Have you ever been substantively wrong online?

[Ben Kenobi]

Liberation Theology?

Communism by another name?

[giblets]

Communism by another name:
http://www.bricktestament.com/acts_o..._32p34-35.html

[Ben Kenobi]

Does it say that such arrangement was involuntary?

[giblets]

Well, they did kill someone for not donating all of his money. Sounds like coercion.

[Ben Kenobi]

Well, they did kill someone for not donating all of his money. Sounds like coercion.

Who?

[giblets]

Ananias and his wife Sapphira. Poor bastards.

[Ben Kenobi]

Ananias and his wife Sapphira. Poor bastards.

Umm, that was the big guy in the sky. God killed them because they lied against the holy spirit. Peter points out that they were free to donate whatever they wish, but they chose to lie about it.

[giblets]

It doesn't say who killed them. It just says they died. But feel free to fill in your own details. Apparently the early Christians thought that the penalty for not giving away 100% of your money is death.

[Ben Kenobi]

Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.

When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened

Acts 5:3-5.

Got any more lies?

[giblets]

What lies? He had some land, sold it, donated most of the money to the apostles and was chastised for holding onto some of it and killed. I have no idea why you're calling me a liar, unless you just can't handle the idea that your precious church fathers were practicing communism and you want to lash out at me to make yourself feel better.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died.

At best the cause of death is unspecified.

Sounds like natural causes to me. Died of of heart attack from shame. No human or divine intervention needed.

Trying to blame the death of Ananias on either God or the disciples doesn't follow from the passage.

[giblets]

That sounds like a bit of a stretch, but you could be right. I didn't interpret it that way, but that doesn't make me a liar.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Don't get me wrong the entire story of Ananias and his wife were retold in efforts to coerce the giving or at least truthful accounting of the givings to the early church. The passage like many urban myths is vague enough to put the scare into the masses. I am reminded of the consequences of breaking a chain letter.

That being said, however, this form of coercion is different than the power of (police) states that can sieze, incarcerate, and ultimately kill.

Furthermore the decision to join this group was a completely voluntary one. (I know same can be said for scientologists, Jim Jones cults etc.)

[Ben Kenobi]

That sounds like a bit of a stretch, but you could be right. I didn't interpret it that way, but that doesn't make me a liar.

Well, they did kill someone for not donating all of his money. Sounds like coercion.

Sure it does. When you claim the disciples killed him and his wife.

[Ben Kenobi]

He had some land, sold it, donated most of the money to the apostles and was chastised for holding onto some of it and killed

Killed by whom? That's another lie. And he was chastised for lying, not for what he gave. So that's two lies in one sentence.