Washed In The Blood

[Brother Jeff]

For some reason I have been thinking about being washed in the blood of Jesus. I mean, really thinking about it. I've realized that the whole concept is not just disgusting, it's barbaric. Would you want to wash yourself in someone else's blood? Well, me neither. What makes the blood of Jesus so special? The bottom line is that it is a religious concept, so nobody really thinks it through. They just believe it and never think about what they are really saying when they talk about being "washed in His blood".

 

Thoughts?

 

Glory!

[sdelsolray]

Many older religions contain blood rituals, animal sacrifice and the like as basic tenets or rituals of the religion.  Christianity is one of those religions.

[Positivist]

It's dreadful, isn't it? During the movement to make churches more "seeker friendly", I always thought the blood obsession should be dialed waaay down. Can you imagine walking into church and hearing these phrases chanted over and over?

...Are you washed in the blood?

...What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood....

...Cleansing flood.....

...It's your blood that cleanses me

...There's a fountain filled with blood

 

How is that not creepy?

 

So glad I'm outta the bloody cult!

[Deva]

Its a fact that the ancient Jewish people sacrificed animals all the time. Could this just be a holdover?

 

The really interesting thing, looking back on it, is why singing songs about the blood of Jesus were not really repulsive at the time.

[RipVanWinkle]

If anyone actually "thought Xtianity through", nobody would believe it. But as we all know the "blood"

crazy stuff is from the pagan religions which almost no Xtians are aware of. bill

[Brother Jeff]

It's dreadful, isn't it? During the movement to make churches more "seeker friendly", I always thought the blood obsession should be dialed waaay down. Can you imagine walking into church and hearing these phrases chanted over and over?

...Are you washed in the blood?

...What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood....

...Cleansing flood.....

...It's your blood that cleanses me

...There's a fountain filled with blood

 

How is that not creepy?

 

So glad I'm outta the bloody cult!

 

I'm glad I'm free of that shit too! It is creepy. Very creepy. Yet, I never thought of it that way the whole time I was a believer...

[Brother Jeff]

Its a fact that the ancient Jewish people sacrificed animals all the time. Could this just be a holdover?

 

The really interesting thing, looking back on it, is why singing songs about the blood of Jesus were not really repulsive at the time.

 

I know! If we had really thought about what we were singing about we would have been repulsed!

[Positivist]

Yet, I never thought of it that way the whole time I was a believer...

 

 

My undoing began when I started to see things from both the inside and the outside. I started to think, "This blood plunging is pretty creepy if you don't know what's really going on". And the schism started......

 

Aaaaaaand here I am.

[midniterider]

For some reason I have been thinking about being washed in the blood of Jesus. I mean, really thinking about it. I've realized that the whole concept is not just disgusting, it's barbaric. Would you want to wash yourself in someone else's blood? Well, me neither. What makes the blood of Jesus so special? The bottom line is that it is a religious concept, so nobody really thinks it through. They just believe it and never think about what they are really saying when they talk about being "washed in His blood".

 

Thoughts?

 

Glory!

 

What if they made it "washed in His urine?"

[JamesG]

well personally I am not a fan of golden showers however there are some people that would enjoy this. and now that I am an atheist there has been a hole created in my heart and I must fill it WITH BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD from cute fluffy bunnies

[midniterider]

well personally I am not a fan of golden showers however there are some people that would enjoy this. and now that I am an atheist there has been a hole created in my heart and I must fill it WITH BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD from cute fluffy bunnies

 

No, don't hurt the bunneeeees.

[Guest r3alchild]

My thoughts are, that the blood represents a action that causes a spiritual effect. Its got nothing to do with blood but it does at the same time. Its nonsensical and stupid because its not based on a effect that can be tested.

[Guest r3alchild]

Double post.

[owen652]

that phrase always reminds of the elevator scene in The Shining.

