Jesus was 1) last 2) well documented 3) God and thereby could set the priorities.
This is in reference to the old testament. What should any Christian take out the bible? Sodom and Gomorra? Moses leading military campaigns? Noah? The answer is the Gospels. Why? Because...
Jesus was 1) last of the biblical stories 2) well documented 3) God and thereby could set the priorities.
See that's it. If it was John the Baptist (or anyone) that conducted the sermons, got the followings, was anointed, was carried forward by the bible, and had influence over modern society...then John would have been the guy. It could have been anyone. You may say Jesus was a clever guy to coopt what was an amazing set of ideas. And I'd agree with you. He didn't create this stuff out of thin air between all the work that had been done prior and inspiration (I believe from God)...but he created a worldwide phenomenon out of it nonetheless. I think some get so hung up on God being a dude that sits in a cloud. God is love...just leave it at that.
And UNO...you may think I'm cherry picking. Again, two things:
1) Christians by their nature should believe Jesus is #1. The ones who don't are, by definition, misguided. So when people treat others poorly or are judgemental or in some other behave badly...its because they are behaving as human and not following the Jesus path. Christianity has been abused by self serving individuals more than any other institution in history. But that doesn't mean the message/institution itself is bad. The message is great.
2) the primary long term outcomes from Christianity that are in our society have been extremely positive (driving the end of slavery, end of child labor, womens suffrage, healthcare, charity, in some places even education, etc)...so while people have used Christianity for their own purposes...the today's benefits from the institution are overwhelmingly positive and so great they are simply beyond measurement.