I would think a religion that claims to represent ‘love’ would not mean love limited to a few special people. I thought love meant everyone. In reading so many religious passages, it has become obvious that only some members of society are ‘loved’.
The Hebrew god first only loved a particular branch of a tribe in the middle east. Though the Jews of Israel and the Jews of Judea were related, somehow only the Jews of Israel were the favored few. When the two factions merged and established a common ruler and central government, it appears they were all of the favored group. Then petty tribal differences again split them into the two separate areas, and only those of the Israel group once again were favored.
Some years later, all of humanity had fallen out of favor, except for 1 worthy family. The loving Hebrew ‘god’ of the Israelites decided to kill everyone and every living thing on land, by drowning. Only Noah and his sons, and their wives (and 2 of all the “kinds” of land animals) were saved in a giant boat. These few people went forth and re-populated the area (and the entire rest of earth?) and the animals distributed
themselves and repopulated earth the same way (I really wonder about those penguins and kangaroos, either in arriving at boat to be saved, or returning to their far away habitats). Anyway, the loving god then supposedly created the rainbow to remind himself to never drown all life on earth again. (Why no one had ever previously seen the natural phenomenon of sun light prism prior to this is just another mystery.) Anyway, things trundle along for about 400 years or so, when ‘god’ once again becomes so annoyed with ‘his’ people that god determines they must die… but maybe a blood sacrifice of a perfect human could do the trick (be the blood sacrifice to satisfy god’s demands) and save all the rest of the humans. Unfortunately, there was no human to be found who was perfect enough to be worthy in the eyes of ‘god’.
Then ‘god’ had another thought (or someone suggested, I’m not clear on that) that god himself, as the only ‘perfect’ being, could sacrifice himself to himself to satisfy the debt he himself had imposed on the human population. So Jesus Christ was born, then murdered by the government on the testimony of the “priests”, about 33ish years later. That blood satisfied the loving first god’s condemnation of humans. Somehow Jesus Christ was also deified according to some, so there are 2 or 3 aspects of the loving god (there’s a ghost in there somewhere, too). During the earthly life of Jesus Christ, he acted as a teacher or a prophet for a few years. He also taught humans should love one another, and that now all (well, some) humans were loved and lovable, as long as they believed he (Jesus) was the only way to meet the first loving god after mortal death. This whole story was eventually written into a series of scrolls beginning about 500 BCE (Torah, Tanakh), and continuing through 325 CE, when certain scrolls were selected and bound together in a fixed order into book form. Additions, translations, and modifications to the book (Bible) continued through the 1600s, and new versions (or translations) are periodically printed (most recently in 1982).
So what are these teachings of ‘love’? First and foremost seems to be ‘love god’, worship ‘god’, constantly say how great, wonderful, powerful, wise, loving, kind (whatever other praise words you can imagine) he is. You are to do this glorification frequently and fervently. Then, love one another — treat each other well, for all are god’s children. But only if you are male, not maimed or marred in body are you ‘worthy’ to love and be loved. Oh, and only if you believe and accept that Jesus Christ (or maybe Mother Mary?) is the way to ‘god’. Oh, and only if you tithe at least 10% of your income and holdings to the “priests” and to the church. Oh, and only if you accept that you are born dirty, unworthy, guilty of a “sin” inherited from your ancient ancestor.
Hmm, I think that’s a very limited kind of love. So limited, that it isn’t really love at all — just a word that pretends love.
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