They also published data broken out by education level. 59% of people with no college experience believed Jesus was coming, while only 19% of college graduates believed in a return by 2050.

Along these lines, L. Michael White, a professor of Classics and Christian Origins at the University of Texas at Austin, recently published a new book called Scripting Jesus: The Gospels in Rewrite. In the book, White:

“demonstrates that each of the four gospel writers had a specific audience in mind and a specific theological agenda to push, and consequently wrote and rewrote their lives of Jesus accordingly—in effect, scripting Jesus to get the desired audience reaction.”

Sounds like an interesting read.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you, don’t resist him who is evil; but whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.” — Matthew 5:38-39

Jesus believed in forgiveness, not in sin as a debt to be repaid. Bess titles his article, “How Christianity Lost Jesus” and feels that the western world in this century has embraced “an eye for an eye” in utter rejection of what Christ taught. How did it happen? Read the article and see his description of how Paul’s theology trumped Jesus’ teachings. Bess closes with:

“There is no evidence that the practice of ‘eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’ ever produced an honorable result, made people more whole with lives that are more satisfying, or produced a society that is good for all.”

For an account of what happened on Good Friday, you could certainly grab your copy of What He Said and read the narrative of the Four Gospels. Or, you could rely on trusty Wikipedia. Interesting to see that the Crucifixion of Jesus was “most probably on a Monday” in the year 33 AD.

I thought his response to a question about the accuracy of the written record was interesting:

…where we find discrepancies from one Gospel to another, that doesn’t really tell us anything about Jesus. It tells us about the people who were writing about Jesus.

“Jesus doesn’t say anything about orientation in the Gospels. Instead he teaches love and compassion. If anything, the only thing he speaks out against is divorce, and you don’t see them trying to outlaw divorce. What we’re dealing with are anthropological issues about human dignity and human worth.” – Reverend Peter Antoci of the Episcopal-Anglican Campus Ministry

“Christ” is actually Jesus’ title and means, in Greek, “the anointed one.” I learned some things in this article.

Case in point: this guy. Can you imagine a worse way of getting the message across to young people than yelling out “You’re a hussie and going to hell!” and wearing a big red sign around your neck proclaiming, “You Deserve Hell”?

This interesting article provides a number of viewpoints. Clement Mehlman, a Lutheran chaplain at Dalhousie University, agrees with Moore:

“Jesus says to follow Him, you have to give everything you own to the poor. How many Christians do you see doing that? It’s a text that should be thrown at the wealthy fat cats.”

Others feel that the problems lie not in capitalism, itself, but in the way it is used. Rev. Gary Thorne, an Anglican minister and chaplain with Dalhousie and the Canadian Forces Reserves, talks about the “intent of the heart” in looking at free markets. He cites the history of the church and points out the Martin Luther and John Calvin were all in favor of capitalism as a way to motivate people to work hard, support their families and please God. Thorne also says that the most important thing about acquiring wealth, for a Christian, should be a willingness to share it.

“Any Christian who says that we pay too much in taxes is just bonkers.”

The article goes on to talk about a middle ground and I encourage you to dive in.

Rev. Anderson points to three pieces of evidence for his claim: (1) the expensive gifts baby Jesus received from the three wise men; (2) the fact that Mary and Joseph rode a donkey (“Cadillac”) to Bethlehem; and (3) that Roman soldiers gambled for Jesus’ undergarments.

Others disagree. Bruce W. Longenecker, a Baylor University religion professor says, “The only way you can make Jesus into a rich man is by advocating torturous interpretations and by being wholly naive historically.” You can read more about the debate here.