the neo-cons would call jesus a terrorist in today's terms...

the neo-cons would call jesus a terrorist in today's terms...because they're such good 'christian conservatives...'
[align=left]Jesus As Political Dissident[/align]

[align=left]Jeffrey J. Peshut | December 13 2005[/align]

[align=left]In addition to being a mystic, healer and teacher, Jesus Christ was a social prophet and movement initiator in the tradition of the social prophets of ancient Israel.1 These social prophets were noteworthy for their sacred or mystical experiences as well as their radical criticism of the existing social-political order. As Marcus Borg explains, they were spirit-fueled advocates of social justice. To understand this facet of Jesusâ?? mission, it is important to understand this and the historical context in which Jesus lived. [/align]

As far back as Moses in the 13th century BCE, Jewish social prophets had protested what was at the time the most common form of economic and political order â?? the ancient domination system. These domination systems were marked by political oppression (they were hierarchal and patriarchal), economic exploitation (they owned the land and taxed their subjects) and religious legitimacy (the social order reflected the will of God).

This was the system in Egypt when Moses led two million Hebrew slaves to their freedom. It was the same system that was later recreated in Israel, with the king effectively becoming the new pharaoh. According to the theology of the ancient Jews, the king of Israel was the son of God, to whom God had promised an everlasting kingdom. The ancient Jews believed that God dwelled in the temple in Jerusalem, next to the king's palace. There was no separation of church and state â?? the temple and the king stood together at the top of the domination system. The social prophets spared neither â?? they criticized both the temple and the king and advocated social justice for the oppressed and exploited.

Of course, the situation of the oppressed and exploited only became worse when the Romans invaded Judea in 63 BCE, making it a client-kingdom not unlike the client-state of Vichy France during World War II or the client-state that the U.S. is attempting to create in Iraq today.

The rule of the Romans was marked by dissent and revolt by the Judeans. The most noteworthy of the rulers appointed by the Romans was Herod the Great. Herod was originally appointed governor of only Galilee. When the Parthinians invaded Judea in 40 BCE, Herod fled to Rome. It was there that Mark Antony appointed him King of Judea. In 31 BCE, Octavian defeated Mark Antony at the Battle of Actium. Herod quickly switched allegiances to Octavian, who confirmed him as King of Judea in 30 BCE. Herod had successfully retained his position as client-king.

In an effort to ingratiate himself to the people of Judea, Herod began the expansion of the Second Temple in 20 BCE, which was then inaugurated in 10 BCE. Still, because of his attempts to displace the Jewish ruling elite, his strict loyalty to Rome and his policy of heavy taxation, he was not popular in Judea.

After Herod the Greatâ??s death in 4 BCE, Caesar Augustus divided Herodâ??s kingdom among his three sons. Augustus allotted Herod Archelaus the greater part of the kingdom â?? including Samaria, Judea and Idumea. Herod Antipas was allotted Galilee and Peraea. Herod Philip received the remainder.

It is generally agreed that Jesus of Nazareth was born in Bethlehem shortly before Herod the Greatâ??s death, probably around 5 BCE. Therefore, Jesus lived most of his life â?? and all of his adult life â?? under the rule of Herod Antipas. During Jesusâ?? life, the tension between the Jews and the Roman/Judean domination system remained high. Because of their belief that they were Godâ??s chosen people, and were not meant to be captives or subjects of another authority, the Jews resented Roman rule.

The most vocal of the critics were usually dealt with harshly. For example, because Herod Antipas viewed John the Baptist as a threat to the existing order, he executed him. John the Baptist was Jesusâ?? close friend and mentor. It was John who had baptized Jesus around 27 CE.

This then was the political and personal climate for Jesus as he was heading from Galilee to Jerusalem for Passover Week in 30 CE. At the beginning of Passover Week, Jesus entered Jerusalem in a provocative manner. He rode into Jerusalem from the east on a donkey as his followers chanted words that linked him to the kingdom of David, the greatest of ancient Israel's kings. At about the same time, the Roman governor Pilate entered the city from the west at the head of a squadron of Roman cavalry. At a minimum, Jesusâ?? actions would have been interpreted by the Romans as an act of political protest and civil disobedience.

