Thursday, January 30, 2025

Don’t Fuck With A Protestant Theologian

What Rory Stewart said:Really, altar boy? You wanna argue scripture with a Protestant?
49“I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! 51Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. 52From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. 53They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
Luke 12:49-53

That’s just to fuck with your head a little. Now, let’s get down:
Instead, suddenly a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him, and came and fell down at his feet. The woman was a Greek, by race a Phoenician from Syria. And the started asking him to drive the demon out of her daughter. He responded to her like this: "Let the children be fed first, since it isn't good take bread out of children's mouths and throw it to the dogs!" 
But as a rejoinder she says to him, "Sir, even the dogs under the table get to eat scraps (dropped by) children!" 
Then he said to her, "For that retort, be on your way, the demon has come out of your daughter." 
She returned home and found the child lying on the bed and the demon gone. 
Mark 7:25-30 (SV)

Here we go: 

Genesis 18:1-15 
And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; 
2 And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, 
3 And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: 
4 Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: 
5 And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said. 
6 And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth. 
7 And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetcht a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to dress it. 
8 And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat. 
9 And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent. 
10 And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him. 
11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 
12 Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also? 
13 And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old? 
14 Is any thing too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. 
15 Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. And he said, Nay; but thou didst laugh.

 1 Kings 17:7-16 (REB)

After a while the stream dried up, for there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him: “Go now to Zarephath, a village of Sidon, and stay there; I have commanded a widow there to feed you.’ He went off to Zarephath, and when he reached the entrance to the village, he saw a widow gathering sticks. He called to her, ‘Please bring me a little water in a pitcher to drink.’ As she went to fetch it, he called after her, ‘Bring me, please, a piece of bread as well.’ But she answered, “As the Lord your God lives, I have no food baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a flask. I am just gathering two or three sticks to go and cook it for my son and myself before we die.’ ‘Have no fear,’ Elijah said, ‘go and do as you have said. But first make me a small cake from what you have and bring it out to me, and after that make something for your son and yourself. For this is the word of the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of flour will not give out, nor the flask of oil fail, until the Lord sends rain on the land.’ She went and did as Elijah had said, and there was food for him and for her family for a long time. The jar of flour did not give out, nor did the flask of oil, as the word of the Lord foretold through Elijah.   

 Hebrews 13:1-3 (KJV)

Let brotherly love continue. 2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3 Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.

Luke 4:21-30

21 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” 23 He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’ ” 24 And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months and there was a severe famine over all the land, 26 yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27 There were also many with a skin disease in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” 28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30 But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

 And my well known and perennial favorite:

Matthew 25:31-46 (SV)
"When the Son of Adam comes in his glory, accompanied by all his messengers, then he will occupy his glorious throne. Then all peoples will be assembled before him, and he will separate them into groups, much as a shepherd segregates sheep from goats. He'll place the sheep to his right and the goats to his left. Then the king will say to those at his right, 'Come, you who have the blessing of my Father, inherit the domain prepared for you from the foundations of the world.  You may remember, I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a foreigner and you showed me hospitality; I was naked and you clothed me;  I was ill and you visited me;  I was in prison and you came to see me.' Then the virtuous will say to him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and fed you or thirsty and gave you drink? When did we notice that you were a foreigner and extend hospitality to you? Or naked and clothe you? When did we find you ill or in prison and come to visit you? 
And the king will respond to them, 'I swear to you, whatever you did for the most inconspicuous members of my family, you did for me as well.' 
Next, he will say to those on his left, 'You, condemned to the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his messengers, get away from me! You too may remember, I was hungry and you didn't give me amything to eat; I was thirsty and you refused me a drink; I was a foreigner and you failed to extend hospitality to me; naked and you didn't clothe me; ill and in prison and you didn't visit me.' 
Then they will give him a similar reply: 'Lord, when did we notice that you were hungry or thirsty or a foreigner or naked or weak or in prison, and did not attempt to help you?' 
He will then respond: 'I swear to you, whever you didn't do for the most inconcpicuous members of my family, you didn't do for me.' 
The second group will then head for everlasting punishment, but the virtuous for everlasting life.
Stories of hospitality and charity, and to whom same should be extended (answer: everyone and anyone), ending with the final judgment based on those virtues. Stories of what you owe strangers.

So, tell me altar boy who slandered people in your own state because they were NOK and you wanted to be VPOTUS… Tell me: how does your precious ordo amoris rank these stories? Or even explain the parable of the sheep and the goats? Don’t presume to be a theologian because you remember a phrase from Aquinas; presume to speak for Jesus, or think you can tell us the order in which to love.

Because I was pretty sure already, you really don’t know shit.


simplest most direct instance was when Jesus said the most important thing was love God and love your neighbor, and the quibbler asked "Who's my neighbor?" and Jesus told a story about a Samaritan, a heretic who denied the Davidic Kingdom, the Temple, the prophets and the writings. In the context I read it as a direct rebuke to even the question.
Thank you. I actually meant to include that, but got so caught up cutting and pasting and formatting, I forgot it. It is the best example of my point.

And I have no quarrel with Aquinas; I’m just pretty sure he didn’t mean what Vance did.
Also, too, as well:

1 comment:

  1. Not to disagree in the least, but I think the simplest most direct instance was when Jesus said the most important thing was love God and love your neighbor, and the quibbler asked "Who's my neighbor?" and Jesus told a story about a Samaritan, a heretic who denied the Davidic Kingdom, the Temple, the prophets and the writings. In the context I read it as a direct rebuke to even the question.

    Remember that Vance is a recent convert to Catholicism, a neophyte. I fear that I might have once been a show-off about stuff like that, too.

    Unfortunately he doesn't seem to have a single conviction that he won't trim to please our would-be dictator. The religious rationales just make it sacrilegious.

    ReplyDelete