The prophet John the Baptist and cultural change
02
Dec
John the Baptist went to the desert, where he lived and preached an ascetic life, 
and talked about the radical change of life as a form of conversion, this implies a cultural change, a new route to life, this is a good proposal for Brazil today: Cultural change.
The first is to take place by force, we need a more austere life because the money has shortened except for some Maharajas, and then a cultural change of less facilities, ie easy loans and low interest, generalized spending and indefinite debts.
Of course the conversion that the prophet John the Baptist preached a “religious” life change, but it is not separated from a cultural change, that is, habits, customs and also values.
What the Sadducees and Pharisees of the time wanted, liberation from the heavy taxes of the Roman empire, and assurance of going to the kingdom of God by the observance of rules and “rites,” the Jews of this time espoused a certain ritual purity in matters such as Washing their hands, not doing work on Saturdays and other rites that are more social than religious.
The Pharisees were more popular and advocated an “oral Torah”, that is, that transmitted by the oral tradition, while the Sadducees were more aristocratic, members of the high society, defended a more sober interpretation of the Torah, without falling into ritualisms and rigor, but Both came closer to John the Baptist out of fear than out of real change of heart.
What happens today in relation to public openness, the fear of the law that promises to harden with the corrupt, causes many to change the discourse, but without changing the attitude, defend the punishment but of the “others”, as if it were possible to make a Casual law, for some only.
It is necessary to change, whether or not like “popular” Pharisees or “aristocratic” Sadducees, this could mean a cultural change in the country, increasingly necessary for a country in crisis.
