Dan of the County: "I've been thinking lately about two stories in the scripture and the quite different responses that Jesus had to what we might call sexual corruptions and material corruptions.

"The first was the woman taken in adultery. I can't help thinking that some of our religious leaders of today would have exercised a penalty of that day--having her stoned to death. And I'm sure they might have thought Jesus should have exercised his right of "Holy vengeance" on her. Actually his reaction was quite different...you'll need to read it for yourself.

"The other story has to do with the money changers in the temple. Many of the popular images of Jesus are of a soft spoken forgiving person with the "patience of a saint." However the scene in the temple presents the image of someone who is totally angry and full of true righteous indignation over the insult to God via turning it into a "den of thieves".

"It seems in our current religious culture we have made "sins of the flesh" almost unforgivable actions and yet we wink at material corruption and often have "hearts of stone" when it comes to those in the world that the biblical poor, lame, fatherless children and widows represent.

"I just have to ponder if our hierarchy of moral values match that of what God actually intends for us."

DFO: You nailed it, my friend.

---

---