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44. FURTHER THOUGHTS ON CHRISTIANITY, AFTER MY REVIEW BELOW OF GIBSON'S THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (March 2004)
I have always had this question about the crucifixion. Why do Christians make such a big deal about it? God didn't die. He couldn't. He's God. Or do Christians think he blanked out on his Godliness while in human form? But then he's not God, all-powerful, all-seeing, all-preordaining. Not the God Christians believe in, anyway. (The Church dealt with such heresies long ago, and dismissed them.) Don't get so angry with the Jews. They didn't kill him. Nobody did. It was a symbolic act, an expression of solidarity with his children, the human race, and a forgiveness of their sins. He was exactly where He wanted to be, and, if you believe the religion, this was the absolutely necessary next step to create a New Testament. This obsession and frenzy with the outer human form of the happening, this obsession with the suffering and wounds and bloodiness of a mere outer and temporary human form strikes me as fetishistic, and makes me ask of Christians: Do you really believe? Then where is your serenity?
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