Interesting Clippings from Globe and Mail

I read the Globe and Mail over the weekend and there were some interesting articles that caught my eye:

A] Taking Christ Out of Christianity [LINK]

"There is no authoritative Big-Godism, as Rev. Gretta Vosper, West Hill's minister for the past 10 years, puts it. No petitionary prayers (“Dear God, step into the world and do good things about global warming and the poor”). No miracles-performing magic Jesus given birth by a virgin and coming back to life. No references to salvation, Christianity's teaching of the final victory over death through belief in Jesus's death as an atonement for sin and the omnipotent love of God. For that matter, no omnipotent God, or god."

This is amazing, what they want is the comforting tradition and religious sentiment. One could argue then that if we want a "true" Christianity we need to remove the comforting traditions and religious sentiments and we might approach what Jesus intended. In my opinion, the Church is here for comfort. That is comfort in the old military meaning of the word ... to bring back strength to the wounded so they can return to the battlefield (not fort-up and shoot tracts at the lost).

B] God's Sugar Daddy [Link]

This biographical article is written by a freelance writer that normally writes a modern life column for the style section of the GandM. That said, she is a literate and insightful young woman who does her work.

The article is about John Templeton who as an investor was able to make billions by the old "Buy-low-sell-high" mantra but who is so frugal that while he owns a significant part of Kia he refused to buy a Kia automobile because he thought they were overpriced.

The point is that John Templeton has personally financed a wide spectrum of prizes in the Science and Spirit research. In fact the Templeton Prize is larger than the Nobel Prize. This has fostered a research culture that is a small mirror of the kept scientists that work for the secular research funding agencies. This really has ticked off the secular scientists. It all comes from the heart and mind of a very rich, very curious and very aware old man. One wonders what will happen when he eventually passes away and the source of this reviving vision fades with him.

C] Jesus the Jew and the Christian cover-up [Link]

"The short version of Wilson's thesis, which he calls the "Jesus Cover-Up Thesis," is this: The spiritual figure that billions of Christians worship worldwide as the Son of God was, in fact, a Jew, a rabbi, and a revered teacher of the early first century who obeyed and championed the Torah. Jesus (or more accurately in Hebrew, Yehoshua or Yeshu) prayed in synagogue and urged his followers to adhere strictly to Jewish law. Only in this way, he promised, would the Kingdom of God become a reality. Wilson probes the Jewish roots of the Lord's Prayer, the Sermon on the Mount and the Last Supper (which is more commonly recognized as a Passover seder, although there were likely many more people in attendance than the 12 disciples portrayed in Leonardo da Vinci's celebrated painting). In Wilson's view, Jesus wanted to improve Jewish life, not abolish it. He did not proclaim himself to be a "Christ" figure or a "Son of God." That came later."

The Bible says that there is no new thing under the Sun and I have heard this message in a number of forms since I was young but is seems that it is being refined and becoming more "fashionable". Keep an eye on this one I think it is going to grow.