On Jesus

The author Garry Wills is in a Wilmette Borders to-nite for a book signing. I'm going. Lat Sunday I floated the idea to a crowd, but in the end I wanted to take Jamie - the other big jesus freak I know.

Jamie is the guy who has the 'buddy' who recieves the signals directly from God. Since Jamie is not all that healthy, he tends to believe all that this shyster indoctrinates him to believe.

The shyster? He's called Der Feurher in these web pages, and his technique is simple - he takes the Bible, then has a Greek/Hebrew dictionary, a Hebrew/English dictionary, and an English/Greek dictionary. He'll take a word, strain it through all three dictionaries, then cherry pick through all the definitions to vomit forth his interpretation - and if he is still not happy with the 30 different definitions he can manipulate further.

Context is everything??

Not to this guy. Himself is everything. Pretty laughable for an educated man like myself - pitiful- but he had one disciple - Jimey. An educated man, but troubled (aren't we all - but 'some girls are bigger than others'), he should know better. But his weakness for the wee folk has gotten him into so much trouble over the years, and letting this shyster into his life has wasted him of years of productiveness and tens of thousands of dollars. Wasted.

Jimey has basically seen this guys darkness. The way that Der Feurher uses everybody else in his life has lifted most of the scabs off of Jamiys eyes. Not that Der Feurher deserves hate - he is one of Gods creatures like us all. But for Jimey to be a truely productive member of society, that dual circle jerk had to end and Der Feurher had to be exposed. Almost there for Jimey.

So to-nite: I've wanted him exposed to someone who actually has studied the bible and done serious work on it - not the shopping for translations until one that fits to Der Feurhers satisfactions and that's all you have to think about is what Der Feurher dictates you to believe style. But - I've invited Der Feurher along as well. There are strict instructions - if D.F. gets kicked out, he has to stay in the snow until the program is finished and I am ready to drive them home. But should be entertaining.

I haven't read the book he is touring on now - What the Gospels Meant - but cracked What Jesus Meant today and it's great. I'm just 30p in, but already am very excited about hearing him to-nite. Love scholars who have done the heavy lifting.