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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 24, 2023

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I do find it hilarious that this is how people identify the difference between Paul and Jesus, when the very Wikipedia article you linked on becoming a fool for Christ has a section linking the phrase and concepts to Paul’s teachings.

I do find myself wondering how different I would be living were I to separate myself from the world and try to turn more people to Jesus by being a spectacle of His providence, like the Apostles Jesus sent out, owning nothing except the clothes on my back. Yet I remain embedded in the world, attempting occasionally to be salt, adding the flavor of hope where I can. This too is Jesus’ teaching, not Paul’s.

I have worked for a Christian capitalist. His family’s livelihood is tied up in providing low-cost services to the community and employment to his workers, and his goal is to be able to pass on to his children an education to do similarly while maintaining a strong faith like his. He’s one of the few people I’d emulate, were I to attempt a small business of my own.

Most people who push the Jesus-Paul distinction are progressives who accuse Paul of corrupting Jesus's original message. Usually atheists who believe in Jesus the community organizer rather than Jesus the son of God. "Well, he's no Obama or anything, but he was fair for his day; a great moral teacher!"

On the contrary, I applaud Paul for turning Christianity into a viable religion that has stood the test of time for two millennia, something Jesus's original teachings would almost certainly not have done.

Though, to be fair, Jesus avoided the most common failure mode of millenarianism; using the end of the world as an excuse to party (eating the seed corn, slaughtering cattle, abolishing private property and monogamy, etc.)