Yes, I agree. The story of our new country, I am saying, began in ancient times
and finally emerged as new secular order --
Novus Ordo Seclorum, as it says on the dollar bill -- and signals a new era in human history -- but only if we MAY, but are not required to worship either
the secular king or the image of a religious King.
For many of us, that leaves us free to appreciate the masterfully skillful efforts described in Jesus' story. The medieval tortures were not done by followers of Jesus but were natural, like cats playing with their mice. Whether in his name or not, the only purpose of Jesus' words is to comprehend them, and what proceeds from there is an increasingly transcendent condition of mind, I think...without _requiring any assent.

It is eerie. In both stories there are:

A distant King...oppressive and capricious.
An occupying force of soldiers helping a distant King extract the wealth of the land.
In the time of Jesus, they were caught between
Herod, ostensibly Hebrew, and Tiberius, a secular King -- two kings at one time!

• Three - random - November 6, 2002 - 19:23 UTC
  • You mean Herod, Tiberius and Jesus? - obviouslymike - November 7, 2002 - 05:34 UTC