Who Would Jesus Torture?

A Pew poll revealed that church-going Christians are more likely to sanction torture than the general population. People not affiliated with organized religion are less-likely to approve of torture.

You might wonder if those depictions of Jesus being tortured to death has desensitized Christians to the concept of torture but it appears not to be so because more evangelical Christians approve of torture than do Catholics and the latter group use the Jesus-on-the-cross more than do evangelicals.

My conclusion is that evangelicals have an inherent character-defect which is evident in their support for the Republican party. Both evangelicals and Republicans have demonstrated that they are motivated by fear and leaders of these groups motivate their followers (sheep) through the use of fear (fear of terrorists, socialism, Obama, the big bad wolf and hell).

Unfortunately, the Pew poll didn't include Pastafarians, a group more likely to be motivated by fun and not easily frightened. After all when your deity is a monster, you got no worries.

Farewell to Falwell

While the media polishes Jerry Falwell's biography, I'll remember him as a smug, holier-than-thou spewer of hate - more political that spiritual, more self-righteous than insightful and more divisive than uniting.

His high profile on 24-hour news programs provided him with a public forum in which he became a leader of knuckle-dragging idiots, too stupid to think rationally and too slack-jawed to know any better.

If I were a Christian, I'd be ashamed to be associated with people like that. In an interview with Shambala Sun, Alice Walker shared her insights about Christianity:

"I love Jesus; I think Jesus was wonderful. However, I think he has been distorted terribly. I want to see the wizardry of Jesus restored. I want to feel his dancing quality and his joyfulness. It's a terrible thing that they have left him in that tortured, naked condition, which is bound to frighten most children. Just imagine if he were depicted like the Buddha. I love the way the Buddha goes through all his changes and he's basically very happy. Suffering is not the end-all in life. It is a part of it, and then we rise above it, we work through it, we transform it. Jesus did that."

Jerry Falwell is gone and the world is a lighter place in his absence.