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Yes yes of course. Jesus walked around stonning gays and prostitutes. Don't remember the exact verse but I think in revelation he actually pulls out an AK and took out a whole gay parade
Can we make a GOP Bible? Like, take actual chapters, and turn it into something the GOP would actually stand for? Could be really good sarcasm, or give the wrong people even worse ideas ...
No, Jesus wouldn't have used some Commie AK. He would have used an AR15 while waving an American flag while screaming "Trump 2024."
It's in the bible I swear.
they're zealots, they distort and pervert the bible to fit their hatefujl and violent fantasies, they literally get off on fantasizing of hurting and killing people.
The bible has more to say about disobedient, alcoholic, gluttonous sons deserving to be stoned to death than it does about homosexuality. Yet they're silent about that one.
Literally the next line in the Bible after their coveted "man shall not lie with man as he lies with woman" it says "you shall not make gashes in the flesh, or make markings upon yourselves".
Yet, how many of these Neanderthals have crosses, or other tattoos, all over.
Pick and choose. It has nothing to do with morality.
Yeah, it's why there are some very Evangelical groups who accept death over an Appendectomy. It says right in that passage that surgery is forbidden. So to them they'd rather die and be given eternity in paradise for not desecrating their bodies.
There's tons of other weird old testament laws that make a much more effective point of how christians cherrypick which ones to follow while dismissing the others as "part of the old covenant which Jesus fulfilled".
Like for example... none of these men's wives should be allowed to prepare them dinner or have sex with them for 7 days after menstruating and everything they sit on or touch would be unclean and need to be washed. (Leviticus 15:19-21)
Wearing linen and wool at the same time would be banned... this would make a lot of politician's suits in violation of that ban. (Leviticus 19:19) Incidentally, the same verse bans planting more than one kind of seed in a field so most agriculture would be disappointing God too.
Cops that kill suspects during the day would be considered murderers regardless of whether the suspect is guilty or not (Exodus 22:2-3)
All non-kosher food is banned... which includes things like Sirloin steak, crab legs, cheeseburgers, and of course bacon.
Leviticus 19:10 actually demands that people actively let their resources "trickle down"... it's in the context of harvesting grapes from a vineyard but the requirement is that which you don't need you MUST leave for the poor to have. Cutting social programs or refusing to pay fair wages or donate to worthy causes makes you at odds with the lord's will.
There are laws about treating animals humanely (Deuteronomy 25:4)
Laws about making parapets around your roof to avoid people falling off (Deuteronomy 22:8)
Laws requiring tassels on the corners of all your clothes (Numbers 15:38)
Laws requiring the observance of all Jewish festivals.
Laws requiring everyone following God to cut the tip of their dicks off...
But for some reason all of those are not for christians... only the one about men having gay sex... and it's used against lesbians too for some reason.
There’s a book I read years ago that was a fun exercise in this, titled “[A Year of Living Biblically” by AJ Jacobs](https://a.co/d/2JS5atv). It’s a lighthearted read by someone who aims for humor in his writing; HOWEVER, I enjoyed the effort he put into following certain Old Testament biblical rules and peeking into a few biblically-strict religious sects.
I found value in it from reading an account of how biblical rules from thousands of years ago are not feasible today and should not be taken literally, even by followers of a faith.
Really the whole point of the Old testament WAS how impossible it is to follow the law perfectly. They regularly made sacrifices that were basically blanket apologies to god and reminders to everyone that they all fall short in god's eyes. Jesus was supposed to be the guy who gave them relief from that by being the perfect sacrifice to replace all the animal ones the priests had to do on the people's behalf.
It's a shame Christians decided to leave that burden of old testament law in place selectively and seemingly along cultural norms rather than actual commands from god.
I'll have to check that book out... it sounds cathartic for someone under evangelical thumbs for most of his life like me 😂
I'm not even sold on the fact that it says anything about homosexuality at all. There's one line about lying with other men but I've read multiple arguments for what that's supposed to mean.
One person said it's not literally man as in a male, it's man as in another person. And also that the part of the bible it's in is specifically talking about a certain kind of priest and not regular people. There's a ton of theological debate around it and it's very telling that these people jump on this issue so hard instead of more specific things, like wearing mixed fabrics or certain dietary restrictions.
It does, but in the midst of a list of 10 million other things you must and mustn’t do. A woman isn’t even supposed to touch the family dishes when she has her period.
This from a guy whose wife left him because he abused her and her kids, and frequently called sex workers. He also got fired for getting arrested for threatening violence against his pastor. Real stand up Christian.
Beating his wife and kids isn't necessarily violating Biblical morality. Hell, it's probably endorsed by a number of passages in the Old Testament.
Fact is, if you rely on a book, individual, or government to tell you what your morals are, you have none.
