The Jesus Wars


One of the many splits among Christians involve what is perceived to be the correct role the Bible's main character, Jesus, is to play in the faith. I know a few modern preachers who are among the "all Jesus all the time" members of the faith. They are different than "fundamentalists," "evangelicals" and liberal mainline members of the faith. I use the terms in quotes because I don't claim to understand exactly what the stand for. I only know what how they are perceived by others.

Fundamentalists believe they are the "true" Christians. Ironically, many main line and less conservative clergy think they understand theology better and are themselves the "true" Christians. Then there are the all Jesus all the time groups (a name I gave them). Some of their views come from "the black church." This groups believes that Jesus was an actual person and plays a role in teaching how humans should live and relate to each other. The divinity part is a small part of the narrative, the human Jesus is large.

The link criticizes both "the real Christian" right and left. The Jesus of the author does not preach a hierarchy of believers, only a behavior of Jesus and the merit of his behavior.

I'm reminded of a couple of books I read by Jay Bakker, son of the famous Jim Bakker. He makes a living as a preacher and preaches Jesus accepts people as they are without condemnation. Thus it is with alcoholics, gays and trans. That is an application of the all-Jesus principle. There is not much sin in there, just a Jesus that doesn't judge. 

I wonder if some version of that is preached by jail-house preachers. I visited the North Dakota prison two or three times and was struck by the low self esteem held by prisoners. It seems like the message of the all Jesus would go down well.

I suppose the Jesus wars have been going on since day one of Christianity. Each version serves the interests of some group and they need to hang onto theirs.


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