[Rank Stranger]

As I recall, lots of christians say that you're 'covered' by the blood of Jebus so that gawd can't see you in your ugly sinfulness- he only sees his boys blood, and that makes it ok.  'Cause he's incapable of forgiving sin without being half-assed tricked into it.  No shit- I've heard this explanation more than once.  The fact that it's completely pulled outta their ass doesn't seem to bother them.

[Vigile]

 

Sunday morning, hands-in-the-air, prais'n Jebus:

 

[buffettphan]

Every time I hear the phrase "washed in the blood of jesus" Carrie pops into my mind.  

[ExCBooster]

Yeah... frankly I was always curious about this whole issue too. I mean, at it's core, Christianity is a human sacrifice thing. Sort of by definition: Christ died for your sins and all that. It always sort of puzzled me how Christians could be so critical of, say, head-hunters. I think the key is, that, for the believer, Christianity taps some very deep running cultural streams, specifically because of all the human sacrifice-y themes. This is sort of borne out by the idea that Christianity only really sets down roots in cultures that already accept human sacrifice. Like Europe, and Central and South America (doesn't get much more pro-sacrifice than the Aztecs). It utterly fails to take in cultures that totally abhor the idea, have ideas that injury or death are contaminating, or have banned the concept on moral grounds for centuries (if not actually millennia - lookin' at you, China). India, China, and Japan, for example, have very low rates of conversion. In Japan, less than one percent are Christian, not the least because of a really violent reaction to it, when it got tied up in politics in the wake of an age of civil war.

I suppose it's easy to miss the gruesomeness of the idea when you're inside of it, because it draws on such deep cultural currents. Besides, marked with all the trappings of an in-group / out-group thing, it would be easy to write off other sacrifice and ritual cannibalism as "savage" because it's Them and not Us that's doing it. The main engine of enforcement for Christians seems to be "you think like us, you're going to Heaven, we're special, (and, implicitly, morally better than everyone else), everyone else is going to Hell because they're not like us." The hypocrisy of not noticing the human sacrifice inherent in the religion is an outcome of this circular thinking: it doesn't count because its "us," and not "them." In other words, it's "not human sacrifice, because it's our kind of human sacrifice, which doesn't count because we say so." Nobody ever has explained to me in a coherent way why, exactly, communion doesn't count as at least symbolic cannibalism. That's when you get the ultimate cop-out answer of  "it's a Mystery of Faith."

[FloridaGirl]

I have that hymn stuck in my head now: What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make us whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus....

I forgot who wrote it.

[BendyLine]

Yeah, I was in the car with my mom the other day, and she was listening to a Chris Rice song. I caught some of the lyrics:

 

"Fragile finger sent to heal us

Tender brow prepared for thorn
Tiny heart whose blood will save us
Unto us is born"

 

REALLY? How fucking creepy is it that you're singing about a baby who will be eventually brutally murdered? I listen to this and imagine creepy drooling cult members in robes surrounding a baby crib with knives. Do they think about than when they write this shit? 

[midniterider]

Yeah, I was in the car with my mom the other day, and she was listening to a Chris Rice song. I caught some of the lyrics:

 

"Fragile finger sent to heal us

Tender brow prepared for thorn

Tiny heart whose blood will save us

Unto us is born"

 

REALLY? How fucking creepy is it that you're singing about a baby who will be eventually brutally murdered? I listen to this and imagine creepy drooling cult members in robes surrounding a baby crib with knives. Do they think about than when they write this shit? 

 

They should make a song about Rabbis biting the foreskin off a baby penis. If it's a great and holy thing, there ought to be a song about it! 

[ContraBardus]

 

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[Brother Jeff]

 

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GLORY!!

[midniterider]

 

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The original OxiChrist™. An incredible blood based sin fighter that’s reason free and pre-assumed belief safe! Designed for maximum strength sin removal, in your soul and for your family's ethereal eternal selves! Use with every sin! Pre-treat and let it soak in what a horrible person you are! Soak overnight and realize that you're a disgusting unworthy peon for powerful and astounding results – even the toughest sins get washed away!

 

The unique formula is activated by wine, unleashing OxiChrist's Blood of Christ power for safe, effective cleaning of spirit!

