Bobzammel

Luke 14:26-33 is perhaps one of the most controversial passages within the entire bible, and is often used by non-Christians to attack the morality of Jesus. The passage states that one must hate their family members and renounce their possessions in order to become a disciple-to, in escense, become a drifter or cynic. Ethically, this somewhat contradicts several bible passages, including some of Jesus's own and also Paul's in which one is commanded to honor parents and marriages. There are however, several other passages in which Jesus seems to attack the family system.
The common Christian excuse is that this passage is a "Semetic idiom" of some sort. Their main claim is that it is a parrarel to Matthew 10, in which Jesus states that his teachings will apparentally cause divisions and betrayals, even among family members. In Matthew 10 he qoutes Micah 7:6, which in context refers to the prophet warning people to not trust their friends and families due to the tense situation at the time, when Assyria was threathening Judah. After qouting the passage, Jesus states a passage that is similar to Luke 14:26, but instead of "Hate", he uses "He who loves....more than me" and instead of disciple, he states "Worthy". So in this case he doesn't say hate outright--family can, perhaps, still be loved, but at a lesser level as oppossed to Jesus. Therefore the common Christian explanation is that the Christian is to "Love less" their family members.

So are the Christians right at saying this is semetic hyperbole? Or is it just an excuse to cover up an unpopular teaching?

Mageth

Well, I tend to give Jesus the benefit of the doubt on those passages, as I think it's quite possible if not probable that he was using hyperbole.

At least I hope he was.

Bobzammel

One thing I'd like to add is that the biblical attitude toward family is somewhat confusing, at least in the NT. Jesus upholds the "Honor thy father and mother" commandment, and also that of marriage...although neither say "love" directly, it can certainly be interpetated as a form of love. Plus the whole thing about Loving neibhors and enemies would probably include flesh-and-blood relatives as well. It could mean an emotional hate and an 'action' love(Agape), but this is contradicted by the Old Testament and the epistles(Which use the word for emotional love-phileo) and is also mostly unsupported.
Then there's the thing about 'leaving' families which is problematic. Jesus seems to state in Luke 19 and it's parrarels that those who leave family will be rewarded with Christian brethren, sisterhood and so on; yet this would break the above commands and also Jesus doesn't seem to have a problem with many of his followers simply staying at home with their families(Lazarus, etc.) or at least having some closeness with at least one family member( James and John, for instance, were brothers). There's also Jesus's attitude toward Mary on the cross, who entrusts her to one of his disciples.