Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”

Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’

But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
“ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ ”

(Matthew 15:1-9 NIV)

The vast majority of the New Testament is commentary and context, and it’s extraordinarily light on rules, despite some suggesting that it’s nothing other than rules. Those folks probably think (hope?) that the verse “Judas went out and hung himself” is divine instruction for the faithful

Nice dodge yet somewhat obvious.

What is it that you need, a sliderule or a fukin abacus to work out that Pat Lam was useless.

Maybe even with an abacus, a sliderule, a protractor and a set square it would be beyond you to
figure out the obvious.

Tatoo this on your forehead to help you understand.

“Pat Lam was a useless football coach.”

Second thought, tatoo it on your knob, you may see it more often.

Roots of the English language is Germanic.A huge proportion of words are French and Latin based. Not so much Greek.

In this particular belief system the deity called Yahweh – who has committed an endless litany of cruelties and barbarities – wields a little hippy sock-puppet called “Jesus.”

And you think that the warm’n'fuzzy stuff that the Jesus puppet spouts somehow renders all the atrocities of Yahweh moot?; that if we just focus on Reinhard Heydrich’s undoubted commitment as a husband and loving father that all his sickening butcheries count for nothing?

“However I’m genuinely interested to know if you believe being a Christian requires following the Levitical food laws (ie no shellfish etc), and other Old Testament directives?”

They must, because they are supposed to be moral teachings and not arbitrary laws.

If they were arbitrary – if Yahweh just tossed a coin and decided that those working on the Sabbath should be stoned to death – then every teaching and lesson in the Bible can be dismissed as having no moral basis.

If not, why not?

However I’m genuinely interested to know if you believe being a Christian requires following the Levitical food laws (ie no shellfish etc), and other Old Testament directives?

Exodus 21:17 is pretty easy going

“The point being that our culture is not based on Christian ethics”

Most of our culture, laws, ethics, language and politics comes down to us from the Greeks. Not Christians.

Quite the reverse.

So-called Christians are not barbaric, and this is shown by the fact that they ignore all the barbaric teachings in the Bible. Thus demonstrating that they don’t draw their ethics and morality from the Bible, subscribing instead to modern humanist notions of freedom and compassion.

The point being that our culture is not based on Christian ethics, if it were then it would look something like Afghanistan under the Taliban.

“when was the last stoning of someone who did work in the sabbath? In your own time. To the nearest 1000 years is close enough”

Er, you do realise you’re making my point for me?

Apparently you don’t.

This is why we applaud genocidal racial wars against our neighbours, endorse slavery and happily stone to death disobedient children, women who are not virgins when they marry, and those who do even the slightest amount of work on the Sabbath.

Because if we didn’t do all those Biblical things then our ethics would not be based on Christianity… which they are…so we do.

You put big Gerry in a Speedo and try saying that again…

Didnt they play warm up games? the highlanders, blues and chiefs all played well first game up.

The game has passed them by.

Maybe after this season when they fail to make the finals they will finally sack Blackadder.

Im scared to think what the Chiefs will do to them.

As for my boys – im just happy we are playing with heart. its been a long time. Dime has to think back to 2002 when henry was technical adviser to think of when we last played with heart.