Ah, yes, Ian...I heard that song once. A fellow Mudcatter, MaryMac90, played me a tape with that song on it. While I agree it's somewhat cleverly written, I also think it's really breathtakingly stupid in its utter incomprehension of both Jesus' teachings and Judas' role in the events of the time.

Man, I could go on for hours about that f*cking song!

Let's see...Rosselson clearly believes that man does live by bread alone...he'd have made a great Communist, since that appears to have been their presumption as well.

The various historical atrocities he connects with Jesus' teachings in the last verse certainly happened...and they happened in utter contradiction of what Jesus taught, so why the hell blame Jesus for it? Blame the lunatic churches who founded themselves in his name and betrayed everything he ever stood for.

Get this: Jesus was not a Christian! And those who call themselves Christians have frequently violated everything he stood for (some of them, that is...).

Judas' method of civil resistance was actually attempted not long after Judas and Jesus departed this world. The result: The Romans destroyed Jerusalem, razed it to the ground, and trapped the last of the Jewish zealouts in the fortress at Masada, where they all died (mostly by suicide). Big success! Looks like Jesus was dead right about where that sort of armed resistance would lead...

Jesus was teaching people to achieve the kingdom of heaven while still on Earth, by altering their inner consciousness, which is what all great spiritual masters teach people. He was teaching transformation HERE AND NOW. Rosselson's 4rth verse is utterly off the mark, and again is aimed at many contemporary Christian churches, but not at Jesus. His argument is with those churches and their followers, not with Jesus.

You don't have to be a church person to appreciate what Jesus taught.

Jesus also spoke in parables. Rosselson clearly is a literalist and doesn't get them. In fact, I'd say he has more in common with the most extreme Christian fundamentalists in that respect than he does with anyone who has even a glimmer of spiritual understanding of life.

As Jesus clearly indentified, the Scribes and Pharisees in the Jewish community (the spiritual and educational leadership of the time) were the most oppressive over the minds of the Jewish community. It was a deeper and subtler form of domination than what the Romans were practicing, because it hid behind the mask of the familiar, customary, and accepted. That is why Jesus' main struggle was with those people, not with the Romans. It was those people who conspired against him and had him killed, not the Romans.

Jesus had an appreciation of subtlety. Rosselson simply does not. In spiritual terms he is a moron. Judas was well-intentioned, I believe, and I think he fully expected Jesus to rescue himself by divine power, and I think he was following Jesus' instructions to the letter when he "betrayed" him. It was all orchestrated ahead of time by Jesus. Then, when Jesus died on the cross, Judas felt responsible for it and hung himself, because he didn't understand what was yet to occur (the resurrection). If Judas had actually considered Jesus to be a traitor to the poor, then why would he have had an attack of remorse afterward and hung himself????

My conclusion: This is the most stupid, f*cking, pretentious, off-the-mark, piece of shit song about Jesus that I have ever heard or expect to hear! Leon Rosselson, get a dunce cap and sit in the corner and hang your head in shame...

Lest you misunderstand, I believe in Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, and every every holy figure you have probably ever heard of...because they all taught the same thing. People with guns in their hands will never improve this world.

Ian, my question has been answered. I cannot imagine any occasion on which I would be willing to sing that particular song. Ironical, what? (As the Brits might say...) I've been harpooned by my own flippin' thread! :-) Aaaaaaarrrghhh!

- LH