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All right, folks, this is getting waaaay off topic. No more politics.
For reference, the opening post:
Quote:
Evangelical Christianity is not only intellectually bankrupt, I believe it is also morally bankrupt. It’s basically just a smokescreen for far-right politics.
My father is a pastor in an evangelical Christian sect. His attitude toward native Americans and blacks is this: they need to quit playing the victim and pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. When I confronted him about the legitimate historical grievances (genocide of natives and slavery for blacks), he only doubled down on his views. I then told him that his views seemed inconsistent with Jesus’ teachings about the less fortunate. He then got angry and said that I don’t know what I’m talking about, since he recently helped an elderly lady in need. That just made me more angry, because he appeared to be using his good works to provide cover for his rotten attitude toward natives and blacks. I recall Jesus saying something about the hypocrisy of doing good works while maintaining a selfish heart.
Having grown up in evangelical Christianity, I can see what it’s really all about: power. It’s particularly about putting (white) men at the top of the food chain, and making wives and children subservient. It achieves that end by indoctrinating children with the fear of Hell, and it’s very effective. It’s systematic, institutionalized, generational abuse. It’s the kind of thing that belongs in a remote jungle tribe and has no place in a modern civilized Western country.
If the thread can't stay on-point it will (as usual) be closed.
Evangelical Christianity is not only intellectually bankrupt, I believe it is also morally bankrupt. It’s basically just a smokescreen for far-right politics.
My father is a pastor in an evangelical Christian sect. His attitude toward native Americans and blacks is this: they need to quit playing the victim and pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. When I confronted him about the legitimate historical grievances (genocide of natives and slavery for blacks), he only doubled down on his views. I then told him that his views seemed inconsistent with Jesus’ teachings about the less fortunate. He then got angry and said that I don’t know what I’m talking about, since he recently helped an elderly lady in need. That just made me more angry, because he appeared to be using his good works to provide cover for his rotten attitude toward natives and blacks. I recall Jesus saying something about the hypocrisy of doing good works while maintaining a selfish heart.
Having grown up in evangelical Christianity, I can see what it’s really all about: power. It’s particularly about putting (white) men at the top of the food chain, and making wives and children subservient. It achieves that end by indoctrinating children with the fear of Hell, and it’s very effective. It’s systematic, institutionalized, generational abuse. It’s the kind of thing that belongs in a remote jungle tribe and has no place in a modern civilized Western country.
You and your Dad need to work things out. Your foundation is still Christ Resurrected, regardless of ya'll's religious ideology. Have a blessed day my freak.
Where is your compassion for every child living in extreme poverty and violence in South America then? With your logic, Christians should be support allowing the entire world's population live here if they want.
Problem with that logic is our country only has so much resources to go around. We can't house everyone.
Why even have immigrant rules in the first place if you think we should be allowed to break them?
Since two Republican presidents and two Democratic presidents allowed the rules to be broken and even PROTECTED "illegals," they showed little respect for the law anyway. Now, thirty years later a demagogue wants to reject the law of Christ and the Bible and you support him? What does that say about YOUR Christianity?
Right now economic sense should be enough to explain to anyone that if we got rid of all DACAs and illegals, our unemployment rate would be zero---and businesses would either be closing because they could not find "cheap" help -- like grocery stores and fast food places which are advertising for help constantly--and our economy would nose dive from small businesses unable to find help and the inflation that would take place as larger companies offered more and more money to obtain employees. The state of Colorado is actively soliciting parents to do home schooling over the internet because we can't find enough teachers to work at ridiculous wages.
The widow put a mite in the charity offering of Jesus. It was her very last. You would rather our "Christian" nation (as you claim it was as founded) build more bombers and missiles (and a wall), eh? Killing people we hate is a godly passion of yours, I've noticed. Bomb the "hell" out of them, I suppose?
Where in the Bible did Jesus ever talk about logic? He talked about COMPASSION, period.
Your post is EXACTLY the point of this entire thread---evangelical Christianity is morally bankrupt and has become nothing but politics, not compassion. And I can tell you from experience that it has all happened in the last 35 years. Before that even evangelicals were about COMPASSION. Jesus told a parable that said, "How you treat the LOWEST in our society, is how you treat ME." Congrats, it costs too much money to be compassionate, but we don't have enough to make war.
The people in South America are waiting for you to stop strumming your banjo and go down and become a missionary. I've never met a missionary who came back without being a changed person. And by all that is Holy and righteous, you need to change.
P.S. My earlier statement on presidents winking at immigration laws was incorrect. There were THREE Republican presidents and only two Democrats that failed to enforce those immigration rules.
Last edited by Wardendresden; 01-17-2018 at 11:26 PM..
Reason: Added postscript
Romans 13 obviously has been removed from your Bible.
Are you comparing the Mosaic law to U.S. law? Who died in order to free us from the U.S. law?
Like I said on the previous post - there is a risk in breaking the law. If you think it's OK - fine. But you are taking a risk.
Mosaic law was the national law for the Jews, while Roman law was imposed over it.
If you think noncompassionate laws should never be broken, then you believe MLK Jr. to have been a foolish jerk---as was Rosa Parks. They broke existing laws because MLK had a dream. The DACA individuals all have dreams too. Dreams you wish to stomp on so that the sins of the parents are visited on the children.
That's disgusting---not to mention hypocritical coming from a black man.
Ezekiel 18:20
"The person who sins will die The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself."
In the case of "civil" law, however, you believe the son should be banished for the iniquity of his parents.
A moral person is a person that understands that the universe does not revolve around their ego.
A civilized society is a society whose laws do not revolve around any one person or group of people.
The more a society treats everyone as equals the more civilized it is.
the laws mlk and rosa parks broke were not very civilized
A moral person is a person that understands that the universe does not revolve around their ego.
A civilized society is a society whose laws do not revolve around any one person or group of people.
The more a society treats everyone as equals the more civilized it is.
the laws mlk and rosa parks broke were not very civilized
Although I rarely agree with your posts, this one I consider to be exactly correct. It is admirable of you to post something that doesn’t require a god, though to be fair what you posted doesn’t preclude a god either.
Although I rarely agree with your posts, this one I consider to be exactly correct. It is admirable of you to post something that doesn’t require a god, though to be fair what you posted doesn’t preclude a god either.
I agree. From time to time I find myself thinking that I can't figure out who granpa is. The particular post in great.
A moral person is a person that understands that the universe does not revolve around their ego.
A civilized society is a society whose laws do not revolve around any one person or group of people.
The more a society treats everyone as equals the more civilized it is.
the laws mlk and rosa parks broke were not very civilized
Please provide documentation showing that is anything but just your opinion.
I dont know any evangelicals? Do they all have this view?
What, specifically?
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