whatsoever is more than (aye or nay) these cometh of evil." No sensible person can feel that there is anything "evil" or wrong about "swearing by the head." All of it is childish.
After having or; many occasions advised the people to follow the Laws and the Prophets, which included the principle of "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," Christ reverses himself and advises a Philosophy of "resist not evil." But what can he mean by this when he had continually told his disciples to go out and preach against evil? That has been the whole doctrine of the Christian Church, to preach and work against what it called Evil. Christ threw out the evil money changers, he criticized the Scribes and Pharisees and rich men, and brought about his own death by criticizing and resisting evil, and he ordered his disciples to resist it, even to losing their lives. What kind of reversal is this?
But no sensible intelligent man would believe in such a philosophy. Evil, natural or man made, should be resisted as should oppression and wrong of any kind. The courageous fighters for right and liberty and freedom had and still have to fight against oppression. Only a coward would stand to be whipped, beaten, robbed, and humiliated without protest.
When hit on one cheek, turn the other -- is another part of the same philosophy; when a man takes a coat by law, give him the cloak. This is the philosophy of an insane fanatic and so unreasonable that it does not deserve comment except that it has been preached by the Christian Church for centuries and never followed by it or by any person.
Then Christ says we must love our enemies. But does the Church love its enemies? For centuries they burned them at the stake, and classified all those who did not believe exactly as they did as enemies, even though the non-believers wanted only the right peacefully and quietly to live their own lives. Not only do the Christians fight against non-Christians, but they fight, often to the death, among themselves, each claiming to be right according to Christ's word.
But further than this, did Christ preach a policy of love towards enemies when he threatened eternal hell fire for all those who did not believe in him?
Christ indicated that no credit was to be given those who loved in return, more than those who hated the individual. This is certainly an ungrateful, backward, and insane philosophy.
While telling his followers to do their good works before men so as to set an example, and not to hide their light under a bushel, he again reverses himself and tells them to do their alms in secret. No man should be blamed for naturally expecting gratitude for his generosity. It is no crime to expect and receive it.
Then Christ tells people not to pray openly and loudly, and while prayer is a waste of time as far as any benefit to this war-weary, prayer-weary, crime-ridden and trouble-soaked world; none of Christ's followers pray in secret; all churches and preachers pray loudly as if their God were quite deaf. They pray on the radio, broadcasting their prayers over the earth, not because they want God to hear, but because they put out propaganda by prayer; they advertise themselves and please their listeners by praying loudly and sometimes entertainingly.
The forgiving of trespasses as recommended by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, as recorded in Matthew 4, 5, and 6, is not a reasonable thing to do. If a man does wrong he should be made to make reparation, and it should not be easy for him to continue wrong doing. The greatest cause of crime may be the system of the Christian church for centuries, of forgiving sins and crimes upon the expression of belief in their doctrine and the doing of penance (at a price, of course, paid to the priest).
Then comes one of the most fanatically wrong commandments ever uttered, "Lay not up treasures on earth, take no thought for the morrow." No wonder famine followed Christian countries for more than 1000 years, with the people drugged with such listless ideas. No wonder progress was stopped. "Do nothing, wait for God to feed you. Use