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Originally Posted by mburbank
Paul in particular (while I do not question his faith) had strong political concerns and was trying to establish and maintain some degree of control of content and interpretation over a geographically spreading religion.
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Christianity wouldn't be what it is today without the works of Paul.
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In addition, I think you would be hard pressed to find many serious biblical historians who think the passage from Matthew you quoted was something Jesus actually said, and many scholars believe the line about Father Son and Holy Spirit was added even later than the rest of the passage.
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Then we should dismiss ALL scripture references from this conversation, there are a lot of biblical scholars who think the entire Bible is bullshit, so we probably shouldn't be citing the Bible to support or dismiss Christians using their 1st Amendment rights, right?
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I take your point that one can find passages to support differing speciffic views, but I think (personal opinion) the passage Ziggy picked is better supported by the other gospels. I think it speaks not only to the natture of prayer, but to the intent behind the public display of ones closeness to God.
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God never tells us to be mimes. The scripture Ziggy quoted is specifically about one's relationship
with God. It's a commentary on the practices of the day, and probably a shot at the Pharisees. I only cited that particular scripture because it too was from Matthew, just to again show that the Gospel Google game can often go either way.
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If the purpose is that one may be seen by men to be holy, this is pride. I can't guess what Pat Robertson's relationship with God is when he's in the closet, but the 700 club is a mighty big street corner where you can be seen by a lot of men.
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I don't care what Pat Rovbertson's motives are. That will ultimately be for him to deal with. I don't care about Robertson, but my problem in general with the secular Left is that they can't just agree with
most people that Pat Robertson is a fool. They have to use it as fodder to attack ALL of Christianity, because frankly, it suits
their political agenda. I believe the reason for this is that pat Robertson-- a white, wealthy, Southern, and Republican male-- is their typical image of a Christian, which is sort of sad, IMO.