At 12:49 PM 5/31/98 +0100, Sarah. J. wrote:
>I am angry at what St. paul did to try and popularise the Christian
>movement, by making the gays a common enemy, to group together.
>Christians didn't need to oppress other religions, like is still
>going on today (Leading to Disney's negative portrayal of Paganism
>etc in it's films, which fixate the same attitudes in the young) As
>far as i know, Christianity was ok before St. Paul.
I'm finding this conversation interesting, and coulnd't resist delurking
here for a moment....there wasn't any Christianity before St.
Paul.....Christ was, from internally evidence provided by the scriptures, a
practicing Jew, as were his disciples...they consituted a "sect" in Judaism,
which was, at that time, quite fractured and practiced many different ways.
Christ was crucified sometimes between 20AD and 33 AD and Paul's letter's
began about 50AD. Because he was not part of the Jerusalem sect of Christ's
followers (and Christ's brother James may have been a high priest in the
temple, see Robert Eisenman)...he went out of Israel to bring others into
the "fold" as it were....a great deal of what Christians believe and
practice was shaped by Paul *and* by Greco-Roman beliefs prevelant at the time.
Christians really practice "paulism" rather than a form of Judaism -- so
blame it all on St. Paul.
Actually, homosexuality was still practiced -- and honoured -- among the
Greeks at the time of Christ.....go figure how it all got so mixed up.
thanks all for your contributions to this thread.
Maureen
