Nothing speaks more of Saul of Tarsus’ / AKA Paul’s credulity, blind stupidity, and rejection of reality than his own writings. This one is classic:
Romans 13
13:1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
13:2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation13:3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same
Understand what Paul is saying here: Governments do not act against good people; it only acts against citizens who are evil. Thus, do not resist your rulers, for they have been placed there with God’s blessing.
In effect he was saying tyranny does not exist. And yet, if history has taught us anything it’s that a people’s own rulers have committed the most hideous acts against their most innocent citizens. A few notable examples among many more:
The Spanish Inquisition
The extermination of the French Cathars
Russian pogroms against the Jews
Stalin’s “purge”, deportations, and starvation of his own Soviet countryman
Nazi Germany’s “final solution” / The Holocaust
Pol Pot’s murder of 1/4th of Cambodia’s population
Sudan’s ethnic cleaning in Darfur
Extermination of Muslims by Christian Serbs in Kosovo
Those leaders were “ordained of God”?
Those rulers did not commit “terror to good works”?
The millions of victims of their governments had no reason to be “afraid of the power”?
And it was, or would have been, wrong for these people to “resist the power”?
I doubt one out of ten thousand Christians are even aware of these verses. Of those few who have actually read the bible most probably had no idea what Paul was saying, and just flew over it. But the Evangelical Christian Right Fundies buy into it, endorse it, 100%.
So, the next time you hear a fundie Christian say ...
Romans 13
13:1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
13:2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation13:3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same
Understand what Paul is saying here: Governments do not act against good people; it only acts against citizens who are evil. Thus, do not resist your rulers, for they have been placed there with God’s blessing.
In effect he was saying tyranny does not exist. And yet, if history has taught us anything it’s that a people’s own rulers have committed the most hideous acts against their most innocent citizens. A few notable examples among many more:
The Spanish Inquisition
The extermination of the French Cathars
Russian pogroms against the Jews
Stalin’s “purge”, deportations, and starvation of his own Soviet countryman
Nazi Germany’s “final solution” / The Holocaust
Pol Pot’s murder of 1/4th of Cambodia’s population
Sudan’s ethnic cleaning in Darfur
Extermination of Muslims by Christian Serbs in Kosovo
Those leaders were “ordained of God”?
Those rulers did not commit “terror to good works”?
The millions of victims of their governments had no reason to be “afraid of the power”?
And it was, or would have been, wrong for these people to “resist the power”?
I doubt one out of ten thousand Christians are even aware of these verses. Of those few who have actually read the bible most probably had no idea what Paul was saying, and just flew over it. But the Evangelical Christian Right Fundies buy into it, endorse it, 100%.
So, the next time you hear a fundie Christian say ...
“You shouldn’t fear uncontrolled governmental wire taps, illegal search and seizure, arbitrary access to your library book withdrawals, unhindered invasion of your internet access, being added to the no fly list, UNLESS YOU ARE AN EVIL DOER AND HAVE SOMETHING TO HIDE!”
... remember from whom these bleating sheep got their mindless acceptance of tyranny from a leader chosen by God; from an ignorant Roman sycophant named Paul who insisted government leaders are empowered by God, and would never act against you if you’re innocent.
One can only wonder if Paul rethought his position just before Nero had his empty head cut off.
3 comments:
I was just browsing through the endless blogs of the last couple days and your title on this post stuck out to me for some reason or another, but thats neither here nor there.
The point of the comment Im leaving is to say that you have completely misunderstood the passage given. Its a given that there have been rulers and leaders of different countries and orginizations that have done terrible things. We dont deny that, but the passage implies as referrenced by others that all things are ordained by God. Prime example of this is in Job. Satan has court held with God to ask his permission for his doings.
The main point of the passage and practically all passages are God centered. (This passage can be realated to Luke 12: 42) What this is saying is that you should do the best work that you can do at all times no matter who the ruler or leader is.
I would soundly doubt that Paul, who was a scholar, thought there was no such thing of tyranny.
So, this was the comment. I dont read much atheist blogs or comments or books, but if I did I would make sure that I at least took the fundamental meaning into it. Next time please do the same.
Youknow,
Thanks for that input.
Unfortunately, your interpretation, the apologetics version, tries to make something that says what it says mean something that it doesn't say. But that's the preferred technique of apologists, isn't it?
Lets read it again shall we:
Romans 13
13:1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
The "powers that be" are there by god's will. Never mind who they are, it is god's will, by his providence, that the governing body IS.
13:2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation
Since it is God's will that these men rule, to resist them is to oppose god and you are damned to hell. Thus, the ruler's power is absolute.
13:3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same
Since god ordained these rulers they are not to be feared, for they will only act against the evil people ...thus if you continue to do good be not afraid. If you do good, no evil will come to you from your rulers.
NOW..HOW ANYONE can pervert that language, among the most simple and clearly presented verses in the NT, to mean anything other than what it says, to make the obvious fallacy of it go away, is simply engaging in one of two things: utter denial because of embarrassment, or complete idiocy.
I will leave it to you to decide which of those are applicable to your condition.
Should you ever be tempted to post here again, bear this in mind: this is not the home of mindless Xtian sheep to whom apologetic distortions and rewording are accepted on blind faith.
Unlike Xtian sheep I am quite capable of reading scriptural verse and understanding it in the appropriate context et al, without fundamentalist reinterpretive guidance. Words mean things to us.
Thanks again.
Oh by the way...
depending on which cult of christianity your connected to, there are lots of intepretations that deny Pauls idiotic admonishment in completely different ways than your interpretation. They are a hoot!!
Some insert words into the verse that arent there...like "Oh..he meant "good government", a "model government". Strange...he didn't SAY "good". But thats what THEY came up with to make sense of the stupidity from Pauls mind.
here...try this one from the Baptists: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=22417
Now, go tell them why THEY are wrong.
:)
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