Questions for Christians: The Ethics of Jesus

First, the usual disclaimer: the purpose of these posts is to pose questions to Christians who come here (or go anywhere, for that matter) with the intent of converting us to Christianity, but also with an open mind about their own faith. You may post your answers here, or answer them privately, at your discretion. My ultimate goal in asking these questions is to have you deconvert from Christianity. If you are not open to at least the possibility of that happening, then I suggest you not respond to these questions, as that will be a waste of your time (and possibly our bandwidth). At the same time, I am open to the possibility of learning a thing or two about Christianity along the way -- but if you answer these questions publicly, with the intention of being a teacher instead of a learner, then please don't bother doing so here. These questions are for your educational benefit.

This is one in a series of "Questions..." posts that deal with the Bible, the scriptural compilation that constitutes the conceptual framework of the Christian faith. If you were ever a Christian, chances are you've read some of the Bible. If you are still a Christian today, chances are you haven't read all of it.

These questions deal with the ethical system set out in the Bible -- specifically in the New Testament. I could, if I so desired, devote an entire post or two to asking you about the atrocities committed by the God of the Old Testament, either directly or by commanding his human followers, but there seems to be little point -- being a Christian, you are probably accustomed to making excuses on God's behalf. Instead, I will be asking about the ethics that God, via Jesus, wants you to abide by.

1. Have you sold everything you own, and distributed the money to the poor, in order to follow Jesus (Luke 18:22)?

If so, whose computer are you using to read this post? If not, why not?


2. Do you hate your family, and yourself (Luke 14:26)?

Note that this verse isn't instructing you to love your family and yourself less than you love God, or to make them a lesser priority than God. That verse is instructing you to literally hate your family and yourself. Do you think that's good advice for anyone to follow? If not, why does Jesus command it? If so, what does that say about your humanity?


3. Do you think evil should be resisted?

If so, why did Jesus command you not to resist evil (Matthew 5:39)? If not, if you think evil should be allowed to occur unresisted, doesn't that make you morally neutral at best?


4. Is Ray Comfort in danger of hell?

Matthew 5:22 states that whoever calls someone a fool is in danger of Hell, and Ray Comfort is rather famous for meeting that qualification. You cannot object that it is the Bible, not Ray, that is calling people fools -- name-calling by proxy is still name-calling.


5. What positive intellectual virtues did Jesus preach?

The closest thing to a teaching on intellectualism that Jesus himself purportedly taught that I have been able to find is a negative one: he based his entire message on faith, and said that you won't enter Heaven unless you become like children (Matthew 18:3). Did Jesus have anything positive to say about critical thinking?


6. Where in the gospels does Jesus preach against slavery?

Or do you believe, as does Jean Gasho-Musuka, that slavery is perfectly acceptable if done in a "godly" way?


7. Where does Jesus preach against rape?

8. Against war?

9. Against racism?

10. Against discrimination?

Some Christians, having failed to find such explicit teachings in the gospels, state that they're all encapsulated in the "Love Your Neighbor" commandment. In the first place, however, this idea is scarcely original to Jesus -- and in the second place, the Jesus depicted in the gospels was not shy about explicitly denouncing other immoral actions, actions as minor as name-calling and failure to be doubly charitable than asked. Why would he not explicitly preach against issues of so much greater moral import?


11. How can a person who honestly believes that God does not exist fulfill what Jesus purportedly called the greatest moral commandment, namely to maximally love God?

Apologists such as Ray Comfort will tell you that no such person exists, that anyone who says they believe that God does not exist is being dishonest, or just "pretending." However, that thesis is flatly contradicted by overwhelming empirical evidence to the contrary, and for that reason is rejected even by most Christian philosophers and theologians. So how can certain people be moral, or even try to be moral, when they don't believe that the being they're supposed to maximally love even exists?