I made a mistake in my statements. I am no biblical scholar, simply an agnostic. I see consistent repudiation of Jesus, even just his image, and it bothers me, so I reacted. The only description of Jesus making a 'scourge of thin cords' is the one in the book of John. It does not specify on whom or what the scourge is used. Presuming that Jesus is not a hypocrite, which I am willing to presume, then it's likely that he used the scourge to goad and drive the animals of the merchants. On doing a little research, it appears that he was ejecting the sacrificial animal and dove merchants, and the moneychangers, from the public (non-jew) areas of the temple. He was repeating from a previous teaching or prophesy (in Isaiah) that the temple was to be for all nations (not just jews) to pray at, but the merchants et al., were blocking the area for gentiles. One analyst suggests that since the area was large, and there were likely many well-guarded merchants, that they left due to their belief that he was who he said he was: the Messiah they were expecting, rather than from fear of his physical reprisal.
tl;dr though I'm not a believer, I think that belittling Jesus, or his followers, whenever he appears is bad form.
