Danes feel Obama is greater than Jesus

[kandrathe]

There is, however, only one Fred Phelps: a man so utterly devout, scrupulously honest, and completely fracking nuts that he is hated by all his contemporaries, except a small circle of fanatically devoted allies. He spends all day telling people exactly why they're going to hell if they fail to embrace his precise brand of crazy, whether they want to hear it or not. In this, he reminds me of Jesus.

He is exactly the kind of religious zealot in which you and I are both disgusted. The kind of zealot whose followers actually may be incited to do violence. He is a bad example for Christianity, and humanity in general. I'd throw in many other notorious examples as just bad Christians, like Pat Robertson and anyone associated with the 700 club.

I don't think Phelps is anything like Jesus at all. Phelps and his followers are filled with hate and rage. I think Jesus was a controversial Rabbi who was leading Judaism in a new direction, past its hyper focus on physical purity and legalism. But in all of that controversy within Judaism, Jesus never stopped preaching anything but total love for humanity. Paul, actually began his Christian walk as a bounty hunter, paid by the Sanhedrin to hunt down Jesus' followers. He was one of the more brilliant and well schooled Judaic "lawyers" of his time, and lived as an ascetic Jew until his conversion. Archeology of that time is very revealing. In Jerusalem, the Rabbi's of the temple had special walkways so that they would not ever come in contact with normal (dirty) people. Which puts Jesus' schism of walking among the lepers and sick in the streets into a different light. No wonder he became wildly popular with the people, as he was willing to mingle with all classes of people.