Admiration of Jesus

Jesus.. as a literary and philosophical figure.. is quite admirable.  It's why so many over the centuries became believers IN SPITE of the church of their age... creating one protestant denomination after another in hopes that THIS one would FINALLY be like Christ.  That is, after all, what "Christian" was meant to mean.  I'm going to suppress my absolute disgust in the church to talk about what drew me to read about Jesus and later finish a Bible degree... from the university of Falwell of all schools... Liberty University.  Now, I'll also note that his own professors didn't often agree with his narrow political goals, either.  But... I digress.

Napoleon once said (I'm NOT defending Napoleon), "Alexander, Cæsar, Charlemagne and myself founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon sheer force. Jesus Christ alone founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men will die for Him."

Ahhh... but that's the rub.  For a religion based on "love" there's been very little but a history of hate... Christian against other religions, Christians against Christians, Christians against women in magic, Christians against scientists, Christians against the government, and so on and so forth.  But... that's religion.  Let's get back to Jesus...

Jesus had a different take on things.  Indeed, in the stories, the Jews of the day... much like the church of our day.. were looking for and expecting their "messiah" to be a conquering king.  Instead, they got an illegal alien born baby in a stable for animals and worked as a carpenter for 30 years... probably how I'd do it too... including choosing a region that was judged by the church of the day.

Jesus would stand in the way of stoning sex workers, feed those needing aid for their poverty, focus on literal UNIVERSAL healthcare.. as in the universe.. for free, and talked about forgiveness instead of judgment... it's no wonder the church demanded the government kill him.

Jesus was then and is now the biggest problem in the crusade of hatred of his own church because he exposes them to be speaking out of their own butt instead of His teachings, and it's that independence that makes me a believer that he was.. in fact.. from God if not God's son as said... albeit the story he died for sins seems in my logical mind to be a convenient justification for them having KILLED him.  I saw a meme recently that had God saying... what did you do to my son?  You're on your own.  In my mind that's the best explanation of the hell in which we find ourselves among... ourselves.

Ghandi, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson all admired Jesus, and it's doubtful any ever chose to worship him or see him as more than a man.  They saw him as a great teacher... as even Muslims do... odd that those that don't follow him are more interested in listening to him than his own named religion members.