Christianity vs MAGA Christianity

[fskimospy]

It all makes sense when you realize that religion doesn’t inform their culture and politics, their culture and politics informs their religion.

The Christ of the Bible tells them things they don’t want to hear so they make up a new theology that does. That’s how you get people who claim to be adherents to the religion of radical love arguing that empathy is bad.

 

[cytg111]

Its a power structure. End of story. Its not necessarily a bad power structure, it did what it had to do for a time. As a race we're nothing if we can march to the same beat. Religion does that for us. But we have new more efficient and effective paradigmes now, time to plot a course closer to reality than religion can.

 

[nakedfrog]

It all makes sense when you realize that religion doesn’t inform their culture and politics, their culture and politics informs their religion.

The Christ of the Bible tells them things they don’t want to hear so they make up a new theology that does. That’s how you get people who claim to be adherents to the religion of radical love arguing that empathy is bad.

"The Bible is the unerring word of god, and cannot be corrupted by the human hand!" they say, with their long history of schisms and tremendous number of sects...

 

[VashHT]

Plus they like to say the old testament doesn't count when you bring up the crazy shit in it, sounds like a lot of erring to me

 

[Moonbeam]

It all makes sense when you realize that religion doesn’t inform their culture and politics, their culture and politics informs their religion.

The Christ of the Bible tells them things they don’t want to hear so they make up a new theology that does. That’s how you get people who claim to be adherents to the religion of radical love arguing that empathy is bad.

So may I infer from your use of the word ‘inform’ an intention to imply that their political theology, if I may paint it as such, takes precedence over their religious theology and that to accomplish such a feat, it is their religious theology that has to give?

But as pointed out above, religious belief is the absolute truth that itself demands first place, that we have no other gods before us or so at least the Abrahamic religions teach, I think.

So the question for me becomes, since if this is what you are saying then I certainly agree, what on earth could compel such a willingness to live in such a massive state of hypocrisy. How does one go about setting aside the absolute Word of God for a secular belief, that by doing so condemns them to hell. Such a feat, it seems to me could only be accomplished by massive lack of self awareness and ignorance of facts.

And all of that is exactly what you get if religious conservatism were another manifestation of self hate, a fear of truth that based on the fear of feeling guilt and shame, all feelings originating in being made to experience how you are treated if you are worthless.

Your words lead me to conclude, then, that what makes religious conservatives what they are is that the religious values they absorbed, actually the paucity of them, they don’t really know what their religion teaches despite believing they do, and the fact they have suffered too much pain to willingly take on more via rely reflection, all of which leaves as their only way out, the herd mentality of conformity that requires an us and an evil them to sustain.

I think a profound capacity for hypocrisy requires the experience of pain so profound that only denial and massive repression of remembrance of it allow a child to survive.

What we have in my opinion is a system the finds efficiency by fueling that kind of mental illness. Let’s take all these greedy for self affirmation, worthless feeling individuals and set them against each other in a new war to survive, and let’s make sure that without money, the symbol of success, they will definitely die. Once we do that endless misery will be insured and the system will self perpetuate as nobody will risk loss for the sake of change, especially the ones with power and wealth at the top, thase with the least empathy as the price of entry.

 

[fskimospy]

So may I infer from your use of the word ‘inform’ an intention to imply that their political theology, if I may paint it as such, takes precedence over their religious theology and that to accomplish such a feat, it is their religious theology that has to give?

But as pointed out above, religious belief is the absolute truth that itself demands first place, that we have no other gods before us or so at least the Abrahamic religions teach, I think.

So the question for me becomes, since if this is what you are saying then I certainly agree, what on earth could compel such a willingness to live in such a massive state of hypocrisy. How does one go about setting aside the absolute Word of God for a secular belief, that by doing so condemns them to hell. Such a feat, it seems to me could only be accomplished by massive lack of self awareness and ignorance of facts.

And all of that is exactly what you get if religious conservatism were another manifestation of self hate, a fear of truth that based on the fear of feeling guilt and shame, all feelings originating in being made to experience how you are treated if you are worthless.

Your words lead me to conclude, then, that what makes religious conservatives what they are is that the religious values they absorbed, actually the paucity of them, they don’t really know what their religion teaches despite believing they do, and the fact they have suffered too much pain to willingly take on more via rely reflection, all of which leaves as their only way out, the herd mentality of conformity that requires an us and an evil them to sustain.

I think a profound capacity for hypocrisy requires the experience of pain so profound that only denial and massive repression of remembrance of it allow a child to survive.