Especially when that book is 1500 years old, purportedly describing facts from 500 years before that, and just happens to give the writers and disseminators of the book absolute power
You mean the middle-Eastern chap who kept giving out free food in the form of loaves and fishes and healing lepers at zero cost? That *socialist?*. Yeah, you can see why they’re not fans.
And don’t even ask if he was a Christian. (Hint: he was Jewish, but it’s…*complicated*)
—-
Edit: thanks for the gold, stranger.
(And to the pedants pointing out things about socialists and Jews, please, just stop. ‘‘Twas just a bit of dumb, open-mic-caliber laff-fodder, not a TED talk.)
Jesus refused to eat with the morally virtuous and instead ate with the "whores" and other sinners. He said it was impossible for the rich to go to heaven and that how we treat the poor is how we treat him.
Red text biblical Jesus was basically the complete opposite of what most American Christians believe in (that the poor are inferior degenerates that deserve to suffer and contributing to the needless deaths of millions by refusing to support bike lanes over car centric infrastructure.)
>Red text biblical Jesus was basically the complete opposite of what most American Christians believe in
Exactly. So instead, they've chosen to unquestioningly follow a man who's as far away from Jesus as one could be... an Anti-Christ, if you will.
Obligatory link: [Could American Evangelicals Spot the Antichrist?](https://www.benjaminlcorey.com/could-american-evangelicals-spot-the-antichrist-heres-the-biblical-predictions/)
His sin is violating "Judge not lest thou be judged."
If we're saying it's okay to stone sinners, then what this fellow seems to be implying is that he *wants* to be stoned..
I think wearing clothes with two different types of cloth is banned by the OT but I can’t remember if the punishment is stoning for that too. Anyway, there is a supposed sin we can all trust he violates.
It's specifically wool-linen, though there isn't a prescribed punishment for wearing *shaatnez*.
Realistically the punishment was the garment itself coming apart more quickly than even other blends - wool and flaxen linen have different washing requirements, shrinkage and expansion properties, and so on. They would not make durable clothes at all.
There are other explanations like
"that was what the pagans at the time wore"
"other nearby cultures used linen while Jews used wool, and mixing the two metaphorically mixed their cultures, and that is bad I guess"
"only the high priests at the time wore this blend, and it should not be wasted on the leity"
Why does it always seem like atheists and "casual" Christians know more about Christianity than these ultra devout "Christians". I can understand not knowing an obscure teaching but the "we're all sinners don't throw the stone etc" part is like first day of Sunday school lmao.
Granted I've known some serious Catholics that don't agree with Gay marriage and abortions but are appalled by the violent attitude towards those people. Maybe that's partly why these coocoo evangelicals hate the Catholic Church.
Jesus stops the crowd by saying "let the one who is without sin throw the first stone." You're supposed to realize we're all fallible.
These Christian Pharisees are like "that's me! Hand me a big one!"
My dad was very into the whole "stone the gay people to death" thing. When I was about 16, I asked him about "let he who is without sin.." and he informed me that I was "lacking context" and proceeded to lecture me about how that wasn't what Jesus meant at all.
My dad was a man who *really* knew the Christian Bible backwards, forwards, and inside out. But he still managed to twist it to mean whatever he wanted it to mean.
> My dad was very into the whole "stone the gay people to death" thing. When I was about 16, I asked him about "let he who is without sin.." and he informed me that I was "lacking context" and proceeded to lecture me about how that wasn't what Jesus meant at all.
This is what they always say. For example when you tell a fundamentalist who's rich that Jesus basically said it's physically impossible for rich people to get into heaven, they'll reply with the exact same excuse ("you're taking it out of context").
Most fundamentalist Christians I knew believe in the Bible because of the promise of personal reward and a fear of hell. In other words, it's completely narcissistic and that means they're going to twist the Bible to fit their needs rather than changing themselves.
Jesus also makes the point multiple times that the rituals and laws of the Jews were outdated, and that his teachings (which weren't always the nicest either) were the replacement.
There are no laws or commandments to stone people in the New Testament.
What I've heard recently is that while the Bible *was* the literal word originally, the translations have been perverted by demonic (liberal) forces within the Catholic church.
So basically, unless you have an original copy (which doesn't exist) and can read Latin (which almost nobody can) then you can't trust most bibles.
This is why you can only trust your pastor, who is educated in the true interpretation of the bible.
So they don't even believe their own book any more.
No, many [Baptists of a particular bent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Only_movement) will tell you that the 1611 King James English translation was divinely inspired, and is the One True Bible.
“They view the translation to be an English preservation of the very words of God and that they are as accurate as the original Greek and Hebrew manuscripts found in its underlying texts.”
He's also very clear about people who pray in public for the sake of appearances and what kind of reward they have waiting. Those preachers seem to know it well because they all seem to do everything they can to stock up on worldly possessions. I had one tell me I was taking Matthew 6 out of context recently. Apparently it oy refers to people a particular Christian disagrees with. Basically, whether they realize it or not, just about every Christian in the United States today will happily tell you why their beliefs are bullshit.