Moreover, later that week, as he taught in the temple court, he had engaged in verbal conflict with the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the temple authorities. It was at this time that the Pharisees tried to trap him by asking whether it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. The Sadducees sought to trip him up by telling the tale of a woman married to seven brothers and asking him whose wife she would be in the afterlife. Finally, the scribes asked him to identify the greatest commandment.

It was his act of overturning the tables of the moneychangers in the temple court in Jerusalem, however, that ultimately triggered his arrest in the gardens at Gethsemane.

Jesus was tried and convicted of blasphemy and sedition and executed by crucifixion, a Roman form of execution commonly used for two categories of people â?? political rebels and chronically defiant slaves. These two groups shared something in common. They both systematically defied the established authority. Because Jesus was not a slave, it makes sense that he was crucified as a political threat to the Roman order.

It is doubtful, however, that the Romans acted alone. Instead, it is widely believed that they acted with a small circle of Jewish temple authorities. After all, Jesus was tried and convicted of both blasphemy and sedition. The Roman and Jewish ruling elite arrested and executed him to avoid criticism and popular unrest much like they had done earlier with Jesus' mentor, John the Baptist.

Thus, Jesus was killed because he stood against the Roman and Jewish authorities in favor of an alternate political and social order. He was indeed a political rebel with a cause â?? the liberation of his people from the Roman and Judean domination system of his day.

Notes

For an excellent discussion of the many facets of Jesus, see Borg and Wright, The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions (Harper San Francisco, 1999).

http://www.infidels.org/library/hist..._jesus.html#58

Mistakes Of Jesus (1932)
William Floyd

Excerpts:
Failure

Many a good man is a failure from a worldly point of view, but failure is not what one would wish to copy. Jesus sought to save the world. Surely no one looking at the world today can say that he succeeded. His plan of salvation was a failure; it did not work out as Jehovah and Jesus intended. An ideal teacher is needed now almost as much as two thousand years ago. If the world is gradually improving, as seems probable, it is in spite of the superstitions of the past, not because of them.

At one time Jesus denied his own perfection, saying: "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God." [Matt. xix, 17.]

Christian parents who hold Jesus up to their children as a paragon would not wish their sons to grow up to be just like Jesus. He is not an acceptable prototype. Jesus did not provide the knowledge so much needed by man to enable him to shape his course through life. No one knows how to live correctly, how best to meet each situation, what action is suited to the occasion. Jesus did not tell us what to do. His sayings are interpreted in many different ways. He failed to predict the needs of the future.

Jesus did not explain relations between man and wife, nor between employer and employee, nor how to educate children, nor how to preserve health, nor how to make a living, nor how to prevent war, poverty and suffering. Jesus gave little practical information, and his spiritual advice was not clearly enough expressed to enable man to apply it to modern conditions. Jesus neglected to instruct people how to live. His knowledge of the world was less than that of the average American citizen.

Destruction of Property

Two acts of Jesus, consistent with his disregard of worldly goods, were destructive in character.

"And there was a good way off from them a herd of many swine feeding. So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters." [Matt. viii, 28-34.]
Jesus did what the devils requested, cruelly killing two thousand inoffensive valuable animals that belonged to other people.

"Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: and when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables."

Jesus has been defended for other acts on the ground that he was living in less civilized times than our own, but here he is seen offending both ancient and modern sensibilities. The destruction of the swine and the routing of the merchants were sensational and erratic exhibitions. If reformers today should destroy herds of animals, except to protect public health by due process of law, or overthrow banks, they would be liable to arrest in any city of Christendom. Therefore the consensus of opinion denies exoneration to Jesus for his spasmodic resort to direct action.

Unethical Advice

When the unjust steward cheated his employer, Jesus gave the following remarkable advice:
"And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fall, they may receive you into everlasting habitations." [Luke xvi, 1-9.]
This passage should be read again before deciding whether Jesus advised opportunism rather than morality. The words must be taken as they are; no interpretation can be based upon the assumption that Jesus was always right and therefore meant something different from what he said.