The Immediate Word
The Necessity Of Original Sin
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This week's gospel text brings us the familiar parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector -- and like many of Jesus' parables, its message was almost stupefying for his listeners in how it turned conventional mores upside down. In those days tax collecting was not the bureaucratic bean-counting profession that we think of today; instead, it was a truly odious occupation whose practitioners were known for extortion and preying on the defenseless not unlike notorious fraudsters such as Bernie Madoff.