Controlling the culture

"Whoever controls the media--the images--controls the culture." - Allen Ginsberg

Does controlling the culture really matter? Many Christians are concerned with where the cultures is going? Should we be? Jesus wasn't so up in arms about the culture of his day, with one exception. The religious culture. The Sadducees and Pharisees turned a relationship with God into a bunch of rule keeping. Jesus didn't like that much.

I just read a piece from & Arnold Fruchtenbaum's Newsletter yesterday that goes through the Sermon on the Mount. (Unfortunately it is not available online). Basically Jesus was refuting the teachings of the Pharisees about how to obtain righteousness.

Jesus says, For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Matt. 5:20 In our language "Sorry folks, not good enough".

And boy could these guys, and yes people, they were all guys, keep a lot of rules. They had the 600+ from Moses plus a bunch of traditions piled on top of that. Leaves you wondering. . . who could ever be good enough to be considered righteous and enter heaven? Which is the point, isn't it?