“Religion is the default mode of the human heart”
– Martin Luther
You have heard me for years say that religion is silly and here is why. Religion seeks to answer a very important question, “How can we who are unholy and unrighteous be declared holy and acceptable in the sight of a holy and righteous God?” Religion asks the right question and provides the wrong answer. They say, “What should we do to make ourselves holy? What should we do to make ourselves righteous?” While asking these questions they miss Jesus, who makes them holy and makes them righteous. While they build traditions and rules and regulations in an effort to perform their way to pleasing God. I just wanted to show you the extreme version of religion in our world and how it just becomes silly. We’re all prone to go toward religion. And in varying ways, at varying times, to varying degrees, we’re all religious. So when we read about religious people, we can’t simply criticize them. We also need to examine ourselves.
“Religious paper apologizes for erasing Clinton from iconic photo” By Jessica Ravitz, CNN
(CNN) – Faith has outweighed fact at Di Tzeitung, a Hasidic newspaper based in Brooklyn, New York. The ultra-Orthodox Jewish publication ran a doctored copy of the iconic “Situation Room Photo” last Friday – you know, the one taken of President Barack Obama and his national security team during the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound. Scrubbed from the picture: the two women in the room. It’s as if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with her hand clasped over her mouth, and Audrey Tomason, director of counterterrorism, weren’t there and weren’t part of history.
Here they are for comparison:
[I]n a written statement issued Monday afternoon by Di Tzeitung, the newspaper said that its decision to leave women out of photos is religiously mandated and that the right to do so is protected by the U.S. Constitution. “The First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion. That has precedence even to our cherished freedom of the press,” the statement said. “Publishing a newspaper is a big responsibility, and our policies are guided by a Rabbinical Board. “Because of laws of modesty, we are not allowed to publish pictures of women, and we regret if this gives an impression of disparaging women, which is certainly never our intention,” it continued. “We apologize if this was seen as offensive.”
Earlier this week they were praising him, shouting “Hosanna!” as He rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey colt. They were reaching out to him, pointing, and fighting for his attention. He had celebrity status. They called him “King” and “Savior.”, it was all good. No one seemed to notice what He was riding (donkey representing peace instead of a horse representing war) but everyone seems to have superimposed their expectation on Him. Very Quickly when things didn’t go they way everyone thought they should (namely destruction of the Roman Kingdom) things suddenly changed. Today they will murder him. Today is “good” Friday…the day