Conspiracies Intro

Discuss “Selling the News” lyrics by Switchfoot

(twice as long as usual)

What is a conspiracy?

Qanon and 9/11

Good and bad

Boenhoffer

Election “rigged”

Sometimes conspiracies are a single story:

Ehud

Sometimes they are more complex:

Disc golfing with Robin: “does my soul need saved?”

Example: Christianity is about where we go after we die

Sadducees vs. Pharisee

Pharisees believed in afterlife (final resurrection or hell)

Sadducees did not

Paul was a Pharisee

Roman Christianity

“Conquering to save”

Citizens of the Holy Roman Empire were Christian by default, making them “saved,”

so, why not conquer more?

Protestant Revolt

indulgences sold to shorten time in purgatory

fire and brimstone sermons to extort money from poor

part went to build big churches, part paid the rich people who built the big churches

Christian imperialism:

Colonialism

discovery and conquer of the US

doctrine of discovery signed by the Pope

colonialism in Africa, Central America, North America

“missionaries”

Modern day?

Maybe:

if you can keep people convinced that this life doesn’t ultimately matter, it reduces the drive to change this world

Here’s what I’m not saying:

That the afterlife isn’t real

That heaven/hell aren’t real

That the what happens after we die, and the eternal state of our soul isn’t important

What I am saying is:

Jesus didn’t talk about it very much, and a lot of the places we think he might have talked about it look different if not influenced by the mindset of ex-pharisee Paul

The concept of heaven and hell has likely been overemphasized in ancient and modern Christian history and used to manipulate people and abuse power

We started this year talking about breaking cycles—getting free of the dominant stories, right? This is similar.

We’ve been learning about the Bible and the stories in it and the direction it points us on as a whole, and its about making THIS life better for everyone.

So, I declare that this story that the afterlife is the primary focus of Christianity is a conspiracy!

See you next week for more!