Not
only did the founders of Christianity criticize overzealous adherence to
religious law, they also criticized organized religion, just as Jesus himself
did throughout his ministry. Something that the leaders of today’s churches
don’t like to emphasize.
The
new pope has affirmed that, as long as you are doing good things in this world,
you don’t need to believe in god at all, to be redeemed, because Jesus saved
even the atheists, with his sacrifice. The pope’s adherents point to the first
epistle to Timothy, in which Paul said that Jesus gave himself as a ransom for
all of us. Atheists are also “saved”. So just as the first founders of
Christianity said that following “God’s law” was not necessary, the new
leadership asserts that even belief is optional, as long as you’re doing good.
The pope's spokesman is now backpedalling but hey, the Church says the pope is infallible,
right? So he couldn't have been wrong. Right?
The
Pope later doubled down his bets by writing to an Italian paper, saying that atheists
who obey their conscience can still be saved, and that dialogue with atheists
is necessary.
Even the authors of the Gospel of John, the ones who
truly pushed the idea that one must be on Team Jesus to be saved, admitted that wasn’t really the case. Here’s
John 10: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the
sheep.
The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep.
So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the
wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired
hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good
shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as
the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.
I have other sheep that are not of this fold.”
I have other sheep that are not of this fold. The gospel
is saying the same thing the Pope said – you don’t even need to be part of
Jesus’ flock to be saved.
Of course it is early to get excited about the new Pope.
He said very progressive things on both atheists and gays – and his Vatican
people immediately backtracked on what the Pope said, in both cases.
**UPDATE** Maybe it's not too early.
POPE
REJECTS RIGID MORALISTS, SAYS THEY’RE NOT REAL CHRISTIANS …
In
October 2013, Pope Francis went so far as to say that Christians who become
ideological bigots are sick and are not real Christians.
“The
faith passes, so to speak, through a distiller and becomes ideology. And
ideology does not beckon [people]. In ideologies there is not Jesus: in his
tenderness, his love, his meekness. And ideologies are rigid, always. Of every
sign: rigid. And when a Christian becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has
lost the faith: he is no longer a disciple of Jesus, he is a disciple of this
attitude of thought… For this reason Jesus said to them: ‘You have taken away
the key of knowledge.’ The knowledge of Jesus is transformed into an
ideological and also moralistic knowledge, because these close the door with
many requirements. The faith becomes ideology and ideology frightens, ideology
chases away the people, distances, distances the people and distances of the
Church of the people. But it is a serious illness, this of ideological
Christians. It is an illness, but it is not new, eh?”
Woah.
This
is the leader of the Catholic Church, the leader in rigid, moralistic,
exclusionary doctrine for 2000 years. Saying the hard-core Jesus People are too
rigid. Wow.
You
folks over at the Westboro Baptist Church – you hear that? The Pope himself has
thrown you out of the Jesus Pool because you can’t even play nice with other
Christians. Michelle Bachmann, Rick Perry, Rick Scott, Scott Walker, Rand Paul,
Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Operation Rescue, Tony Perkins? Christian
Number One has rejected you from the faith, because you’re hate-filled bigots.
And
the same pope who is slamming the door on homophobic bigots, is holding the
door open for gays and atheists.
