“The Christian right is dead, but the religious right is stronger than it’s ever been. Another way of putting it is that the religious right has divorced itself from historical Christian theology but still holds its partisan beliefs with religious intensity. The religious fervor is there. Christian virtues are not.” -David French
"According to Jewish temple traditions, Jews were not allowed to give offerings in the temple at Jerusalem using coins that had the image of Caesar stamped on them. This was deemed idolatrous. Thus, when they arrived at Jerusalem from neighbouring towns to celebrate the Jewish annual festivals, they were mandated by temple officials to change their coins with the money changers who hung around the temple’s premises. These money changers charged very exorbitant rates for these transactions. Furthermore, God specifically gave Moses the exact description of the types of animals that could be accepted for sacrifices in the temple for various annual festivals (Leviticus 22: 17-25). To be acceptable to God for sacrifice, these animals must be unblemished. Surprisingly, some Jews would still bring animals with various shades of defects and blemishes to the temple for the sacrifices, all of which would be flatly rejected by the temple officials. To be deemed acceptable, those who brought defective animals to the temple were also mandated to have their animals changed, which was a situation that made the animal changers to charge the people exorbitantly for the required switches. It would interest you to know that Caiaphas, the high priest, according to Jewish history, had a major stake in both the animal and money changing businesses, which explained why he and the rest of the aristocratic Sadducees hated Jesus so implacably. We would recall that Jesus once whipped the money changers out of the temple, scattering their tables (John 2:14-15). We should now understand why Caiaphas was ready to get rid of Jesus, once the opportunity came his way — Jesus was making them lose a lot of free money. --Ayo Akerel