On Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:10:31 -0800, "nom=de=plume"
wrote:

Em, the question has to do with whether or not Christ was a community
organizer. Though, what is described in this encyclopedic definition
does not parallel what is described or recorded of the early church.
Early Christianity was set apart from the community-at-large in nearly
all corners of the Roman empire.

I have no doubt you would have termed it pre-Christian if you'd have
anticipated the tight cranial sphincter of the insurance salesman.

As you know, there was no "Christian" community during Jesus' life. He
was part of the Jewish *Community*. It was a large community, with
everyone attending the same Temple. Jesus' followers were Jews who
were dissatisfied with the Temple and thought his ideas had merit. He
was the leader of a group that organized people to consider a
different approach to Judaism and life. He tended to their needs.

I'm sure any lesser mind can discount that he was a community
organizer in the modern sense, but he was.

It was decades before followers of Jesus formed their own synagogue to
pursue what eventually became Christianity 10 decades later. And,
from what I recall, that happened in Italy and elsewhere, not Israel.

The insurance salesman's disingenuous responses are only meant to win
an argument, an artful response to your common sense.