There was a lot of Jesus fanfic going around in the second century A.D. But the reason those particular four Gospels made it into the New Testament wasn't because there weren't many others that a minority believed in, but because these were the four that that had the broadest overall support (even among those who also believed in what are now known as apocryphal and pseudoepigraphical books).
In fact the very last line of the four canonical Gospels (John 21:25) is: "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, 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." Surely this verse would have been "censored" if there had been a conspiracy to deny the possibility of other Gospels. It was just that not enough people could come to a consensus over which of the many "other things" written down were true, so they stuck to the four which had the broadest consensus. Nor were neo-New Testaments a phenomenon only of Biblical times; Mormons, for example, believe they received a testimony of Jesus that was hidden until the 19th century.
Most major religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism, have branches that argue fiercely and sometimes murderously over doctrine. Human nature is to take the interpretations and the revelations that favor your world view. Liberals and conservatives will each pick what suits them, and each believe the other got it wrong.
To focus on any one particular sin, however, isn't an imitation of the Gospels, as Jesus did not, unless it was the sin of hypocrisy. One may or may not believe that homosexuality will keep you out of heaven, but Jesus says the same thing about people who pass by the sick, poor, and hungry, about those who lie, about those who do this and about those who do that. "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." He didn't add, "oh, yeah, and especially you sodomites."
The Christian viewpoint is that we're all pretty much fucked: everyone sins in some way, and therefore everyone needs salvation. Of course, one doesn't have to accept this premise, or that of any religion. But most who are believers shop around for whatever sect or denomination or gospel or epistle or chapter or verse that will tell them what they wanted to hear—be it that Jesus hated gays, or that Jesus was gay. In the absence of a Second Coming to settle things one way or the other, Christianity is just a 2000 year-old series of flamewars, often conducted with real flame. And new forums are starting up every day.
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Abarenbo Shogun wrote: | Can we skip the Theological Lessons and God Bashing and focus on how Hollywood seems to f*** up reality and history? If I wanted to be "educated" on God, then i'll ask the big guy himself. |
You can feel free to write that it's fucked up. Well, I've seen manga and anime on several occasions present what I regarded as an inaccurate view of reality and history, so I guess turnabout is fair play. In this regard, Japanese pop culture doesn't necessarily have any higher integrity and accuracy than American pop culture.
Having said that, of course, it would have been preferable that "The Book of Daniel" distinguished themselves by getting it right for a change. You will find some people in Hollywood—producers, actors, entertainment lawyers—who do have a fairly good grasp on anime and manga. But there are also many to whom it's just a reference to drop to seem topical. Nothing inherently wrong with that (anime and manga drop references themselves all the time to be topical), it's just "Daniel" had the bad luck not to have any informed oversight, and thus these references ended up inaccurate.
—C.
"I bring you grains of truth."
—Osaka, AZUMANGA DAIOH
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