Christians are now complaining that "turning the other cheek" is nothing more than liberal talking points...

I read an essay by a christian a while ago that pointed out that the separation of church and state wasn’t about protecting the state from religion - it was about protecting religion from the state.

The gist of the argument was that religion should be concentrating on the eternal, and politics, by necessity, concentrates on the immediate. The author was concerned that welding religion and politics together would make religion itself political, meaning it would have to conform to the secular moment rather than looking to saving souls or whatever.

The mind meld of evangelical christianity and right wing politics happened in the mid to late 70s when the US was trying to racially integrate christian universities, which had been severely limiting or excluding black students. Since then, republicans and christians have been in bed together. The southern baptist convention, in fact, originally endorsed the Roe decision because it helped the cause of women. It was only after they decided to go all in on social conservatism that it became a sin.

Christians today are growing concerned about a falloff in attendance and membership. This article concentrates on how conservatism has become a call for people to publicly identify as evangelical while not actually being religious, because it’s an our team thing.

Evangelicals made an ironically Faustian bargain and are starting to realize it.

  • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Worth noting also WHY racially integrating universities was such a big deal to Southern Baptists.

    The sect was founded as a splinter group from the Triennial Convention in 1845 because the group that would become the Southern Baptist Church opposed the abolition of slavery. The largest sect of protestant Christianity in the US is literally founded upon the idea that chattel slavery was a right and just thing. And they are doomsday cultists.

  • pizza-bagel@kbin.social
    1·
    1 year ago

    I was a Christian for 20 years. The problem with this argument is that it’s ignorant of what the Bible actually says. Sure, Jesus was less of a dick than his dad but there’s still plenty of instances where Jesus was also a dick. Even on his death bed (cross?) he condemned 2 people next to him to hell for being mean to him! And he spent a lot of his time on earth not being very friendly to any other religion or any other interpretation of his own religion.

    And the other issue is that the Bible is INTENTIONALLY vague so that the people who wrote it to have power over others can make their followers do whatever they please at that moment. Some denominations believe the old testament is completely moot now, while others think only certain things still apply, while some think only the dietary restrictions were overrode by Jesus. ALL of those are biblically supported because the Bible is vague as fuck.

    The problem with this argument is that it assumes there is only one correct interpretation of the Bible, and anyone who disagrees is intentionally ignoring parts or hasn’t actually read it. That’s not how any of this works. The Bible is intentionally vague, full of contradictions, and has a lot of fucked up shit people who haven’t read it fully don’t know about. There has been a huge push of “the Bible actually says you should be super nice to everyone” when that’s not true at all.

    There’s a reason people who read the Bible on their own end up giving up Christianity, and it isn’t because it’s about how Jesus was a chill dude that loved everyone.