bla bla bla..........
Yeah. The twelve apostles had to be willing to walk away from everything in order to fulfill their purpose- even their own families. This is a hard teaching. It asks us to eschew our worldly concerns for a higher calling- even at a great cost.
Again, context is important. We know that Jesus did not mean that everyone should hate his family in order to follow him, because many of his disciples brought with them their believing wives, and one of his own brothers was an apostle. However, this passage acknowledges something that Jesus stated explicitly elsewhere: that his doctrine would prove highly divisive and controversial, and that anyone who forsook the truth to maintain worldly comforts or to appease unbelieving family members in times of impending persecution was not worthy, or strong enough to be his disciple.
This is actually a classic example of cult leader programming. To isolate others from everything else in their lives and dedicate themselves to the thing the cult leader says they should. Believe it or not, many believe jesus to be a narcissit as most cult leaders tend to be.
No. Don't ignore him. Ask hard questions and tackle difficult passages. The wisdom you will gain may prove invaluable, someday.
The bible is not some dumb fairy tale sprinkled with unicorn glitter. It contains difficult teachings that only yield their beauty to those with ears to hear, and eyes to see. It is a historically substantiated fount of literary treasure and spiritual wisdom.
Given that this happened thousands of years ago it cannot be considered..."classic example of cult leader" ...given that Christianity was one of the first documented religions.
And cults tend to be small, this was no cult. and jesus never forced anyone to do anything and even welcomed people who we're nothing like him or those who followed him. he wanted people to be nice to one another and to build relationships. he never asked for anything because he he knew people would want to help.