Comment by A on December 17, 2012 at 4:04am

But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. That you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven; for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Comment by Strega on December 17, 2012 at 3:53pm

That last line of your waffle-in-blue, reminds me of a famous poem:-

The rain it falleth on the Just
And on the Unjust fella
But chiefly on the Just, because
The Unjust stole the Just's umbrella.

Thanks for that reminder - other than that, the rest of your blue font was wasted on me.

Comment by A on December 17, 2012 at 5:47pm

Well then, let me explain.

The artist hoped to mock Christianity (FTW!). But if anyone waves that cartoon under the nose of a good Bible-reading Christian, that Christian can wave back with that quote of Jesus in Matthew 5:44, and he and his buddies will laugh and point and giggle and shout and shake their heads. Matthew 5:44 is so stunningly on-the-mark and pithy that one could wonder if the cartoonist was purposefully setting up atheists for just that humiliation.

I put the quote in there for those thinking atheists (and especially those waffling agnostics) who are ever-vigilant against self-congratulatory, hate-mongering regardless of the source, and who subject themselves to the discipline of informing themselves of contrary points of view.

Does that help?

Comment by Strega on December 17, 2012 at 7:10pm

Actually, yes it does.  I now have some kind of context for your bible passage.  I'm afraid I'm not really ever-vigilant about anything much.  I did enjoy recalling that mini poem, though, so cheers for that.  Probably quite handy that I've never lived in a religious environment, as ever-vigilance does sound a bit tiring. I need my rest, these days.

Comment by Gallup's Mirror on December 18, 2012 at 3:21am

The artist hoped to mock Christianity (FTW!).

The artist is mocking theists. Christianity falls under that umbrella (forgive the pun) but so does Islam, Sikhism, Hinduism, Baha'i and a dozen other major religions. So don't feel singled out. The artist is mocking all of you, not just Christians.

The artist hoped to mock Christianity (FTW!). But if anyone waves that cartoon under the nose of a good Bible-reading Christian, that Christian can wave back with that quote of Jesus in Matthew 5:44, and he and his buddies will laugh and point and giggle and shout and shake their heads. 

You were aiming for Mathew 5:45 which references rain. Note it doesn't answer the question posed in the cartoon. The sandbagger still has no way of knowing from this passage if God considers him just or unjust.

"That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." - Mat 5:45

Matthew 5:44 is so stunningly on-the-mark and pithy that one could wonder if the cartoonist was purposefully setting up atheists for just that humiliation.

Here is the actual stunningly on-the-mark passage you hit by mistake while setting up your humiliation of atheists.

"But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you," - Mat 5:44  

Jesus told you to pray for the artist and others who persecute you. He didn't say you and your Christian buddies should laugh and point and giggle and shout and shake your heads and humiliate anybody. 

I put the quote in there for those [...] who subject themselves to the discipline of informing themselves of contrary points of view.

If you insisted leprechauns are real, I wouldn't believe you, or have much interest in hearing more about your point of view on the matter. Not until you furnished some evidence of the leprechauns. Until then, be as contrary as you like. 

The same goes for premise is that Jesus was a god. All of your claims as a Christian are based on that assertion. As is the case with the leprechauns, and for the same reason, I don't believe you or your contrary point of view. 

Does that help? 

Of course it did. Now I know that you're everything I've come to expect in a Christian.

Comment by James Cox on December 18, 2012 at 12:18pm

Or the alternative:

Father, when it started to rain, you suggested that 'God/god' had a reason. Why do you think 'God/god' had any connection, it really could just be a cold front? 

Comment by Dale Headley on December 18, 2012 at 3:06pm

And I guess there's no point in doing anything about the gun laws in this insane country, because it was clearly God's will, as some, such as Mike Huckabee have suggested, that those 20 beautiful, innocent, little children were so brutally massacred.  As the Westboro Baptist hate-mongers have said about the killings: "God sent the killer."

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