Thursday, December 03, 2009

Summit, Schmummit!

This post can be found here. Read it. It's very good.

6 comments:

Craig said...

Marshall,

I'm going to apologize in advance for doing this here, but I didn't want it to be #651 on the other post.


At Dan's place in the following quote appeared.

"I don't know about you, but some of your friends don't even think a straight quote from Jesus ("blessed are the poor") taken literally is factually true (a point on which I disagree)."

I would like to clarify your (and Bubba's) position on this.

I understand you all to be saying that you believe this to be a statement made by Jesus. I believe that the problem comes with trying to limit the definition of "poor". Dan (it seems) is saying that poor can only apply to those who are in monetary/physical poverty, and that it does not apply to any other type of poverty. You (it seems) are saying that poor means poor in every sense (primarily spiritually). I would appreciate clarification. I don't want to accuse Dan of slander wrongly ;)

Marshal Art said...

Craig,

Mostly Bubba spoke on this, but I agree with the point he makes. Dan uses the Luke version of the Beatitudes because it conforms to his political leanings. Despite the slight variation from Matthew, wherein Matthew's presentation of the Beatitudes says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit..., we believe that Jesus is not speaking of the physically/financially poor in either sermon. I don't believe there are any indications of Christ lifting anyone out of financial poverty, or that this blessing is in any way a certification of poverty being a state toward which anyone should aspire. Are we to take from this that being a beggar is somehow a more Christian way of life?

Dan's insistence that Christ was speaking about the financially poor is just a part of Dan's own "liberation theology" that is not supported Biblically. Like that false theology, Dan believes the main point of Christ's existence was to help the poor and oppressed. But in that, Christ did a poor job of it since He liberated no one from either poverty or oppression.

Marshal Art said...

Hmm. I just took another look at a couple of threads at Dan's place, and aside from the usual circle jerk between him and Alan, I didn't find the quote you posted here. What a sorry crew. I truly feel badly for them. We need to keep them in our prayers.

Craig said...

Marshall,

It's the thread with about 95 comments 3-4 from the top.

I was pretty sure that I had a grasp of your position. I'm with you, I just wanted to make sure before I whacked him.

Craig said...

4th thread from the top.

Craig said...

I see you found it. It's great.