Dragaera

The Religion Debate

Sun Dec 1 10:28:24 PST 2002

Luke 10: 29- 37   But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus,
"And who is my neighbor?" In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down
>from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They
stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half
dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw
the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came
to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan,
as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took
pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and
wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took
care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to
the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will
reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.' "Which of these three
do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of
robbers?"  The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on
him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise." 

Actually if you continue reading the passage in Luke where Jesus is
asked "Who is my Neighbor?" you will hear the parable of the Good
Samaritan. Definitely not "other Christians"  or even like minded
people. To the people of Israel, the Samaritans were heathens and below
contempt.

-Eric Travis
ericstravis at yahoo.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Frank Mayhar [mailto:frank at exit.com] 
Sent: Sunday, December 01, 2002 10:49 AM
To: Mia McDavid
Cc: dragaera at dragaera.info
Subject: Re: The Religion Debate


Mia McDavid wrote:
> "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul,
> and with all thy mind, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
On 
> these commands hang *all* the law and the prophets."  (emphasis mine)
> 
> That translates pretty well as "won't you PLEASE be NICE to each 
> other."

Um, but it seems that the definition of "thy neighbor" pretty much means
"other Christians," from what was quoted from Luke and Matthew earlier.

That would tend to agree with history, as well.
-- 
Frank Mayhar frank at exit.com	http://www.exit.com/
Exit Consulting                 http://www.gpsclock.com/