palatable. If Jesus as head-of-state doesn't work, I can understand why. How about Jesus as head of a household, when a group of ten refugees knocks on the door, asking for shelter and food? (But one of them might be a murderous traitor?) How about Jesus as a guy who could influence a village of 100 people, when 100 refugees arrive asking for assistance? What would he say? Now, if one feels that striving to be Christ-like is important, but at the same time think that an objective reading of the gospel of Christ would lead you to believe that he'd refuse assistance to refugees fleeing their homes... I don't know what to say. Is this something Jesus would say? Would he ever choose his own safety over helping someone else? Would he ever choose security over compassion? Honest question.
