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Friday, June 08, 2012

Spread The Word

There is an injunction to go forth and preach the Gospel.
There is no specification of how fast and intensive this has to be; for example, there is no indication that much monies should be fleeced from the faithful to build enormous cathedrals of stone or glass, or to establish cable TV shows peddling holy oils and indulgences, or to fund flocks of busybodies overseas.

It says merely to speak of the Gospel.

It does not even add that we should preach the entire bag and baggage of Church law, traditions, philosophy and theology, but we do anyway. When Mormons do missionary work, they add in their Book of Mormon as a coda to the Gospels.

The injunction was not to go forth and preach the Gospel and everything else that flies into our minds and bedevils us body and soul; just the Gospel: no interpretation, no Aquinas, no Luther, no Calvin, no Joseph Smith...

By implication, the injunction was to keep quiet about your own, private gospel: see if you could obey a simple little injunction without screwing it up: see if we could spread the word of God without enslaving entire nations: see if we could do one small thing...

We could not, because what we got is better than anything from Nazareth! We have not just a Gospel, but an adumbrated, adulterated, amended and improved Gospel! And we have lots of people on the payroll.
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3 comments:

Unknown said...

Amen, brother . . . although I do wonder what the unadulterated gospel says. For isn't that subject to translation, much less interpretation?

Montag said...

It is subject to interpretation, however what we see now is tantamount to Jesus sending a messenger after the money-changers he has just driven from the Temple, calling them back to be grifters, sharpers, schemers, and bag men for his teachings!

If a putz does the interpretation, expect a putz translation.

Unknown said...

Of course. The unadulterated gospel is not for the faint of heart. Which is why Christianity has from the beginning has had to wrap itself in doctrine and dogma, which are far more fun to argue than the plain gospel which has as its bottom line the stark injunction to spend yourself completely in self-giving. That is too hard. Hence the necessity for the grifters, sharpers, schemers, and bag men.