BLIND CHRISTIANITY - HATRED, RACISM and THE WRITINGS OF PAUL the APOSTLE
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| The Blessed Judy Jones-Hubertz, b 1960, d 2014 |
ARE YOU POSITIVE YOU ARE ACTUALLY A CHRISTIAN?
I assure you - if you are a modern "Christian Conservative", with the traditional "literal" or near literal devotion to the Bible - I tell you with great spiritual and intellectual humility: You are most likely not Christian.
You are sincere and devoted people of enormous faith,
but cannot be described as "Christian".
Ethically and in your major religious works,
you follow not Christ, but Paul.
The Gospels of Paul, his "letters", are your faith. They inform and influence your culture so deeply, you are blind to your own cruelties, your own obvious violations of Christ's law.
How do we define Christ's Law?
"I tell you this, "Love one another, as you love yourself."
"Go forth and spread My Light upon the World."
"God is within each person, within each of you. Here is the flame of faith realized, the burning flame of the Holy Spirit, that you might see and believe."
"You shall go forth and heal, and have the authority to love and help the world."
What does this mean in practical terms?
Now or while Paul was alive, for a Christian to believe in Paul's letters as having Divine Inspiration and Authority has been wrong.
Throughout the history of our shared heritage, cultures and faiths, we Modern Anabaptists know and now would teach you that any "Christian" attempt to follow Paul's writings has inevitably, (and quite deliberately), created enormous sin, error and suffering in the world for nearly 2000 years.
You my brothers and sisters in Christ, you are almost without exception sincere, well-meaning and wonderful people - but as Christian Conservatives, as Bible Literalists, you follow not Jesus, but Paul.
We of New Hope - we are of and part of the Christian world.
We fully share your Christian faith, history and books.
As people and as leaders we love and respect you our Paulist brethren, but we do not respect your churches, your theologies, and your interpretations of Jesus message and meaning.
We of the New Hope School and our modern Anabaptist church around the world - we reach out and beg you to listen:
Paul was wrong - and His Churches (and now Your Churches) are not recognizably Christian - they have strength and tradition and immense faith, but they are Paulist, not followers of the example, words or meaning that represent the living word of Life that was Jesus Christ.
For 492 Years...
For 492 years the Anabaptists have practiced our faith in the world.
We of New Hope, forever hidden and nearly unknown "Modern" Anabaptists of the world, have always, like our Amish and traditional Mennonite Brethren deliberately lived apart, remained silent, or if we did live closely among you "English" Christians we practiced our faith, but never reached out to convince or convert.
We never seek to convince or convert - your faith is your own. You may join us, but that is your request to make, not ours.
You are perhaps quite familiar with other Anabaptist communities, such as the Old-Order or other Amish and the traditional Mennonite faiths (in America).
All Anabaptists - certainly we of New Hope, are fully Christian - but we have for centuries been quite different in how we live and especially in how we treat each other, how we treat other people, and in the choices we make to preserve and share food, land, wealth and resources.
Everyone has a seat at God's table - that was part of Christ's message.
Ours is a "moral economy" of fairness, faith and sharing.
We cherish the earth, we cherish all life, we cherish you.
You do not know us - not in this way, as our faith has been silent for nearly 500 years.
We shall be silent no more.
You are suffering - the world is suffering, and we now feel called and compelled to open wide our gates and speak our truth to you.
Know this - I know it is hard to read and accept:
PAUL WAS ABOUT AND FOR PAUL
HE FOUNDED STRONG AND FAST-GROWING CHURCHES THROUGHOUT HIS WORLD
Paul's was the ancient Judaic and Greco-Roman world. He liked to travel.
PAUL WAS A FAITH UNTO HIMSELF
PAUL, HIS LIFE AND WORKS, AND ESPECIALLY HIS WRITINGS, ARE NOT BY ANY RATIONAL INTERPRETATION CHRISTIAN
PAUL'S LEGACY HAS WARPED AND INFECTED "CHRISTIANITY" BEGINNING APPROXIMATELY 10 YEARS AFTER JESUS' RESURRECTION
CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVES FOLLOW PAUL
FROM A WORLDWIDE (AND ESPECIALLY FROM A TRADITIONAL JUDAIC/CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE) PAUL IS UNIQUE - AND DIFFERENT, FROM EVERY OTHER MAJOR FOUNDER OR "SAVIOR" OR PROPHET
PAUL WAS UNIQUELY SELFISH, GREEDY AND CRUEL
Paul's cult of Christianity is an immensely old and destructive set of beliefs that stands in absolute contrast from the life, meaning and message that was the Man known as Jesus of Nazareth.
