Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 21 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
OpEdNews Op Eds    H4'ed 7/10/20

Christian Zealots In an angry tizzy: CNN Don Lemon says "Jesus was not perfect"

By       (Page 1 of 1 pages)   7 comments
Follow Me on Twitter     Message Michael Roberts
Become a Fan
  (19 fans)

I'm NOT going go into the myriad reasons why I am NOT a Christian. Suffice to say that I'm also NOT going to enable or join another group of sanctimonious Christians. ALL of whom every day claim to be the "true religion and true believers," headed by church leaders whose smug arrogance suggests that they have "God's cellphone number on speed dial." The fact is that the vast majority of today's Christians are subjectively petty, intolerant and a bunch of myopic zealots. Recently, my favorite CNN anchor, Don Lemon, in a handover segment with Chris Cuomo (another of my favorites) said that "Jesus was not perfect." He was making the observation that the hoopla by many Christian leaders in staunch opposition to tearing down racist monuments of Black oppression - Confederate traitors, the confederate flag, and military bases named for these traitorous slaveholders - and that these so-called American heroes, including Abraham Lincoln, we not perfect.

-- Jesus Christ" if that's who you believe in, Jesus Christ admittedly was not perfect when He was here on this earth. So why are we deifying the founders of this country, many of whom owned slaves?" Lemon asked out loud.

Immediately, the Christian Right descended into an angry self-righteous meltdown something in antebellum times would have had Lemon rounded up and hung from the nearest tree. They've suddenly found their voices after remaining absolutely silent when the POTUS launched a concentration-type pogrom against people fleeing violence and death by separating families at the southern border. They conveniently forgot Jesus's teaching to "suffer little children to come on to me," instead embracing and enabling a man who subsequently held a Bible upside down, in front of a church, to do a cheap and obscene photo op - all while causing police to teargas innocent and peaceful protesters. What profiles in courage!

Now, they're using Don Lemon's statement - one of fact - as a new and welcome distraction that allows them not to address Donald Trump's monumental incompetence. His bungling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that the economy in in free fall. And, they're hopping mad because, in their view, Jesus was absolutely perfect in all and every way. Awe, yes, He just had to be! He couldn't have died on the cross for our sins unless He was totally blameless. The Good Book tells us so! Amen? So, Don Lemon was called a "heretic" (bring on the Inquisition and break out the water-boarding rack!) and accused of blasphemy (Yep. We have nothing on the Muslims zealots and fanatics that we condemn). Bent out of shape and consumed with anger and idiocy, the Christian Right should READ the very book that they so piously claim is NEVER WRONG.

Again, I'm NOT a Christian and I know that I'll draw the ire of many blinkers-on Sunday-only Christians who are "saved" (from what and whom still remains a mystery; only that the very act of being "saved" is sufficient to get into Heaven) and who will target an "unbeliever" for all manner of Holy fire-and-brimstone punishment including eternal damnation in Hell fire. However, since I'm on the subject of Jesus's supposed perfection let me again say that Don Lemon was right - Jesus was not perfect, not by a long shot. Here are some of the instances of imperfection FROM THE BIBLE ITSELF. So, if as Christians say the Bible is the infallible (can't lie) word of God, here's what it says Jesus did:

  • Jesus once got so angry he overturned tables and benches IN A TEMPLE no less. It was a juvenile tantrum and meltdown by a young man who felt that only he was right. Maybe he was.
  • Jesus once cursed a fig tree! Reason? because it didn't have anything to eat because figs weren't in season at the time and then the tree died. Jesus killed a tree because He got very angry. Really? A fig tree?
  • Jesus admitted to talking in parables (kinda like modern day Christians in some churches "speaking in tongues") that were difficult for ordinary poor people to understand" and then He got mad when people didn't understand them. Why not just speak in the language that they could understand? Seems simple enough to me. Yeah. Yeah. Christians tell me this is a mystery. And you wonder why those ordinary people were confused? Heck! I'm confused.
  • Jesus got testy and snippy when people asked Him why He didn't wash His hands (Nope, no COVID-19 there!). Poor hygiene? He did not know better?
  • Jesus' actions led to the illogic and uncalled for death of a lot of pigs (why he hated the pigs that HIS FATHER MADE is still a mystery to me). After that the entire town got pissed off with him for screwing up their livelihood. Really? Killing pigs?

So, in conclusion and based on these stories presented in the Bible we can state that Jesus could go kinda bonkers at times - no matter the redeeming qualities that He supposedly had. Or, like the conservative Christians are doing, we can pretend Jesus was perfect because their faith requires it" even when their own Holy Bible has lots of evidence to the contrary. Finally, let me inject and evoke the whole notion of Christian Hypocrisy. At a time of great racial and historical reckoning in America and the utter and deafening silence of MOST non-Black Christian leaders afraid to speak out against police murder lest they anger and enrage their presidential champion, they latch on to ONE statement of fact made by a CNN anchor.

I find it very revealing about the moral character of Christians who preach one thing and practice another while "God's children" are killed by white cops and egged on by an Administration that they see as "hastening the Great Day of Armageddon." So, they gripe, bellyache and nitpick about Jesus Christ's perfection or lack thereof while exhibiting abject cowardice and remaining mute about issues of American racism and traitorous monuments to people who bought and sold other humans for profit.

That's why I am NOT Christian.

Rate It | View Ratings

Michael Roberts Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

MICHAEL DERK ROBERTS Small Business Consultant, Editor, and Social Media & Communications Expert, New York Over the past 20 years I've been a top SMALL BUSINESS CONSULTANT and POLITICAL CAMPAIGN STRATEGIST in Brooklyn, New York, running (more...)
 

Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Follow Me on Twitter     Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

October 19, 1983 and The Murder Of Maurice Bishop

Why Black History Is important

Wordsmiths And The Delusional

Blacks Killing Blacks

Black On Black Crime: A Critique

2014 FIFA World Cup: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend