I am certain that Jesus would not have approved of the very flawed and severely altered forms of communism and socialism that have been noted in the most recent e-mail, but I suspect he would not be opposed to attempts to get it to work properly. Naturally, the biggest flaw in communist and socialist implementations is with the people implementing them and not necessarily the ideal itself.

To be quite honest, I AM fairly certain that if Jesus, as he is described, had lived he would NOT particularly approve of our implementation of the governmental systems we have adopted. I think very few nations and political systems could claim to ever live up to the standards that would probably be required to get an "endorsement" by Jesus.

The REAL question here is, is this a saleable status? Can official government notices and releases have "Endorsed by Jesus" stamped on them were this the case? Would a goverment issued bond sell better with "Endorsed by Jesus" emblazoned in large print on the front?

I do believe I've discovered a wonderful new system for selling and advertising products. Now then, who do we talk to about licensing the "Endorsed by Jesus" logo?

--Brandon Walker

Disclaimer -
If you can't tell, this is a highly satirical post and LOADED with personal opinions and questionable humor. So don't spam the UTCSTAFF list if you don't like it. Feel free, however, to heap on the flames in my own personal e-mail box. There's nothing stopping me from hitting the delete key if I don't want to hear from you, but why make everyone else hit their delete key, too?



-----Original Message-----
From: Billy Harris <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 22:25:34 -0400
Subject: Re: [UTCSTAFF] Jesus

I object strongly to the the claim that Jesus supports in any way
the most evil governments of the 20th century.

Communism has killed tens of millions of people through government-enforced
economic policies that directly caused massive famine. Stalin and Mao
have executed millions of people for exercising their God-given rights, and
have variously persecuted, outlawed, or restricted religious worship. This is
in addition to the hundreds of thousands who suffer under in prison work camps,
where the death rate is 10-30% per year. Personally, I think we should also
include the sins of the National Socialist German Workers Party as well.

Yes, Jesus said in many ways that we should be kind to the poor. Yes, Acts
holds as a positive example disciples who "from time to time" voluntarily sold
their property and donated it to the church. However, the very existence of
the tenth commandment("Thou shalt not covet your neighbors house...) seems to
show that it is not sinful for one person to own a nicer house than another.

Likewise, "A worker is worthy of his wages" can be interpreted in many ways,
but "Therefore, take his wages and distrubte them 'fairly'" is not one of them.

Billy Harris


-
Brandon Walker
IT Administrator
UTC Helpdesk
(423) 425-4000
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