Answers From LaRouche

Q: Where do you come in with this concept of what you addressed in Alabama, regarding religion and Dr. King?
                                   - from January 24, 2023 West Coast Cadre School

Question: In regards to religion, mostly Christianity, in the process of finding oneself spiritually, there seems to be a lot of people who have the belief that, if I just believe in this so much, just believe in it hard enough, it'll be true. Then you have the Christian fundamentalist line of, "Well, man's nature is to sin, and the reason we're at war is because it's built in. The idea of evil and of conflict is built in." And so, from within this context, what are the bounds of the Bible, being such an old document, and you have a lot of people who say it holds no ground? Is that true or untrue, and from this standpoint, where do you come in with this concept of what you addressed in Alabama, regarding religion and Dr. King?

LaRouche: Aha. Well, first of all, I don't have much truck with the Old Testament, because I know that the thing was manipulated at several points. Primarily, first, by the Babylonians, who in the 7th Century B.C., who tucked into what is called the Old Testament, a lot of Babylonian pagan myths which are not anything to do with Moses. And, when the Persians took over—remember, first of all, they depopulated what had been called Judea, both times. It had been depopulated earlier, with the hauling off of most of the population of what had been the northern part of Israel, they'd been hauled off, away. Then, the second time, when the Persians took over, they hauled off the Jews, again the leaders, and took them to Mesopotamia, and they had them rewrite the sacred books again. So what you had was, a rewriting by conquerors, of the religious doctrines of the Hebrews and Jews, successively. This is a mess.

However, from the standpoint of Christianity, in my experience, we have no such a problem with the New Testament. There are problems in terms of certain of the ways it's been handled in translation and transcription, but essentially, in the essential features—. Remember, the New Testament was in large part written in Classical Greek. The Gospel of John or the Epistles of Paul are written in Classical Greek. The method of argument used in these Gospels and these Epistles was Classical Greek, that is, Platonic Classical Greek, which was the leading culture of that part of the world in that period. Hebrew was no longer spoken in the area of the Middle East. It was a dead language. A written form of Hebrew existed, but not a spoken one. The spoken one was either Aramaic, which is a form of Arabic, or it was either Classical Greek, as by the leading Apostles, and also by Judaeus of Alexandria, or it was the vulgar, kind of waterfront Greek, which the ordinary Jew would generally speak if travelling. And the books are written in a rather vulgar kind of Greek in the written form.

So, therefore, the problem, in the case of Christianity, as I've said, with the New Testament and so forth, this is very clear. We know it very well. These were contemporary people. Christ was murdered on order of the Emperor Tiberius, who was then sitting at the Isle of Capri, and his legal son-in-law Pontius Pilate ordered the execution. This is not some mysterious thing that is known to us only through distant books. This is an integral part of history. Christianity was an integral part of history from that point on. And therefore, we can know it very well. So, that's what I stick to: what we know. I'd say, okay, the rest of it's fine. Look at it, study it, see what you think about it. But for Christians, Christianity, the New Testament is that.

Now, you had the crazy doctrines coming in, which were largely the result of heathen influence, which said that man is naturally guilty of primal sin, he's naturally evil. This came into the United States, in particular, with the campaign of the swine who was the grandfather of Aaron Burr—Jonathan Edwards. He ran up and down the Connecticut River Valley, telling people, "You're filthy pigs. You're worthless. God hates you and despises you. But I'm here tonight, and if you will join me tonight, God will bless you, even the filthy swine that you are, and give you all kinds of good benefits." That was the general foundation of fundamentalism in the United States, or what became the United States, by the grandfather of a traitor, who also was the head of what is now called Princeton University at the time, where Aaron Burr studied. So, not a very nice picture.

Mankind is not a worthless swine. Mankind is not a worm. Mankind is the best part of creation, and God does not have bad taste. He does not go out trying to collect bad, disgusting objects, but only the best. And we are the best. The problem is, is that we sometimes behave badly, because we allow ourselves to become corrupted. We no longer think of ourselves as having divinity. We no longer think of ourselves as having a certain kind of immortality of the spirit, a certain dedication, proper dedication to a mission in life. We are here to perform a job. We have to discover what the job is. It's for the good of humanity. Do it! That's the point, and that's where the problem comes in. When people say, "you are a worm, you are a disgusting filthy creature. You are worthless. God despises you, that's why he collects you." I mean that's not good theology! It's actually not even polite. So, that's where the problem lies.

I say, no. Man is the best of all creation. God does not have bad taste. That's why he loves us.

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