Please think for just a moment, of the other Gospels.
Think about Jesus' life, his actions, and those few precious words that were saved.
Think not about "The Bible", but about Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus Christ.
Paul Preaches the Opposite - Deeply Corrupted Versions of Jesus' message, life and words."
You (Christian Conservatives) have great faith.
But you follow Paul.
This is not your fault, nor any error on the part of you or any other living person.
It was Paul.
His greed led Christ's faith astray.
This is neither a condemnation nor an insult - but it is based on our faith's interpretation of the reality and historical outcomes due to the Bible's most prolific "author", the Apostle Paul.
The gospels of Paul - written approximately 45 AD (CE) during his "missionary" or travelling period to sustain and follow up with the freshly converted people of the largest and most influential cultures he had influenced during his period in those communities.
What we believe about Paul.
Jesus' Apostle Paul later became the most prolific of the New Testament's "authors". Our Modern Bible would not exist were it not for his actions.
The Bible would exist - but not in the form we know it.
It is almost certain Paul was fully poly-lingual, like the famous Pope John Paul of the 20th Century Roman Catholic faith. It is said Pope John Paul could read and could write 31 world languages, and was quite fluent in perhaps six or seven.
Influential. Gifted. Leaders of Faith.
The Modern Dalai Lama - the World-Travelling Tibetan Exile and Titular Leader of the Tibetan Buddhist faith? Poly-Lingual.
What we the modern Anabaptist (linked to Amish and traditional Mennonite origins) have come to believe that Paul did not use his gifts wisely or in the service of mankind.
We feel certain Paul's letters were a corruption - not unlike a modern marketing scheme or Television and Brick and Mortar "Super Church" similar to the massive and immensely profitable Jimmy Swaggart "Family Worship Center" based in Baton Rouge. FWC is not a "church" but a faith - the corporate and spiritual headquarters of an immensely large and wealthy modern "Christian" (Paulinian)
Based in Baton Rouge, the "Family Worship Center" is a creation that churns faith into money, property, influence and power.
To attend or believe as Swaggart does, to preach with a hunger for growth, property, prestige and power? This is not Christianity.
To know Reverend Jimmy Swaggart is to meet Paul of the Gospels.
This Paulinian Christianity is a massive 1931 year tradition - yes, one thousand, nine hundred and thirty-one years... of selling Jesus's story for power and profit.
Who exactly did Paul become after Jesus' departure?
As a wise rabbi teacher of mine once observed, "He seems to have been allergic to mailboxes."
Some Preachers of Paulinian faith and Gospels - indeed, many of them, are like this.
In the modern world, they need not physically visit other places but rarely - but they reach out with their message, their dutiful "disciples" with missionary zeal, and their swarm of seductive media messages - and these modern Pauls prowl the earth searching for new communities to teach, to influence, and to harvest for money.
They seek and acquire and deeply influence nearly all of you - in your millions.
I respect the depth and traditions, your sincere desire to follow the Lord Jesus, and your strong and pure faith in God Almighty.
We stand however before you - with all that respect, and must tell you... the gospels and ministries of Paul the profit-maker, the missionary, the charismatic multi- cultural teacher, and we of New Hope must tell you, Paul's beliefs, writings and lifelong example were absolutely Not Christian at All.
We of the modern Anabaptist faith urge you to click here to read about our Christianity, indeed our muti-cultural faith worldwide - and we invite you to use your own Bible as a reference to check our faith, our traditions and our ethical and cultural values.
Contact us if you have any questions.
John Hubertz
Foundational Elder and Pastor, New Hope Anabaptist Church (Worldwide)
Pastor of New Hope Anabaptist, Fort Wayne
Dean of Students and Carl Zehr Professor of Moral Economics and Theology
New Hope Peace Academy and University (USA)
