Whattaya think? Would Jesus have been down with former Republican nominee for Georgia governor Kendiss Taylor? Would Jesus have said Kendiss was the one HE had been waiting for? I mean, at least Kendiss gave Jesus billing over the guns. We should note that the guns got billing over the babies. Such as it ever is with those that claim to be “pro-life”.

If the Kendiss Taylor’s were the exception, America wouldn’t be teetering on the precipice as we speak. The “good news” is that Kendiss doesn’t represent any kind of majority whatsoever. She’s part of a shrinking, white minority that’s about to experience the ultimate “come to Jesus” moment.

In America, “Have ya heard the good news?” has become an invitation to insanity. This atheist couldn’t possibly make the point about how deluded and dangerous Christians can be anywhere near as well as Kendiss did. The equating of “Jesus” and “Guns” all by itself demonstrates a typically Christian “shotgun” approach to their religious beliefs. In their defense, there are a lot of strange rules and regs to remember. And if you want the promised cookie at the end – eternal life alongside everyone you love (including Jesus) – you have to follow the rules exactly as the church lays them out. Deviate and you’re a heretic. Worse – you could be an atheist.

America has a problem with guns because we have a problem with Christians. Christianity itself isn’t under question here – it’s just a collection of ideas that covers a lot of territory, much of it contradictory. A sure sign that a religious faith is “wide open to interpretation” is when it has more than one interpretation. The Protestant Reformation was a protest against corruption and delusion (how Jesus-y of Martin Luthor). Luthor had a whole other idea about what Christianity was – 95 theses worth. Luther maintained that “salvation was by faith alone”. He had also challenged the authority of the Church by maintaining that all doctrines and dogmata of the Church not found in Scripture should be discarded.”

Just for reference – the “Scripture” in question represents the knowledge base of people who had no idea about germ theory or that the earth is NOT the center of the universe. They had no idea that they lived on a land mass that connected three continents – or that continents like North and South America (never mind Antarctica and Australia) even existed. Had the Old Testament’s authors had access to a microscope or a telescope – or the internet – would they have written what they wrote? Of course not! Their worldview would have been more informed by science – which didn’t exist when they wrote. Would Paul have had the same take on Jesus had Jesus preached a lesson informed by science (the same science available to any televangelist)?

Hey, I give Paul full credit. He invented something remarkable that captured the imagination of his followers – a path to eternal life. The church he founded through his writing and teaching laid out a path for followers to follow. If they followed it exactly the way Paul said? Good things would happen. Paul made all that up.

Paul also invented the blood libel that went hand-in-hand his vision of eternal life. Not only did one have to buy all the dogma Paul and his church were selling, you had to buy the nonsensical, logic-free STORY Paul invented to 1) connect Jesus to King David so as to justify Jesus’s claim on “messiah-hood”, 2) make Jesus less Jewish than he was and 3) deliver a little payback to the Jewish community in Jerusalem (you know, the people who actually KNEW Jesus or were related to him) who’d roundly rejected Paul and HIS version of Jesus.

In the Christian view, God is omnipotent and all knowing. Being the alpha and omega, God knows the future. He doesn’t make shit up as he goes along, right? He has a purpose. And, so, when God came up with the idea of Jesus (I’m just following the logic here), he must have had Jesus’s purpose in mind beforehand: Jesus was created as a vessel that would take on all of mankind’s sins since the original sin – Eve eating the apple.

If Jesus doesn’t die for humanity’s sins, what’s his purpose? By the same token – if (per the story) Judas never betrays Jesus and Jesus lives out his life happily preaching his radical message about speaking directly to God (you don’t need a corrupt temple or its corrupt priests) and dies an old man, in his bed, surrounded by his loved ones – would it get the same result Paul needed? No, Christianity NEEDS Jesus to die.

Okay – fair enough for the story, sucks to be Jesus.

So, if Jesus HAS to die for the whole forgiveness of sins mechanism to work, then what’s the problem with Judas? If Judas never “betrays” Jesus with a kiss – and the Romans never arrest Jesus and Pilate never tries him and Jesus never gets crucified – he never rises from the dead. Where would that have left Paul – and the whole “messiah thing” and the church Paul was inventing out of whole cloth?

The problem with anyone who approaches Christianity uncritically is that they’re not following Jesus! Jesus advocated a critical approach to anything the institution said or did. He didn’t preach “follow the dogma”. He didn’t need any. And neither does any Christian.

Try telling any Christian church that.

Fortunately for Europe, they’ve had two millennia for Christianity to wash over them. For a religion that prides itself as being “peaceful”, Christianity sure has produced an awful lot of bloodshed. This is why Christianity doesn’t have the hold on Europe that it used to. The magic’s worn off. Want to know where Christianity’s gaining followers? Look to Africa.

Here in America, Christianity is shrinking like the Wicked Witch of the West after Dorothy threw the water on her. Church attendance is “melting… melting…!” That is because of “Christians” like Kendiss.

If you consider the utter rubbish a Kendiss Taylor has to eat just to call herself a “Christian”, it’s no wonder she believes plenty of nonsense unsupported by any kind of facts or reality. Adding guns to the mix (never mind babies) isn’t really fair to people like Kendiss. She’s already over-matched.