A new Christmas Carol. ''Stand Up for Judas''

A new Christmas Carol. ''Stand Up for Judas

In a recent ATS thread, the issue of greed arose and was met with various replies, one of which referred to the concept that ''the poor will always be with you'' and attributed it to one Jesus Christ.
I was immediately brought to mind of an old anthem from years ago that at the time created a minor stir as it spoke critically to major tenants of the ruling religion of our land.

This religion has grown and prospered over the last 2000 years bringing in it's wake a large number of what can be seen as positive developments in human existence. However, along with those positive developments, a large number of serious miss-conceptions about life and existence have also come to be taken as ''truth' when in reality they are nothing more than folk lore.

Here is a ballad by Leon Rosselson which takes a number of those miss-conceptions birthed by that religion and dissects them with a sharp blade.

Throughout the song there are powerful lyrics many of which speek directly these misconceptions
In the first stanza is the line
“ And the poor were sick with hunger and the rich were clothed in splendour
And the rebels whipped and crucified hung rotting as a warning''

One that is an arrow to the heart of our current political and economic situation reads''
Now Jesus brought division where none had been before
Not the slaves against their masters but the poor against the poor''

And the final stanza stands for many as an anthem of revolt against a system of belief that promises riches in heaven while allowing the rich and powerful to control this world system of greed and suffering.





The Romans were the masters when Jesus walked the land
In Judea and in Galilee they ruled with an iron hand
And the poor were sick with hunger and the rich were clothed in splendour
And the rebels whipped and crucified hung rotting as a warning

And Jesus knew the answer 
Said give to Caesar what is Caesar's
Said love your enemies
But Judas was a Zealot and he wanted to be free
Resist, he said, the Romans' tyranny

So stand up, stand up for Judas and the cause that Judas served
It was Jesus who betrayed the poor with his word

Jesus was a conjuror, miracles were his game
And he fed the hungry thousands and they glorified his name
He cured the lame and the lepers, he calmed the wind and the weather
And the wretched flocked to touch him so their troubles would be taken

And Jesus knew the answer 
All you who labour, all you who suffer only believe in me
But Judas sought a world where no one starved or begged for bread
The poor are always with us, Jesus said

So stand up, stand up for Judas and the cause that Judas served
It was Jesus who betrayed the poor with his word

Now Jesus brought division where none had been before
Not the slaves against their masters but the poor against the poor
Set son to rise up against father, and brother to fight against brother
For he that is not with me is against me was his teaching

Said Jesus, I am the answer 
You unbelievers shall burn forever, shall die in your sins
Not sheep and goats, said Judas, But together we may dare
Shake off the chains of misery we share

So stand up, stand up for Judas and the cause that Judas served
It was Jesus who betrayed the poor with his word

Jesus stood upon the mountain with a distance in his eyes
I am the way, the life, he cried, The light that never dies
So renounce all earthly treasures and pray to your heavenly father
And he pacified the hopeless with the hope of life eternal

Said Jesus, I am the answer
And you who hunger only remember your reward's in Heaven
So Jesus preached the other world but Judas wanted this
And he betrayed his master with a kiss

So stand up, stand up for Judas and the cause that Judas served
It was Jesus who betrayed the poor with his word

By sword and gun and crucifix Christ's gospel has been spread
And 2000 cruel years have shown the way that Jesus led
The heretics burned and tortured, and the butchering bloody crusaders
The bombs and rockets sanctified that rained down death from heaven
They followed Jesus, they knew the answer
All non-believers must be believers or else be broken
So put no trust in saviours, Judas said, for everyone
Must be to his or her own self - a sun

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

Religion aside...

Judas is the modern day #boy.

You don't want to be a #boy.

"This religion has grown and prospered over the last 2000 years bringing in it's wake a large number of what can be seen as positive developments in human existence. "


If not for the crusades, we'd probably have the means to leave this planet by now.

The world would be better off without religion, and the sooner people start to accept that the better off we'll be as a species.

originally posted by: lordcomac
If not for the crusades, we'd probably have the means to leave this planet by now.

? There were many Crusades. They were about preventing the encroachment of Islam. The politics and intent of the Crusades are mired in misrepresentation.

If it was not for the Crusades the Muslims would have absorbed Europe, just like North Africa and eastwards into India. If that had happened we would have not moved at all. No industrial revolution. No science. Just stagnation.

a reply to: paraphi

The crusades were actually justified against Islamic jihad which had led them to invade Europe many time's and to butcher and enslave tens' of millions of christian's in a war that continued right up unto the Turkish navy was defeated by an outnumbered and far weaker Christian fleet in the Mediterranean, it was said that the Christian admiral - an Italian if I remember prayed to Our Lady Of Guadeloupe all night before the battle and the following day the weather turned against the Massive Turkish fleet thus saving the smaller Christian fleet and turning the battle decisively in favor of the Christian's.

Million's of Christian's were also enslaved and often worked to death by the Arab's right up to the early 1700's and Turkish raids upon Christian territory's including Greek Island's that were independent of the Turk's continued right up unto the early 1900's, there is one Greek Island were there is a pyramid of Skull's from as recent as the start of the 20th century, the Turk's came ashore and slaughtered the entire village beheading everyone in the Church were they had taken shelter.

What happened with the Crusades was two thing's, the Norman's whom we all know were an undeniably evil bunch and whom hijacked the Crusades for there own greed even leading to an illegitimate king being placed upon the throne of Jerusalem - a blasphemy against our Lord Jesus and despite being wracked with leprosy he refused to stand down or else the retaken holy land would actually be Christian to this very day, we lost it because God was angered by this blasphemy.

And then the Doge of Venice for his greed set up the Norman Lord's whom had come to lead another crusade to try to retake the holy land, he instead got them into debt and promised to relinquish the debt if they instead attacked the eastern orthodox capital of Constantinople (instead of retaking Jerusalem) because it's control over the Bosporus was hindering Venetian trade in the area and so they instead Sacked the Christian city and left the thus weakened remnant of the eastern orthodoxy to crumble before the Seljuk Turk's (Whose crimes against Christian pilgrim's - slitting there belly's open then tying there intestines to a tree and whipping them until they ran around it thus unraveling there own innards and dying - had actually sparked the first crusade when the young pope had heard about it and in horror of this had called for men to retake the holy land from the Islamic Infidel's.

When Islam had first spread out of Arabia they had come murdering, raping and pillaging, forcing the survivors to convert to there lie or to be beheaded and so entire conquered city's succumbed to there lies.

When the Greek Orthodoxy crumbled the library's of Constantinople were emptied into the Islamic world were there primitive scholars were then able to obtain the work's of the Greek thinkers and perversely it was through them that our own eastern knowledge eventually trickled by to us sparking the renaissance.

When the Islamic's invaded India they took the Sanskrit numeral system as there own as well as Indian sciences and knowledge and that too eventually trickled to us but in fact the Islamic world never really created anything of it's own at all, it merely took and re purposed from other places much as the Roman's had once done.