The Cleansing of the Temple

I listened to several of the messages by Emmanuel Charles McCarthy. He has a very strong Boston accent and for some reason sometimes sounds a lot like a comedian whose name escapes me right now even though it was on the tip of my tongue and I can see his face. George Carlin!! I started to listen to another of the messages from a retreat somewhere in Ireland I think...but it got long, and late and I got about half way through. The two messages I listened to in their entirety were about the cleansing of the temple and the violence in the Old Testament.

He said that the scene of Jesus clearing the temple of the money changers is often used as justification for violence. People have a "hollywood image" of what took place there and do not base their views solely on the text in scripture. In only one of the gospels (John) does Jesus have a whip - although it can also be translated a cord. (He also brought out the difficulties and opportunities for error when translating from one language to another) Nowhere in the text does it say Jesus hit anyone. He used the cord (whip) to clear out the animals, which is often how you get an animal like a sheep or goat to move. Nowhere in scripture does it say that Jesus hit anyone, ever....period!!

He used a modern day version of what went on in the Temple. He talked a bit about bingo and how it is making big bucks for many churches (not just Catholic churches) and that the irony is that the general principle of bingo goes against scripture (gambling, it feeds on greed etc) So...a pastor...he used the example of a Catholic priest since he is a Catholic priest....starts a bingo night at his church. Money starts to roll in and he uses it to help finance and support the church and further the kingdom of God. It occurs to him that if he could exploit greed in people for the ultimate glory of God, why not use another of the seven deadly sins for the good cause and to make a bunch of money for the church. Greed is no worse than lust....and lust is no worse than greed. And it's for a good cause. Like bingo. So he sets up a booth in the back of the church filled with pornography. The church flourishes and grows. Money rolls in via the porn shop in the back of the church. One day, Mother Theresa visits the church. As she is leaving she notices the booth at the back of the church. She checks it out, takes a few books off the shelf and is aghast at what she finds there. In display of righteous indignation, and to send a distinct message and symbol , she throws the books on the floor, throws some more books on the floor....turns the table over. Same principle when Jesus cleared the Temple. It was not violence for the sake of violence but a statement.....to send a message. He is, of course, much clearer than I am in this retelling, but I am getting the gist of it down, I think.

Interesting site. In July they are starting a forty day fast for peace. Wow..radical....and forty days. That is a long fast!! Check out the site if you are interested in learning more about nonviolent Christianity.