Christ Samurai /Ninja/Robot Believers!

You'll love this book.

It's called ''The Way of the Christian Samurai'' and I ran across it by chance. I didn't read it, but its premise is absolutely brilliant. It compares Samurai warriors of old Japan with modern, devoted Christians. For example, Samurai were in the service of their Lord and were ready to lay down their lives for him, exactly as good Christians are, or should be in the service of their Lord, who isn't, in this case, a fat Japanese man from the middle ages, but God himself.

Now, I have seen a lot of stupid ideas, but this one is high on the scoreboard. Samurai were probably on the complete opposite end of all Christian values.

First of all, their job was to KILL, and I remember something about the 10 commandments being against killing. They were professional soldiers, and created an entire philosophy (bushido) that rejects life itself. Of course, they did this to decrease or even totally eliminate their fear of death and thus become even more efficient killing machines. Maybe that's what Jesus wants these days?

Also, they respected suicide immensely, and often killed themselves by cutting out their intestines (seppuku) for, from today's standards, trivial matters. Suicide is, as far as I know, also No-No for Christians.

And how about the habit of testing new swords on prisoners and criminals - you can't be sure your new bling-bling katana is good unless you decapitate a few doesn't random captives. Similar to Christianity, mercy was obviously very valued by Samurai.

Finally, let's not forget their love for man-love. In feudal Japan, it was common practice that younger warriors become lovers to older and more experience ones. Ah, man-on-man anal sex - so Christian, don't you think?

So, let's not forget: Samurai were mindless, merciless killers, military drilled from childhood and ready to do anything for their Lord. If that's what Christianity is looking for today, Samurai would be a dead-on choice.