In reply to David W. Lincoln

Submitted by Seamus MacNemi (United States), Jan 9, 2008 at 18:11

I know Martin Buber very well, having read his "I And Thou" over time and again. What I don't understand is why Christians have to insist that we all must acknowledge some one called Jesus Christ as our lord and savior and go through the rigamarole of baptism in the Church. I don't know anybody named Jesus Christ. If you're talking about the Rabbi Yeshua from Nazareth, he has nothing at all to do with the mythology of the Church which was invented long after he died and tied to him for the political purposes of Rome.

I will never bow to Rome or any of its officers. I do not and will not accept the doctrines of the Council Of Nicea and I will never pray in the name of any man who has ever lived in our world. Yeshua was born a man in the same way as every other man has ever been born. There was nothing 'supernatural' about him or his being born into the world. He was a man, simply, no more and certainly no less than I am. I know where he was born and where and how he grew up and who his teachers were. I know the kind of school he attended as a child along with all of the other young men of his age as was the law and custom amongst the Jews of that time and still is amongst the Orthodox Hassidim.

I have lived amongst Orthodox Jews for a good part of my life and never have I ever seen anything such as you propose. Indeed, such ideas as you espouse would be considered as the most egregious form of blasphemy amongst them. I agree with them in this much, that the G-D of Israel never intended for any man to bow to any earthly power beyond that which is legitimately elected to represent the will of the people as a whole nation. That is why G-D gave Moses The "LAW" because the LAW is the foundation upon which the Nation Of Israel was built, not any devine right of kings or any idea of inherited authority because of a mans birth. If you take away the LAW you destroy the nation. Is that your intent?

You, it seems to me, would turn this whole process up on its head and subvert the will of the people to the interests of the Church. That is NOT the way G-D intended for things to be. That is why HE gave us all free will. I fully believe that each individual must be given the right to seek "THAT WHICH IS" acording to his or her own lights and understandings. True religion is not something which can be imposed from without. True religion can come only from within the individual. True religion is personal and not a thing of the mob or a trinket to be hawked in the market place. Indeed, I regard most evengelists as no more than used car salesmen the way they go about ranting like madmen and banging the pulpit in their trumped up vehemence. They disgust me.

You can quote who ever you wish. You will never change my thinking.

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