What we have in my opinion is a system the finds efficiency by fueling that kind of mental illness. Let’s take all these greedy for self affirmation, worthless feeling individuals and set them against each other in a new war to survive, and let’s make sure that without money, the symbol of success, they will definitely die. Once we do that endless misery will be insured and the system will self perpetuate as nobody will risk loss for the sake of change, especially the ones with power and wealth at the top, thase with the least empathy as the price of entry.

As I've mentioned before one of my best friends is an evangelical Christian in suburban PA and in the last say, ten years she's seen the evangelical world shift around her, including her parents. These are individuals that read their bible daily, go to church every Sunday, and then conduct additional bible study after church. Now as far as what they 'know', they have come to positions that are at odds with the clear teachings of their faith in my opinion but it's not from ignorance of the material. No joke, some of these people were on Jeopardy style bible quiz teams as teenagers, haha.

That being said their transformation over the last ten years was also striking as when Trump first showed up in 2015 (feels like a lifetime ago) they were not supporters for all the reasons you would assume. After he became the nominee they gradually started to shift towards him, telling themselves that he was a 'baby Christian' and was growing into their faith. (lol) After a while though they decided none of that mattered and just went all-in.

In my experience it is more hatred of others than it is hatred of themselves, but who knows what the human heart holds. They have lived their whole lives in a community that tells them Christians are constantly under attack and this has led to a profound hatred of the people who are supposedly attacking them. You can't let the evil guys win and so compromises must be made. Eventually those compromises turn into your actual beliefs.

 

[woolfe9998]

Which churches teach that and what scripture do they cite as justification?

Why do so many Christian athletes thank God for winning the big game? What does God have to do with their performance on the field? Is God picking a winner, or is it about the skill of the players on the field? It really can't be both. In principle the outcome of a sports game is no different than any other outcomes in life. Yet Christians seem confused about whether it is humans or a supernatural entity who is determining these outcomes, meaning they are also confused about whether they really have any control over their own lives or not.

 

[woolfe9998]

Untold number of self-professed Christians have been politically corrupted into believing that the Republican Organization is the only entity that endorses their religious freedoms, never mind that they're weaponizing these very freedoms of theirs to attack and suppress the freedoms of practitioners of the other religions of the world of whom by law supposedly have those same protections.

Ergo, whatever dictatorial powers their Republican leaders are wielding, whatever crimes against humanity and the laws of the land their leaders are perpetrating must be ecumenically supported/ignored and justified by the crafty manipulation of testament because these political opportunists are on the side of their God. It's literally a contrived marriage consummated by the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation.

The Christians of the nation have free will to practice their religious beliefs, yet they feel they are compelled by their religious dogma to suppress, denigrate, outlaw and gain control over everyone else's freedoms because these heathens are an existential threat to their all powerful god, of which is of course a lesson in contradiction of the highest order, yet somehow they manage to make sense of that nonsense. it's what happens when the preeminent religion of our nation is infected with the political aspirations of their deceitful leaders. Afterall, of all the people they could have supported, they endorsed and elected Trump as their leader.

Christianity more than any other religion expanded and grew by the sword. By far more than any other religion. In fact, it's why there are more Christians today in the world than any other religion. In medieval Europe, pagans, Jews and Muslims were either killed, or persecuted/tortured into converting.

So this intolerance you describe of modern MAGA Christians is actually the norm for Christianity throughout its 2000 year history. The question isn't why are these MAGA's ignoring the liberal teachings of Jesus. It's where have these true Christians ever been? They have always been a minority in every age.

 

[woolfe9998]

It all makes sense when you realize that religion doesn’t inform their culture and politics, their culture and politics informs their religion.

The Christ of the Bible tells them things they don’t want to hear so they make up a new theology that does. That’s how you get people who claim to be adherents to the religion of radical love arguing that empathy is bad.

All theologies are inherently pliable. Good Muslims think the Koran is peaceful and urges peace. Bad ones site the warlike passages and take them literally and apply them to the modern age. Neither interpretation is wrong. There's a lot of stuff said in that book. And in the Christian bible. Did Jesus bring peace or did he bring "the sword?" Depends which passages you read and how you interpret them.

So pliable is religious doctrine that it can be exploited by just about anyone for just about any purpose. "Prosperity Gospel" has little to do with what's in the Gospels and says that giving money to a televangelist will improve your fortunes in life. And people believe it and give money.