Word: macklis
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...Jesus may have been crucified by mistake. History suggests that the Romans regularly rounded up dissidents and executed them without trial. Jesus may "accidentally" have been caught in one of these periodic sweeps, suggests the Rev. Burton Mack, a Presbyterian at the School of Theology at Claremont, Calif. "Maybe he was trying out one of his kingdom of God ideas in the company of some boisterous Galileans -- a bad idea at that time...
...variation on the sage theme comes from Claremont Scholar Burton Mack, who sees Jesus as a "rather normal cynic-type figure," using the term not in the modern sense but referring to a particular school of ancient Greek philosophers, Diogenes among them, who advocated virtue and self-control. Like them, he made ample use of a biting sense of humor ("Let the dead bury their dead"). "Jesus wasn't reforming Judaism," Mack insists. "He was just taking up a Hellenistic kind of social criticism...
...Mack maintains that Galilee in Jesus' day was the "epitome of a cross- cultural mix," with Roman and Hellenistic influences colliding with Jewish thought. The cultural upheaval, he argues, gave rise to questioning cynics, rather like the hippies of the '60s. He theorizes that Jesus' message was concerned with a general malaise that afflicted the land. When he spoke of the coming kingdom of God, he was not warning of the apocalypse but, in true Hellenistic fashion, urging more natural and just relationships among people of all social classes...
Locking criminals up may be an effective punishment, but it may push criminals farther away from mainstream society, prisoners say. "It's like putting a man in a microwave," says Mack. "He'll overcook...
...Initially all these guys are coming down to look at some cute girls," O'Connell says. "These guys have on their best clothes, their best linens." Prisoners also come to receive "good time"--credit toward early parole--and to temporarily escape their cells. "The dude is bored," says Mack, explaining why he participates in the tutoring program...