 

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!

 

It boosts your Holy Water's potency up to fifty percent to improve your blessed water’s demon repelling ability, and its special ingredients are designed to help rinse even the toughest original sins away! Available in Alcoholic and Alcohol Free (Catholic and Baptist) varieties!

 

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LoL!

[Bhim]

Yeah... frankly I was always curious about this whole issue too. I mean, at it's core, Christianity is a human sacrifice thing. Sort of by definition: Christ died for your sins and all that. It always sort of puzzled me how Christians could be so critical of, say, head-hunters. I think the key is, that, for the believer, Christianity taps some very deep running cultural streams, specifically because of all the human sacrifice-y themes. This is sort of borne out by the idea that Christianity only really sets down roots in cultures that already accept human sacrifice. Like Europe, and Central and South America (doesn't get much more pro-sacrifice than the Aztecs). It utterly fails to take in cultures that totally abhor the idea, have ideas that injury or death are contaminating, or have banned the concept on moral grounds for centuries (if not actually millennia - lookin' at you, China). India, China, and Japan, for example, have very low rates of conversion. In Japan, less than one percent are Christian, not the least because of a really violent reaction to it, when it got tied up in politics in the wake of an age of civil war.

I suppose it's easy to miss the gruesomeness of the idea when you're inside of it, because it draws on such deep cultural currents. Besides, marked with all the trappings of an in-group / out-group thing, it would be easy to write off other sacrifice and ritual cannibalism as "savage" because it's Them and not Us that's doing it. The main engine of enforcement for Christians seems to be "you think like us, you're going to Heaven, we're special, (and, implicitly, morally better than everyone else), everyone else is going to Hell because they're not like us." The hypocrisy of not noticing the human sacrifice inherent in the religion is an outcome of this circular thinking: it doesn't count because its "us," and not "them." In other words, it's "not human sacrifice, because it's our kind of human sacrifice, which doesn't count because we say so." Nobody ever has explained to me in a coherent way why, exactly, communion doesn't count as at least symbolic cannibalism. That's when you get the ultimate cop-out answer of  "it's a Mystery of Faith."

 

These are some interesting insights you've got here.  Like you said, Christianity is about human sacrifice.  It takes the Jewish idea of animal sacrifice and adds the twist of Jesus offering his body as an ultimate sacrifice.  Whatever horrible things I have to say about Christianity and Jesus (there are many), I will say that the church I attended in my undergrad days emphasized a serious study of the Bible, and taught that we should understand why we believe what we believe (the intellectualism was rather refreshing, until they discussed evolution and cosmology anyway, and probably kept me in Christianity for longer than I should have been).  So I was quite familiar with the theology behind the phrase "washed in the blood" and understood what it meant.  Yes, at face value it's disgusting.  But our pastor regularly reminded us that the cross is gruesome and awful, and ought to remind us how much it cost for Jesus to redeem us from our sins.  I'm not saying I approve of Christianity.  I most certainly don't.  But while most Christians are dullards, there is a philosophical foundation for this idea, for those who actually think about their faith to some extent and require one.

 

Interesting, though, what you say about Christianity not taking root in cultures where sacrifice isn't a common theme.  I think the key here is animal (or perhaps human) sacrifice.  Now in India, sacrifice of fruits and vegetables is common.  Animal sacrifice is generally eschewed (there was recently a fair bit of objection in India over neighboring Nepal, which is also a Hindu country, conducting animal sacrifices).  So it makes sense that the framework doesn't really exist in which Christianity makes any sense.  I suppose in Japan and China, the situation is even better, since to my knowledge they don't really practice sacrifice at all.

 

Christianity really only pervaded the culture in Europe.  I'm not all that familiar with pre-Christian European religions.  Was human or animal sacrifice a common practice?

 

I have that hymn stuck in my head now: What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make us whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus....

I forgot who wrote it.

 

Amy, the author is Robert Lowry.  I almost thought it was William Cowper, but I was thinking of "There is a Fountain Filled with Blood."