thought of the day.253

Some Mistakes of Jesus

Jesus has long been proclaimed as Perfect. Sinless. The Prince of Peace. God in the flesh! But Jesus wasn’t perfect, sinless, a promoter of peace, nor a deity come to earth. Jesus was a mythological character—and a very flawed one at that.

1. Jesus committed an unforgivable sin by never once condemning slavery. This failure shows he wasn’t divine, nor even as enlightened as other men of his time who did condemn it. He should have made it clear that it was profoundly evil to own humans as property. Jesus’ silence on this fundamental matter of morality allowed the slave trade to flourish at the hands of Christians and made the lives of countless men, women and children a living hell.

2. Jesus initially refused to heal a little girl and referred to her and her non-Jewish mother as “dogs” because they were outside his small circle of concern. (Mt 15:22-28, Mk 7:25-30) He only healed a handful of people with his supernatural powers. Why so damn stingy? Besides healing this child he should have given the world tips on preventing diseases like the Black Death that killed over 75 million.

3. Jesus killed an out of season fig tree because he was hungry and it had no fruit. (Mt 21:18-22 Mk 11:12-14, 19-25) This was a ridiculously senseless and selfish act which denied food and shelter for human and creature alike. If Jesus had any common sense he would have known it wasn’t fig season and that searching the tree was pointless. He should have “blessed” the tree with fruit rather than “curse” it with death and explained that it’s evil to kill things just because they disappoint us.

4. Jesus sent demons into 2,000 pigs causing them to run into the sea and drown. (Mk 5:1-17) St. Augustine explained that this act was intended to teach us that we have no responsibilities for the welfare of animals. St. Thomas Aquinas agreed and thought there was nothing wrong in itself with making animals suffer. Pete Singer explains that as late as the middle of the nineteenth century “Pope Pius IX refused permission for the founding of a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Rome, on the grounds that to grant permission would imply that human beings have duties to the lower creatures.” How differently animals would have been treated if Jesus had said a few words about treating all life—even pigs— with reverence instead of sending them to a watery grave.

5. Jesus promised that believers could pick up venomous snakes and drink poison without being harmed (Mk 16:17-18) leading to thousands of bites, deformities and nearly a hundred documented deaths in the last century alone. I’m not sure who is more irresponsible and stupid—Jesus or those that believed him. He should have encouraged people to ignore “teachers” who spouted such harmful nonsense.

6. Jesus proclaimed that he didn’t come to bring peace to the world but “division.” (Lk 12:49-53) He promised that because of him families would be divided—fathers against sons, mothers against daughters, and daughters-in-law against mothers-in-law. He said “a man’s worst enemies will be members of his own family.” (Mt 10:36) He should have worked to unite the family, communities, countries and world.

7. Jesus demonized unbelieving Jews, calling them “evil,” “serpents,” and children of the “devil” leading to 2,000 years of Jewish persecution. He should have explained how immoral and destructive it is to dehumanize people.

8. Jesus said he hadn’t come to do away with the Law of Moses (which includes commands to chop off wives’ hands (Dt 25:11-12), burn daughters (Lv 21:9) and stone sons (Dt 21:18)) but to make the teachings come true. In fact, he warned that obeying the Law was necessary to enter the Kingdom of heaven. (Mt 5:17-20) He should have condemned the Law of Moses as the work of manipulative and power hungry men and explained that the Kingdom of heaven was not a place to go after death but a state of mind to be achieved here and now.

9. Jesus said he didn’t come to bring peace but a sword (Mt 10:34) and told his followers if they didn’t own a sword to sell their coat and buy one (Luke 22:36). He told violent parables about a vineyard owner slaying his tenants; a master slicing up his slave; a king commanding his enemies be executed in front of him; a stone symbolizing himself, upon which people are broken to pieces and under which others are crushed; and threatened to throw Jezebel and her adulturous partners on a bed where he would make them “suffer terribly” and “kill her children.” (Rev 2:22-23) He should have explained that violence only begets violence.

10. Jesus was the most intolerant character ever as he promised eternal torture for those who didn’t agree with him. This evil idea has caused more suffering than any concept in history. His description of sinners being gathered and cast into the fiery furnace led to the burning of hundreds of thousands if not millions of people as heretics and witches and his threats of torture still cause mental anguish and divisiveness today. He should have said there was no more wicked idea than hell and that it was merely that, an idea used to control people.