http://www.tektonics.org/guest/bhcapital00.html

Where did Jesus ever say “Let the government look after the poor. All you have to be is an activist”. When the prophets cried out to the oppressed, were they calling for higher taxes and more generous social programs? Did they protest “windfall profits”. No. Never. They called for honest weights and measures, and to stop brutalizing them and taking whatever meager possessions they had. Such a society hardly describes America as a whole. Look to the killing fields of the Third World for true oppression of the poor. Most of America’s “poor” don’t even qualify as poor by any Biblical standard. I lived below the “poverty line” during the years you knew me in real life. I never was hungry, or in want of any real need.

Besides, Moore believes that our religious beliefs should be private and personal. So if Jesus was a socialist, how dare we impose our beliefs on others?

Jesus hated hypocrisy. Moore is also already in the top 1% and lives as large as anyone in that category.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.3200:

absolutely not. My post merely puts forth my perspective and thoughts. They are helpful to me but not necessarily helpful, nor do they make good sense to you. But that’s okay because I am responsible to God for my beliefs, with which I am at peace.

So I am not sure why we keep the comments going. Are you hoping to change or “convert” my opinions to what you think or are you just curious and want to understand what I am thinking?

If it is the latter, I am more than willing to continue to have a discussion with you, if it is the former, I think we’re done.

peace to you.

“I was recently asked by a friend of mine, whether, as Christians, the Bible is our Authority? My reply was no.”

Maybe your no should have been changed to not completely?

“This however is the how many Christian groups view Bible (missing that they impact meaning through their interpretation). This leads to an idolatrous perspective of Bible.”

So, misinterpretation is idolatry? Do you presuppose that you have interpreted it correctly?

This however is the how many Christian groups view Bible (missing that they impact meaning through their interpretation). This leads to an idolatrous perspective of Bible.

For me The Bible has tremendous meaning and has fundamentally informed my understanding of God, the world and myself. I have spent years reading, studying and trusting it. I took Greek and Hebrew in Seminary so that I might be a better student of the text.

However we must keep in mind that no matter how diligently we study, the goal is not the bible but the one to whom it points.

St. Thomas said, “The primary object of faith is not a proposition, but the reality that it designates.”

So, the antithesis of this is that the Bible being no authority does not speak for you, and you do not look to it for meaning?

I find justification for my Christian living from more existential sources, like our common exploration into God, faith and things Christian. Now Bible certainly fits into that because it is one of the places that points at God’s purpose, love, kingdom, grace etc. But it it is set on too high a place (not realizing our interpretational imposition) then we set up for ourselves an idol.