this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2026
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never understood this (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 weeks ago by sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml to c/memes@hexbear.net
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[–] muad_dibber@lemmygrad.ml 17 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

A few more from here:

More obviously, we find in the Gospels a whole series of sayings and events that challenge Roman perceptions of private property, imperialism and exploitation of colonised areas of the empire. Let me give one example of each:

A challenge to private property, which the Romans had invented as a legal category in the late second century BCE. At one point, Jesus tells his disciples, ‘it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God’.

A challenge to imperialism: asked about a coin and whose bust was on it, Jesus replies, ‘Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s’. In other words, the emperor is due nothing, while God is due everything. ‘What has Rome given us?’ Jesus says. ‘Nothing’, is the reply.

A challenge to imperial exploitation: the best example here is a central item of the church’s liturgy. Each week at evening prayer, I recite the following, which are the words of Mary from the Gospel of Luke: ‘He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty’. I suspect that the radical sense of these words has been lost through two millennia of repetition.

[–] jorge@lemmygrad.ml 11 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

I hypothesize that idealist ideologies (such as religion) tend to have a huge contrast between nice words and cruel reality. In feudal theocratic Tibet, monks would severely lash disobedient serfs then leave them to die in the freezing night. They still denied the reality that monks killed serfs, as Buddhism forbids capital punishment.

Edit: that was meant as one example. I didn't mean to accuse buddhism in particular. Christianism has similar problems.

[–] muad_dibber@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Speaking as Buddhist, Buddhism def has some reactionary strains, but interestingly also some hardcore anti-imperialist ones in the modern era too, especially in Sri Lanka.

I highly recommend reading a history of christian imperialism in sri lanka, by Walpola Rahula (a buddhist socialist who wrote probably the most famous modern primer on Buddhism, What the Buddha taught), called the heritage of the bhikkhu. It also gets into why Christians tried to depoliticize and de-fang the buddhist monastic movement, to silence it from making criticisms of european imperialism.

Unfortunately most of christianity's anti-imperialist / anti-landlord strains died out by the middle ages, but there even are some in the modern era, like liberation theologists, and some anti-war christians.

[–] jorge@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Hi. Thank you for your polite reply. I clarify that my other comment meant to provide one example. I didn't mean to accuse buddhism in particular. Christianism has similar problems. I edited my other comment.

[–] muad_dibber@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago

It's no probs! I agree with you also, we shouldn't exempt any religion from criticism, Buddhism included.

[–] CupcakeOfSpice@hexbear.net 9 points 2 weeks ago

In addition to BeanisBrain's comment, I've always had people tell me that the "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's" was primarily about paying your taxes and to a lesser degree, about being patriotic. It's wild how Evangelicals try to explain and justify what they already believed.

[–] BeanisBrain@hexbear.net 9 points 2 weeks ago

A challenge to private property, which the Romans had invented as a legal category in the late second century BCE. At one point, Jesus tells his disciples, ‘it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God’.

Actually this upholds private property. The Eye of the Needle was a small gate in Jerusalem that camels had to be coaxed through slowly and carefully, meaning that it's difficult but not impossible for a rich person to get into Heavasdofiaeropgjaerogjiaseroj sus-torment