Let the dead bury the dead: The character of Jesus and genocide
“Let the dead bury their dead”...Matthew 8:22
In
my mind, perhaps the most
stunning words rendered from the
lips of Jesus were from Matthew
8:22 “Let the dead bury their
dead”.
These are the words of
Jesus given to a grieving
disciple, not to a foe! This
disciple wanted to go and bury
his dead father. Certainly life
should be respected and moral
beings should pay their respects
in memory to those loved ones
whom have just died, if they are
able to do so.
Jesus gets credited for
having great character and
compassion, but honesty demands
that his curt attitude towards
death, humanity, and lack of
respect for those in grief be
placed upon his sinless account!
The
Rumbula Forest (Riga, Latvia)
Recently,
I took a long walk through the
snow-covered Rumbula Forest on
the outskirts of Riga, Latvia.
I had driven past this
area many times in the past
year, not realizing the dark
historical significance of what
took place at this locale on
November 30 and December 08,
1941.
Some things should never
be forgotten! Since this will
reach an international audience,
I feel the need to briefly
introduce a portion of history
that is often never taught. My
purpose is two-fold. First, I
want to affirm that
genocide/holocausts are not a
figment of the imagination in
Eastern Europe, it is history!
Second I want to examine the
character of “Christ” and
bring up some of what I believe
to be original thoughts about
Jesus concerning his respect for
life and his reaction to
genocide.
Information
vs. Misinformation
People must realize that there is true information in life as well as misinformation. Just because someone writes or says something, doesn’t necessarily make it true or false. People can be mistaken and often agendas are at work to mislead people. A lot is at stake when you speak about genocide/holocausts. At this point, I can only tell you that I have been working to document events; some are gruesome accounts that I have been told by people that I trust. Any other statements now would be counter- productive to my pursuits.
According
to http://www.rumbula.org/remembering_rumbula.shtml
somewhere between 25,000 and
27,800 Jewish people were killed
on these two dates. My interest
in this comes from
relationships, location, and the
desire to use my background in
religion to break down hatred
with reason. Relationship wise,
my wife’s deceased father was
Jewish. His brother was taken
away to what was believed to be
a Siberian labor camp and was
never heard from again! Most
people do not realize that
unless your mother is Jewish,
you are not considered to be
Jewish by most Jewish people.
The reason my wife isn’t
considered to be Jewish is
because her mother is Latvian.
I do love my wife and am
coming to practically realize
what life is a small country and
Jewish descendants face on a
daily basis. It is wise for
those people that are hated
“to grow eyes in the back of
their heads”.
Would
Christianity have made a
difference?
In
my The Split Personality of
Christianity, I posed what I
then believed to be a deep
rhetorical question. The
question was, “Would
Christianity had made a
difference in a genocide
/holocaust situation”?
Several things have
helped me to satisfactorily
answer this question now: 1)
That stroll through the Rumbula
Forest; 2) Reading portions of
Richard Rhodes’ Masters of
Death: The SS Einsatzgruppen and
the Invention of the Holocaust;
3) Preparation for an upcoming
pod-cast about the character of
Christ!
In
his book, Rhodes speaks about a
method that the death squad at
Rumbala utilized that is in
common vernacular expressed as
sardine packing.
This book review link
will speak about this method of
killing and stacking of the dead
bodies, http://www.arlindo-correia.com/120802.html
, I caution you that this made
me sick when I read it.
In putting this all
together, after reading this,
you will understand that at
Rumbala the dead actually
participated in burying the
dead. Jesus’ ugly words,
“let the dead bury their
dead” has since gained a new
understanding to this
ex-minister!
Jesus
was silent about genocide
Do
you recall the maniac Herod in
Matthew 2:16-18 when he “sent
forth and slew all the children
that were in Bethlehem, and in
all the coasts thereof, from two
years old and under”?
Can anyone deny that this
is genocide?
Better yet, can anyone
tell me what Jesus had to say
about this atrocity?
Jesus was silent about
this horrible genocide! If Jesus
was God, as claimed, don’t you
think his addressing brutality
and bloodshed might have made
some difference within future
disciples?
History shows us that
religious leaders have a
propensity to attract bloodshed
more than peaceful solutions.
Voltaire was a wise man
that understood this: “Those
who can get you to believe
absurdities, can get you to
commit atrocities.”
The
Bible: An anti-Semitic book!
With
Jesus’ silence on genocide, I
want people to see that this
isn’t just a simple oversight.
A supposed deity doesn’t get
allowed to be silent about large
numbers of people being killed!
Certainly, he would be
considered to be a hypocrite to
speak out against Herod’s
genocide with the
Matthew 24 future mass
killing and planned destruction
of Jewish people in the
tribulation period that so many
Christians today speak of! Yes,
the bible is an anti-Semitic
book!
I
will propose two more reasons
why Christ was quiet about this.
Perhaps Jesus did speak
about this, but this wasn’t
included within the Christian
Canon.
A simple reading of John
21:25 would allow for this
scenario. “And there are also
many other things which Jesus
did, the which, if they should
be written every one, I suppose
that even the world itself could
not contain the books that
should be written. Amen.”
In a situation like this,
you would have to conclude that
this wasn’t considered
important enough to include
within the Canon of scripture
and thus shows apathy, cowardice
or acquiescence towards the
event!
A
Reasonable Explanation for the
Silence of Jesus
A
more likely reason that Jesus
was silent about this atrocity
is because Jesus was likely a
figment of someone’s
imagination, not a real life
historical person! In like
manner, this probably also
explains the silence of history
about such a dastardly deed like
Herod initiated! This fictional
character Jesus likely was a
created personage that later
grew into legendary status in
time. Simply put, the writing
creators of Jesus never thought
about this and the many other
problems within their fraudulent
Bible.
A great way to understand
how this might happen is to
watch the great movie, The
Shawshank Redemption.
In the later stages of
the movie, the Tim Robbins
character Andy Dufresne tells
his imprisoned friend “Red”
played by Morgan Freeman about
the lucrative scam that he had
concocted while in the prison.
Red is concerned that if
this gets discovered they will
come after Dufresne. Andy
Dufresne proceeds to tell Red
that if they do, all they will
find is a phantom, and will be
chasing a figment of his
imagination like Peter Rabbit or
Bugs Bunny. He had created false
passports and identifications,
by the time that people finally
understood this, he would be
long gone.
Concluding
T
In
conclusion, I am not impressed
with the character of Jesus.
Yes, some things attributed to
Jesus have value but we are not
speaking about some purported
man here, but supposedly God
himself! With this said, Jesus
is not worthy to be worshiped,
believed in or to be followed!
In practice, I usually have a
list of topics (20-25 deep) that
I plan to write about in the
future for Ex-minister.
These topics are truths
that I feel compelled to write
about as the thought develops in
time. Many preachers plan
sermons this same way. Let the
dead bury their dead was not on
my list but quickly grabbed my
attention because it stirred my
inner being and I could not be
silent!
Brian
Worley Ex-Minister.org
April 2, 2008 All
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