From Jim Palmer’s Facebook channel on 7/31/2026.
Jim Palmer
I find it curious that nearly every creed of the Church, whether the early ecumenical creeds, the Roman Catholic catechisms, or the countless Protestant statements of faith, is primarily concerned with defining theological propositions about Jesus.
They tell us what to believe concerning his nature, his metaphysical status, his relationship to God, and the mechanics of salvation. Yet they contain remarkably little of what Jesus himself actually taught about how to live.
It is one of history’s great ironies. The movement that bears his name became increasingly preoccupied with constructing doctrines about Jesus while often giving far less attention to embodying the way of being that Jesus invited people to practice.
Christendom became deeply invested in explaining Jesus, defending Jesus, and arguing over Jesus. In the process, it frequently lost sight of simply following him.
Just for the record, Jesus did not:
- Start the Christian religion.
- See human beings as “sinners” by nature.
- Die to rescue people from God’s wrath.
- Establish a professional clergy class.
- Create a theological orthodoxy.
- Write, authorize, or even read the New Testament.
- Teach that women were subordinate to men.
- Require people to worship him.
- Say humanity is fundamentally separate from God.
- Teach that heaven is merely a destination after death.
- Claim exclusive ownership of God.
- Encourage institutional religion.
- Describe hell as a place of eternal conscious torment.
- Claim superiority over every other human being.
What he consistently invited people into was something far more radical: a transformed way of seeing reality. A life marked by compassion rather than condemnation, freedom rather than fear, love rather than exclusion, and direct participation in what he called the Kingdom of God, not as a distant reward, but as a present reality available to those with eyes to see.
Christianity, as it eventually developed, became a sophisticated theological system. Jesus offered a way of life.
These are not the same thing.
Christianity is not the fault of Jesus. In many ways, it is humanity doing what humanity has always done: building institutions, doctrines, hierarchies, and systems around those who threaten them most.
Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
Freedom, then, becomes the measure. If our beliefs leave us fearful, dependent, divided, or unable to think honestly, we should at least have the courage to ask whether we have mistaken allegiance to a religious system for the liberating truth Jesus spoke about.
Being a Christian is no evidence that you have found the truth Jesus spoke of. It may only mean you have become fluent in defending a religious system that has buried his voice beneath two thousand years of theology.
Jim Palmer, Inner Anarchy
Read Inner Anarchy -> -> http://tinyurl.com/ke25zdu
