Posts by M Leno

Sacrifices and other Forms of Religious Violence

I believe they went after Ollie because he shredded paper—destroyed evidence. But they went after me for shredding people. Let me also add for the record that I had more fun doing my shredding than Ollie had doing his.– Richard Marcinko reacting to a statement by Mike Wallace (60 Minutes) who had compared him to Oliver North.¹

Short of mass assassination, there is no natural end to the cycle of retaliation. – Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.²

In spite of advances in knowledge and culture, humans still exhibit a primitive tendency to violence. We kill each other for causes involving competition, honor, revenge, and devotion; and sometimes for no apparent cause at all. We appear to be the most cruel and also the most benevolent of species; at once selfish and altruistic. Furthermore, violence appears to be so engrained in our world view that it seems normal. In one moment we claim to be victimized and repulsed by it. But a moment later we might be fascinated by it and even find it useful and necessary. Even our views of God reflect our split personality with respect to violence. We believe in a loving God with a sinister dark side. He might just kill you (or worse) if you don’t believe properly.

It felt like a contest between “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” and “Love Is All You Need”—except it had very little to do with romance or music. But make no mistake, it was no trivial matter. The very essence and foundation of our faith was at stake. Or so we thought.

“What is truer than truth? Answer: The story.” – Jewish proverb.¹

As Jesus often demonstrated, good stories tell the truth in a way nothing else can. Stories can help us see God and the universe in new ways, and also motivate us to be better people. So how does such a good thing often go bad?

According to Popular Mechanics, this is the way Jesus may have appeared. It’s still an artists conception, of course, but it has the advantage of being based on archeological evidence and forensic anthropology techniques.¹

A couple of months ago I posted a blog (See “Inventing Jesus” 1-26-15) that included a relatively modern portrait of Jesus; the point being that the way we imagine Jesus, and the reality of Jesus based on the evidence we have, are often two very different things. We now continue that same general theme, noting in more detail why Jesus did not match the messianic expectations of many, including the most prominent leaders of his time. And although it seems disconcerting at first, seeing Jesus as he really was, gives us confidence that the New Testament character was not simply invented out of convenience or necessity. Furthermore it turns out that our inventions of Jesus are not what we really need anyway.

Newscasters can deliver the most horrible news in the most routine way. But even the most skillful reporters could not smooth over the latest example of barbaric cruelty by the group known as ISIS; the self-identified “Islamic State.” I will not describe what they did to a Jordanian pilot. If you don’t know already, I urge you to put it out of your mind. Suffice it to say, describing ISIS as a violent terrorist group is a gross understatement; like saying that serial killers are sort of naughty.