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What Jesus actually taught
The famous novelist, Kurt Vonnegut, once said:
“For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes (Matthew 5). But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course, that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere. ‘Blessed are the merciful’ in a courtroom? ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ in the Pentagon? Give me a break!”
In the mid-90s, I published a book titled The Zen Teachings of Jesus. In the book, I remarked that there are usually wide discrepancies between Jesus’s teachings and church teachings. My earlier book was about the many elements of Jesus’s teachings which are either ignored or not emphasized in popular Christianity— elements such as joy, humor, playfulness, presence, and ordinariness. Particularly joy and playfulness. After the publication of my book, I did more research. This time, I focus more on Jesus’s social teachings. I am sorely aware of how many evangelical Christian churches have hijacked Jesus and turned a set of allegedly Christian doctrines into a religion of hate. It is high time that we expose the reality of many evangelical Christian beliefs and reveal that the emperor has no clothes.
