There are lots of things Jesus never mentioned. He never spoke of the dangers of drunk driving. He never mentioned corrupt politicians. He was never critical of government torture or of public executions. He never was critical of the lack of public education - though that would later be a priority of His church. He never mentioned the lack of government social services. Or the very unequal distribution of wealth and opportunity.
Jesus lived over 2000 years ago in a world very different from this one. It was a world in which nobody even thought of challenging a government's right to do whatever it wished. There was no sense, none whatever, that the people had any right to question or judge their governments. The very notion of individual rights didn't exist. - and would not exist for a very long, long time.
To the best of my knowledge, He never specifically criticized abortion, just as he never warned people not to cross a street on a red light. He never warned against capitalism because there was no capitalism to warn about.
He never criticized government use of torture, though it was common. Do you seriously think He would have endorsed the American 'black' camps of our time?
By the standards you suggest, all the German churches had to do in following the teaching of Jesus was to make sandwiches for the Jews in the death camps. I cannot imagine Jesus accepting the murderous behaviour of His churches over the centuries or engaging in or supporting mass murder and deliberate starvation - and torture and an avaricious search for personal wealth.
We do not live in the world of 2,000 years ago. We have to adapt the spirit of the teaching of Jesus to the very different world we live in.
unless, of course, we all just wish to wear robes and sandals and drink wine all day - which is not a bad idea.
I don't actually drink wine. Never cared much for it. A rum and coke now and then, a vodka spritzer in the summer - but wine has never done much for me. Now, to the meat of your response.
So, you can't find those verses where Jesus challenges the Roman Empire. It's OK, because they don't exist. And it's not because at that time no one had the idea that they could challenge the Empire. Of course there were rebellions that broke out against Rome. There were people who opposed the Empire. But Jesus wasn't one of them apparently. Jesus might even have been a collaborator - probably was perceived as one by some people, which probably explains why the crowds turned away from him. Pay your taxes, if a soldier forces you to walk a mile - walk two, heal a centurion's servant, forgive the soldiers who crucify you. That sort of thing. It would be fascinating to put Jesus down in the middle of Nazi Germany to see how he would have handled things. Or in Canada today for that matter. Anyway ...
You're quite correct that there are a lot of things Jesus never spoke of. And no, I'm not suggesting that Jesus would endorse torture or anything else. Nor do I believe that all the German churches should have done in the 1930's was make sandwiches for the Jews. I would, mind you, point out that it's very easy for you, in 2018 in Canada, to pound away at your keyboard railing against the German Christians of the 1930's. Whether you would have been the brave and tough guy in Nazi Germany standing up for the Jews as the Gestapo closed in on you (or for that matter whether I would have been) who knows? I'm sure we both hope we would have been - but seriously - who knows? Maybe we'd have knuckled under too. We're 80 years and an ocean away from that environment, so we don't know. It's also easy in 2018 in Canada for you to pound away at your keyboard and attack the United States. Would you be so willing to do it elsewhere? If you were living in Moscow it would be riskier to attack Russia. If you were living in Beijing it would be even riskier to attack China. If you were living in Pyongyang? Well, risky probably doesn't do it justice. Who knows what you'd do. For all its faults (which you point out so regularly) New Brunswick is a pretty safe place to play keyboard warrior, I think. No matter what you write, it's not likely that the Irvings are going to send thugs to your door to drag you away in the middle of the night, after all. You can sleep easily.
I agree with you that the church has shamed itself many times in the last 2000 years by supporting what should have been unsupportable or endorsing what should have been obviously fought against. Too often, the church didn't do that. Too often, the church sold out, or knuckled under, or bought in, or just plain was too lazy and self-absorbed to do anything. The church deserves no credit for that. And, yes, we need to adapt the teachings of Jesus to the modern world. And I never said that the church should do nothing. I said that the church - especially as we go down to the level of the individual Christian - needs to do what it can. Should we protest against injustices and just plain evil acts? Yes, we should. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't provide sandwiches to the homeless as well. Or perhaps you think that German Christians in the 1930's should have made a big splash by protesting loudly against the Nazis and accomplishing nothing except being arrested, interned, shot, etc., rather than providing shelter (and food) to Jews - which many German Christians in the 1930's did.
And I repeat my question, which you deftly refused to answer. Maybe you thought I was being sarcastic - but I wasn't. You pound away at your keyboard writing your impressive little blog railing against all sorts of things. You spent all that time speaking at those synagogues impressing the Jewish congregants by talking about all those real issues that you think churches don't want to talk about. Good for you. What - precisely - have you actually changed by that? Whose life have you actually made just a little bit easier by that? To whom have you actually provided just a bit of material comfort to by doing that? I'm still willing to bet that Bette, for instance, has touched more people's lives in a real and practical and tangible way by providing sandwiches to homeless people than you have through all your blog entries and speaking gigs at synagogues combined.
And I'm not criticizing you for those things, although I do hope that you've also taken some time to serve some food to a few homeless people over the years - and I expect that you have. I've volunteered my time at homeless shelters and Out of the Cold Dinners, etc. I've pastored churches that have given away clothing (no charge) to anyone who needed it. These are very rewarding things to do and I hope you've experienced them. You do what you feel called to do, and I'm willing to bet that you do it very well. But I'm getting a little fed up with your constant harping about how everybody else is doing nothing while you change the world pounding away at that keyboard of yours. How's that working out for you?
