Hello all, having been happily lurking in the background I can no longer resist commenting today, as an Ordained Minister & theologian.
JM refers to Jesus' cleansing of the temple, something I've written a paper on previously. The people Jesus kicked out were not kicked out for any money related reason; their role was completely necessary. It was the time of Passover (as indeed it is now), and all Jews were required to travel back to the Temple at Jerusalem & offer sacrifices. Therefore they needed money exchangers & those selling animals for sacrifice.
Jesus' issue was two fold; he removes the moneylenders, and those selling sheep & oxen because they had crept inside the temple walls to do their job, meaning they were trading in the only part of the temple non-Jews were allowed to worship in.
The second reason, is that he specifically speaks to & drives out the pigeon sellers, because (according to some scholars) they sold the sacrifice animal most required by the poor, who could afford no others. And actually, would often take advantage of poor people by offering something they tangibly needed, but doing so in a way which ripped them off. Sound familiar?..
Also interesting that JM refers to Titus 1; this passage is referring specifically to people from Crete, and prior to their quote it says 'Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.' Remind me what JM's heritage is again?...
p.s. re: Sunday schools, these were founded in the CofE in the 18th century, as many children simply avoided going to church & there was not wider school provision at this time. So the Church of England began doing Sunday schools which, in the first instance, taught children to read & write (using the Christian faith as a basis to do so).
Keep up the good work of noting JM's hypocrisy. As somebody intimately involved with a Foodbank & many facing real poverty, her attitude has really grated against me (having originally been a fan).