Love my enemies?

Jesus, You have got to speak in jest here. Even though don't think I've any enemies in the sense of those actively seeking to harm me, currently have plenty of incompetent and indifferent fools standing in the way of my regaining independence. Not to mention the legions of wrongheaded humans who despise me because I'm right and vast multitudes of those I've wronged in the past and who probably still hate me decades later.

I have to love all of 'em sez bible verse of the day from those pesky Gospels. Darn, just when i wanted some Old Testament stuff which would let me feel good about some righteous smiting. Gollly gee whiz, please let me smite someones. Please? Wait. Pray for them too, Lord. Dang, that hurts.  Can't I just buffet the bastards 'bout the head with pillows and well placed wrath?  No?

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."

Matthew 5:43-45

Socialism in the Bible

"11 Poor persons will never disappear from the earth. That’s why I’m giving you this command: you must open your hand generously to your fellow Israelites, to the needy among you, and to the poor who live with you in your land."
- Deuteronomy 15:11

Sunday Bible Stuff: "Better for me to be challenged by a Biblical passage"

[...When I was young, my family was Episcopalian, but most of my friends were Evangelicals. I got fed up with the way Episcopalians would evasively answer questions about what certain passages in the Bible meant. “What do you think it means?” was a typical response. In contrast, most of my Baptist friends could expect clear authoritative answers.

In hindsight, I recognize that my community was very conscious of that field. They were trying to avoid giving me pat answers. Better for me to be challenged by a Biblical passage than to through life anchored to some interpretation simply because of something my Sunday school teacher said.

Most of the Evangelical families living in the semi-rural south with me actually did believe that there were pat answers. They had no problem teaching the answers which they had learned from their families. And in this process the problems of the Bible are papered over, the challenges are swiftly removed and the contradictions are given a gloss that minimizes them. And since this process has been going on for generations, most of these answers are quite good and sound very reasonable...

So the difference between Fundamentalists and Progressives is not that one the first take the Bible literally and the second pick and choose. Both groups interpret the Bible in ways that minimize or remove certain sections and highlight others. The difference is that the Progressives do it consciously.]
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/unreasonablefaith/2012/06/everyone-interprets-some-just-admit-it/

God Says Pay Your Taxes

6. You must also pay your taxes. The authorities are God's servants, and it is their duty to take care of these matters. 7. Pay all that you owe, whether it is taxes and fees or respect and honor.
Romans 13:6-7 (emphasis added)

Or else, you know, that angry old bearded white man in heaven that RepubliKKKans presume to follow might just send you to Hell.

Oh synchronicity, thou doth maketh me laugh out loud.

As a bored human getting by on pittance but with cable modem, food, beer, and a roof over my head, life gets a trifle boring since having to slash my entertainment budget to pay off the winter heating bill.  so the tendency runs towards signing up for every darn newsletter I can, including daily bible verses from 2 different sources, Sojourners and Bible Gateway.

Golly, guess it a sin to feel pride this verse today says I'm right with my socialism and they wrong with their desire to abolish all vestiges of a progressive tax system.

I'll ask for forgiveness Sunday but gloat for now.

Oh yes, the last sentence says respect this President's authority.

So teabaggers, pay your taxes, damn youse!!!