#DavidBarton is a #Christofascist historical #revisionist who engages in #agenda-driven historical analysis for the purpose of justifying the imposition of #ChristianNationalist ideals. It's no surprise that Commander #MikeJohnson (R-#Gilead) is receptive to the intellectual bankruptcy being peddled by Barton. In Commander Mike's perfect world, we would all be forced to abide by his version of #Christianity; a literal #hell on earth for most of us.
@slcw Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli (signed Nov 4, 1796):
"Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen (Muslims); and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan (Mohammedan) nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."
Some Christians act as if (blond hair, blue-eyed) Jesus Christ is simply waiting around in a holding pen somewhere, and if they can just have a big enough war in the Middle East involving Israel, it will somehow trigger a trip-wire that sends him coming back to Earth.
Jesus already died, resurrected, stayed a while, and ascended up.
If we really want the "Second Coming of Christ", we should all try practicing universal love, compassion, generosity, and forgiveness instead.
Personally, I believe that Jesus, Buddha, and other enlightened masters, might come back repeatedly in various guise to assist with our spiritual development. We just don't recognize them.
Watch Jesus come back as a dark-skinned, LGBTQ, woman immigrant preaching universal love and forgiveness, freely dispensing food and heath care, and advocating generosity to the downtrodden. Many people calling themselves "Christians" in America would be too busy trying to re-crucify her to recognize Jesus.
"We must...confront the truth that [the] primal American proclivity for violence and extremism is religiously grounded. ...
This way of thinking invites all of us to resist the temptation of characterizing white Christian nationalism as a fringe movement in American culture."
I grew up as a Christian. My father was an Anglican minister. The problem I have with other Christians I've met is the hypocrisy. Many of them seem full of hatred and judgement and pay no heed to the actual teachings of Christ, which surely should be the basis of Christian faith. In the end I walked away from the Church. #christianityisbigotry#christianity
@Jedigirl This is why I reject all religion and consider myself a hardened atheist. I'm Jewish and I've seen this same shit in my culture so I am only Jewish by heritage now.
@mrundkvist one aspect that most people never think about is... Jesus didn't want to create a religion at all!
He was a Jew trying to fix the Jewish religion.
(assuming he existed, but this is less relevant in this case: it would be the same idea even if it was, as it's likely, a number of different reformists with similar ideas over the span of a generation)
@renatoram Yes, like so much of Christianity, the universalist "There is neither Jew nor Greek" policy originated with St. Paul. The carpenter's son from Nazareth would be extremely confused if confronted with any Christian theologian's ideas.
Just saw a post claiming that if Christianity is progressive then it is heretical because God doesn't change.
While it's true God doesn't change, that doesn't mean his people have been good at following his commands. A Christian people who are not progressing the cause of the widow, orphan, immigrant, and unheard are not living a biblically defined Christianity. And as Christianity has failed to do that for millennia, it might look progressive to follow God's commands now (at least in some areas).
@jfslicer if tomorrow’s church can’t be any better than yesterdays church then I don’t really know what the point would be of striving with man all this time. God may not change but I sure hope WE can!
A gentle reminder to all Christians that Socialism, anti-Capitalism, and helping the needy were all tenets of Jesus's teachings, and blaming the poor for their poverty is the most unChristianly thing you can do. #christianity
@ned Although there are some - don't know exactly, maybe Calvinists 🤔 - that think being very successful in business is godly. You may guess what they think about the poor!?! 🤔
By basing their book on retrospective surveys of adults, Davis, Graham, and Burge overlook one essential descriptive fact about religion in America: most of the decline in religion is actually among children, and virtually all of it among people under age 22. Secularization, or what they call “dechurching,” is happening...
“God will not entertain the poor in heaven. You will not go there. I will also stand at the entrance to stop you from going there. We have misunderstood the gospel."
Well, somebody's misunderstood the gospel, that's for sure.
Me: Oh, liturgical resources for creation & environment, could be useful!
Me,10 minutes later: OMG, what did I just read?!?
I am begging #Episcopalians to just be normal. There is no need to re-write the Creed, the Words of Institution or the Our Father! Making out that #environmentalism is incompatible with orthodox #Christianity is not helping!
@seanbala Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction. There are some useful resources in there, but (charitably) they’ve let themselves get carried away. I’d prefer to keep the actual lessons biblical, but changing collects, switching in some relevant readings and using the other resources in sermons seems in keeping with what we do for other seasons.
@Robminchin I'll add one more point. So much of it lacks poetry. The thing that makes the Episcopal Church and the Anglican tradition stand out is a carefully crafted liturgy rooted in local circumstances with a focus on beauty and concise prose.
The dogmatic formulations of Nicaea, in adopting terms not drawn directly from scripture and in rejecting many of the principal certitudes of centuries of orthodox theology, were radical innovations; in fact, they were disruptions of the tradition as much as they were developments
But they were most definitely obedient to a promise that, looking back from them to the past, appears to pervade the Gospel’s original apocalyptic disruption of religious and historical life.
