Talkin' about Je-sus

[redmomoko]

Yesterday I posted a question on FB asking Christian friends their reaction to question "If Jesus had died in bed at ripe old age, would he still have died for your sins?" Unfortunately, I was not able to phrase the question quite so pithly at the time so there was a lot of confusion about what I was asking. Here's where that came from

Comments

[redmomoko]

Yes, totally change everything but not have to die for it. The requirement of martyrdom is such a....thing for our culture. We assume that if you are a religious leader and you don't die at the hands of people who don't like you, then you are a fraud.
"Choose martydom brand for religious quality assurance!"

It seems to be that Christianity as practiced by most people who haven't had a lot of training in theology tends to be a big guilt stick. You are intrisicly bad because of original sin. Jesus came and redeemed mankind from original sin but because you, personally, are bad he got crucified and died horribly. It's your fault and you owe him. Thus a basic cultural assumption lurking in the unregarded part of the mind- you are basically bad and your basic badness killed the son of God but if you obey [insert religious/state/moral/familial authority] you won't have to suffer horribly after you die.

I'm not saying that Christian theology is actually that way- but it does seem to be the assumption of many Christians. I am saying that as a culture we have this basic guilty feeling about Jesus. A collective "oops!" I think that what I felt was a bit of that unexamined cultural guilt unraveling.

[merriehaskell]

The basic problem seems to be that the message prior to the Crucifixion never seems to be as important as the message imparted BY the Crucifixion, and that's where the speedbump is for me. Hm.

"Choose martydom brand for religious quality assurance!"

LOL