Let the dead bury the dead: The character of Jesus and genocide

Brian Worley

“Let the dead bury their dead”...Matthew 8:22

In my mind, perhaps the most stunning words rendered from the lips of Jesus were from Matthew 8:22 “Let the dead bury their dead”.  These are the words of Jesus given to a grieving disciple, not to a foe! This disciple wanted to go and bury his dead father. Certainly life should be respected and moral beings should pay their respects in memory to those loved ones whom have just died, if they are able to do so.  Jesus gets credited for having great character and compassion, but honesty demands that his curt attitude towards death, humanity, and lack of respect for those in grief be placed upon his sinless account!  

The Rumbula Forest (Riga, Latvia) 

Recently, I took a long walk through the snow-covered Rumbula Forest on the outskirts of Riga, Latvia.   I had driven past this area many times in the past year, not realizing the dark historical significance of what took place at this locale on November 30 and December 08, 1941.  Some things should never be forgotten! Since this will reach an international audience, I feel the need to briefly introduce a portion of history that is often never taught. My purpose is two-fold. First, I want to affirm that genocide/holocausts are not a figment of the imagination in Eastern Europe, it is history! Second I want to examine the character of “Christ” and bring up some of what I believe to be original thoughts about Jesus concerning his respect for life and his reaction to genocide. 

Information vs. Misinformation 

People must realize that there is true information in life as well as misinformation. Just because someone writes or says something, doesn’t necessarily make it true or false. People can be mistaken and often agendas are at work to mislead people.  A lot is at stake when you speak about genocide/holocausts.  At this point, I can only tell you that I have been working to document events; some are gruesome accounts that I have been told by people that I trust.  Any other statements now would be counter- productive to my pursuits. 

According to http://www.rumbula.org/remembering_rumbula.shtml somewhere between 25,000 and 27,800 Jewish people were killed on these two dates. My interest in this comes from relationships, location, and the desire to use my background in religion to break down hatred with reason. Relationship wise, my wife’s deceased father was Jewish. His brother was taken away to what was believed to be a Siberian labor camp and was never heard from again! Most people do not realize that unless your mother is Jewish, you are not considered to be Jewish by most Jewish people. The reason my wife isn’t considered to be Jewish is because her mother is Latvian.  I do love my wife and am coming to practically realize what life is a small country and Jewish descendants face on a daily basis. It is wise for those people that are hated “to grow eyes in the back of their heads”. 

Would Christianity have made a difference? 

In my The Split Personality of Christianity, I posed what I then believed to be a deep rhetorical question. The question was, “Would Christianity had made a difference in a genocide /holocaust situation”?  Several things have helped me to satisfactorily answer this question now: 1) That stroll through the Rumbula Forest; 2) Reading portions of Richard Rhodes’ Masters of Death: The SS Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust; 3) Preparation for an upcoming pod-cast about the character of Christ! 

In his book, Rhodes speaks about a method that the death squad at Rumbala utilized that is in common vernacular expressed as sardine packing.  This book review link will speak about this method of killing and stacking of the dead bodies, http://www.arlindo-correia.com/120802.html , I caution you that this made me sick when I read it.  In putting this all together, after reading this, you will understand that at Rumbala the dead actually participated in burying the dead. Jesus’ ugly words, “let the dead bury their dead” has since gained a new understanding to this ex-minister!  

Jesus was silent about genocide 

Do you recall the maniac Herod in Matthew 2:16-18 when he “sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under”?  Can anyone deny that this is genocide?  Better yet, can anyone tell me what Jesus had to say about this atrocity?  Jesus was silent about this horrible genocide! If Jesus was God, as claimed, don’t you think his addressing brutality and bloodshed might have made some difference within future disciples?  History shows us that religious leaders have a propensity to attract bloodshed more than peaceful solutions.  Voltaire was a wise man that understood this: “Those who can get you to believe absurdities, can get you to commit atrocities.”  

The Bible: An anti-Semitic book! 

With Jesus’ silence on genocide, I want people to see that this isn’t just a simple oversight. A supposed deity doesn’t get allowed to be silent about large numbers of people being killed!  Certainly, he would be considered to be a hypocrite to speak out against Herod’s genocide with the  Matthew 24 future mass killing and planned destruction of Jewish people in the tribulation period that so many Christians today speak of! Yes, the bible is an anti-Semitic book! 

I will propose two more reasons why Christ was quiet about this.  Perhaps Jesus did speak about this, but this wasn’t included within the Christian Canon.  A simple reading of John 21:25 would allow for this scenario. “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.”  In a situation like this, you would have to conclude that this wasn’t considered important enough to include within the Canon of scripture and thus shows apathy, cowardice or acquiescence towards the event! 

A Reasonable Explanation for the Silence of Jesus 

A more likely reason that Jesus was silent about this atrocity is because Jesus was likely a figment of someone’s imagination, not a real life historical person! In like manner, this probably also explains the silence of history about such a dastardly deed like Herod initiated! This fictional character Jesus likely was a created personage that later grew into legendary status in time. Simply put, the writing creators of Jesus never thought about this and the many other problems within their fraudulent Bible.  A great way to understand how this might happen is to watch the great movie, The Shawshank Redemption.  In the later stages of the movie, the Tim Robbins character Andy Dufresne tells his imprisoned friend “Red” played by Morgan Freeman about the lucrative scam that he had concocted while in the prison.  Red is concerned that if this gets discovered they will come after Dufresne. Andy Dufresne proceeds to tell Red that if they do, all they will find is a phantom, and will be chasing a figment of his imagination like Peter Rabbit or Bugs Bunny. He had created false passports and identifications, by the time that people finally understood this, he would be long gone.

Concluding Thoughts 

In conclusion, I am not impressed with the character of Jesus. Yes, some things attributed to Jesus have value but we are not speaking about some purported man here, but supposedly God himself! With this said, Jesus is not worthy to be worshiped, believed in or to be followed! In practice, I usually have a list of topics (20-25 deep) that I plan to write about in the future for Ex-minister.  These topics are truths that I feel compelled to write about as the thought develops in time. Many preachers plan sermons this same way. Let the dead bury their dead was not on my list but quickly grabbed my attention because it stirred my inner being and I could not be silent!  

  

Brian Worley   Ex-Minister.org     April 2, 2008    All rights reserved

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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