JESUS CHRIST! WHO IS HE?

Before we get into what I think about this subject, lets look at the "popular" conception of the man called Jesus. The overwhelming perception is that he is the son of GOD, there was Mary and Joseph and that whole manger thing, and while Joseph was the father of appearance, GOD is credited with knocking Mary up. I have to qualify this by saying this is a coming from a catholic perspective. Myself and Ann. I am catholic by birth, Ann is catholic by birth and experience and by reading both the old and new testaments hundreds of times. My parents were not as overtly catholic as Ann's and by age 12, I was alienated from organized religion by some southern methodists in conjunction with Jethro Tull's "Aqualung". A scathing beat down of the church of England and Catholicism with really good guitar..."It's got a really good beat and you can question all your convictions to it".
I was astounded that these people could wish me the grace of GOD on sunday, but during the week shun me because I had long hair, and shun is a very mild way of putting it.
I had a relative by marriage years ago who referred to a double bladed axe as a methodist axe because it was two faced... 10 years after my initial impressions, they were validated by a crusty old rancher who had seen more than I had seen in life even to today, some twenty years later. I think he was a baptist, but I'm not sure. He may have been a pentecost.
And therein lies the problem...who do you believe?
After years and years of wrestling the whole religion thing, I have come to the conclusion that Jesus is who you think he was. Not what practice of organized religion you prescribe to, but REALLY what YOU think . If you buy into any organized religion I believe you are missing the point and instead choosing camps based on what doctrine best suits your needs. To make decisions based on this only serves to diminish your own faith in who he was.
There's a structure to any organized religion, depending on your "faith". You're "faith" determines how you interpret a book written by Jesus' friends. They interpreted his life in what can only truly be described as folklore and biography.
Open to interpretation and the slant of whatever faith is interpreting. Strict pentecostal women and girls don't cut their hair, wear make up, and wear homemade modest dresses. Some southern baptists don't dance, some of them dance and handle snakes. Catholics disagree with the prodestants, who disagree with the episcopalians who disagree with the methodists...and it goes on and on. If Jesus and his "dad" GOD were so right on, why do we have so much conflict about his message?
Answer that...and don't tell me your "church of the righteous unedited teachings of yaweh" is the right and true way. Because it's not. You can pretend that it is, and in your heart and mind, your right. Because that's what you believe. Just don't shove it down my throat, thank you very much.
This is what I currently believe...
Jesus was born to Mary and Joseph...As he grew up he saw the world around him and had some remarkable ideas about people and society. At some point, he began speaking about these ideas and the people in his community thought they were good ideas too. Thoughts about kindness and honesty and the value of community. It caught on and spread out over a land threatened by another country and government and ideology. Over time, he got in the way of thier aspirations and became a threat. So they killed him in a horrible way, to make a point.
But he had started something that didn't go away after he was killed. His friends, in their writings and actions after his death elevated him to savior status. These writings and actions have been reinterpreted and applied over centuries to meet specific secular wants and needs, to manipulate the masses, whether it be the crusades or what's currently going on in the world today. His true legacy has been usurped and bastardized more times than you can count on all the fingers and toes you can find . A simple man with some really good ideas about how to be in the world, when distilled to their essence still ring true.
So...when I hear this nonsense about "intelligent design" I see neoconservative fundamentalists trying to make an end run around the separation of church and state with yet another play on words set on imposing the will of one groups interpretation of how it was on all of us and it makes me shake my head in wonder at how long this battle has been going on .
There is no place for religion in government. Jesus was a man with a great big heart and some good ideas. Religion is a construct, manufactured by a myriad of people with an agenda.