Monkey Shines

I've been reading the New Testament. Right now I'm about half-way through Luke. It's a very interesting read, believe it or not. The most intriguing thing I've found is Christs' personality.
Christ DOES go around healing people of their ailments, and raising others from the dead. However, there are a couple of occasions where he is kind of rude.
(I wish I had taken notes so I could drop chapters and verses on you...)
For instance, in Matthew, I believe, there's a story about him wandering around with his Disciples (which is what all four gospels are about). In this particular story, a woman is following him around begging him to heal her of some sickness. Christ just keeps walking, ignoring her plea. One of the disciples asks him why he's ignoring her, and he tells him that she's not one of God's people. He had come to heal Israel and not the rest of the world. The lady continues to plead with him, and he ignores her. Then, when she says something to the effect of "Even a dog gets the scraps from his masters table." Christ turns and heals her. After she likens herself to a dog... Interesting...
Oh, in another story, he wanders off from his parents who are visiting another town. When they realize they've left him behind (negligent parenting), they go back to look for him. They find him in a temple chatting up some of the clergy. Then he kind of tells his mom (The Virgin Mary), to chill out because he's doing his true fathers work... (Honor thy father and thy mother.)
Speaking of family, there's a story about when Christ is teaching the masses from inside a house or temple. One of his disciples comes in and tells him that his mother and his brothers are trying to get in to see him, and they need to talk to him. Christ tells him that all the people who are listening to his message are his mother and his brothers. Apparently ignoring the call from his family.
(This opens another debate about whether or not Christ had an extended family. I have seen several hints in the chapters I've read so far suggesting that he had brothers and sisters. It makes sense. Why wouldn't Mary and Joseph have gotten busy AFTER Christs' birth?)
Anyway, I'm unable to come up with others off the top of my head. But, I know there are more instances where he seems to berate his friends, family, and followers seemingly without justification. From now on, I'm going to make notes while I read, so I can give the full story with references for anyone reading...
I do like it when he goes into the temple and jacks up the money changers. But, he had justification for that... Now, if he'd just visit the temples we have here. I'll bet the likes of Benny Hinn and Pat Robertson would incur his full wrath! I'm not going there again... At least until the NEXT post...
d

Update:
I did think of one other story that was kind of funny. There's a story about Christ walking around doing what he does. He's feeling kind of hungry when he spies a fig tree. Now, it's not fig season, so the tree doesn't have any fruit on it. This pisses him off, so he touches the tree and tells it that it will never produce fruit again. The next day, his followers find the tree withered and dead. (This is not a joke. This is a real story in the New Testament!)
Come on! That's freaking funny! That's exactly what I'd do with super powers. If something or someone pissed me off, I'd give 'em the freakin' finger of death!!!
d

So this is what I made this site for. I wanted to carry on these conversations here, where everyone can post... Apparently, no one got that... Anyway, here's a post from Zit...

I certainly agree the any form of extremism can be dangerous. But MLK jr. was an extremist as well. The reason that religion and extremism are so closely tied is that within a religion there is an imediate following. With a following that trusts a leader, and is asked to exhibit faith, or blind faith, in the hands of extremist manipulators, this can be so deadly. When the Hail Bop people and Jonestown people are brought up, you are speaking about a cult. Fairly harmless to mainstream society due to the fact that they don't have the numbers. Cult's often do have religious basis. Christianity was once a cult, just ask the disciples, and my boy, JC. Hitler may have not believed, but he used a religious guise to accomplish what he wanted. I consider most of your examples of a religious nature. I'm not exactly sure how to describe 'extreme'. In my simple and uneducated mind, I define it as: a group whose ideas separate themselves from the mainstream, often accepting no other possible outcomes other then those they deem to be correct. Feel free to rip my argument and definition apart, but I figured we needed a starting point.

My thoughts:
I agree that extremism isn't necesarily a bad thing... However, like I said in the last post, when you remove logic and/or knowledge from extremist thought, you run into trouble. As far as your definition goes, I agree... And that's not really a bad thing. If you believe your thoughts and beliefs are correct, then there are no other outcomes...
d

I started this blog for all of us to post on. You should have gotten an e-mail asking you to set up an account. Let me know if you need help posting on here. It's pretty self explanatory if you are techno savvy at all.
I sent memberships to:

Beast, Hazen, Par, Zit, Scrap, Pete, and Mikie.

If you can think of anyone else who might want to post conversation on here, let me know...