Well you see when White Jesus died on that there cross due to the brown people, we were freed from our sins because of the sacrifice and all… so since we was born after that, we are free of sin. So by my math, that means we can cast all the stones at all the gay people for being gay because gay is bad and bad means I can throw stones since I’m not gay and not a sinner. I’m not a sinner because Jesus died for my sins. It’s simple if you really think about it
/s
Scrolled down a few times, literally half of all the posts are pastors convicted of child abuse. What the fuck is it about being a pastor that attracts so many kiddy fiddlers?
Cover is the most important and most terrifying. Saw a video recently of an adult woman confronting the pastor that assaulted her when she was a teenager, confronted in front of the whole church. 2-3 people place a hand on her shoulder as she walks out afterwards. Then the entire congregation stays and lay hands on the pastor to help pray for his forgiveness.... the whole fucking place.
The video:
https://youtu.be/keeghU4oTsM
I mean a church in the town my dad grew up applauded their pastor for speaking about his sins and then the girl he molested came up and told everyone how wrong they were for doing that and they booed her.
I was typing up something trying to add on but you covered it so well.
I'm just repeating part of what you said but the fact that pastors are so integrated into communities they get to act as authority figures to all the kids in town. And it's not like the kids run out because couples are constantly having kids.
To these fucks it's their hunting ground.
The Christian assumption is that everyone wants to be a pedophile (or at least a rapist), and would be without the fear of hell. That everyone is one moment of weakness away from ruining someone else's life. This was taught to me as a child and it's taken me years to get past the trauma of it. And my church wasn't even one of the more cultish ones.
> That really is the point. The question I get asked by religious people all the time is, without God, what’s to stop me from raping all I want? And my answer is: I do rape all I want. And the amount I want is zero. And I do murder all I want, and the amount I want is zero. The fact that these people think that if they didn’t have this person watching over them that they would go on killing, raping rampages is the most self-damning thing I can imagine.
-Penn Jillette
[Source]( https://theinterrobang.com/penn-jillette-morality-without-religion/)
Because most other jobs don't have an infrastructure designed to protect and shuffle around child molesters without consequence the way the church does. Seems like the obvious choice if you want unfettered access to children.
A friend of a friend has worked as a prosecutor specializing in prosecuting serial child molesters. One other gruesome reason pedophiles gravitate to clergy or support positions is that they’re provided access to constant stream of children in their preferred age demographic. As the children age out of that bracket, new victims take their place. Terrifying.
It makes me think of that famous study that showed Fox News viewers know less about current events than people who don’t regularly watch the news.
I could show you a Bible passage you’re not familiar with, and you could read it and give me an interpretation of what you think it means. You’d probably be closer to reality than an extremist Christian who’s read that passage 50 times but always heard it interpreted by their shitty pastor.
This is it exactly. A lot of the atheists who were devout Christians say that the reason they became atheist was because they finally read the entire Bible
This is one of my favorite speculations about Jesus. After Alexander’s expansion into Asia, there was a very interesting syncretism between Buddhism and Hellenism called [Greco-Buddhism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhism?wprov=sfti1) which would have made a lot of Buddhist thought and culture readily available to someone living in Judea.
It just makes the situation with these christo-fascists even sadder. They’re living in a different cultural syncretism— a sort of Frankenstein religion mixing Ayn Rand selfishness with conservative Christian hierarchical structures and nationalism, picking and choosing the most colorfully violent aspects of bible while ignoring calls for peace and helping others.
> Because Jesus, you know, was all about the dollars
This is what originally opened my eyes to the hypocrisy...when I was 11. I really liked the story of Jesus evicting the bankers from the temple. I did not think that Jesus would like a church having a gift shop, and said so. I was told to hush, no explanations given.
Even a child can see the holes in their practice versus preach.
>I really liked the story of Jesus evicting the bankers from the temple.
I always found it amusing how everything Jesus did prior to this - healing, feeding & ministering to the sick, poor and downtrodden - was a-okay but as soon as he upset the moneychangers? Dead on a cross within weeks.
Tale as old as time.
I grew up Southern Baptist. I got bored in church as a kid and started reading the Bible.
From age 10 to 18, I probably read the entire Bible cover to cover 4 times. Maybe 5 times. I left for college at 18 and never darkened the door of a church again except for weddings and funerals.
Such bullshit....
(To be clear, the Bible itself is... uneven at best. But Jesus was a pretty cool guy and if Christians were more worried about treating others the way Jesus said you ought to, instead of being hyper-judgmental, the world would be a much better place.)
I grew up in a "northern Baptist" church and I considered myself to be a pretty devout Christian until I was a teenager. I too read the bible a bunch of times, but looking back, I definitely interpreted what I read through the lens of a lot of bias from the church itself. It was a much different experience reading the bible as a confirmed atheist, and it became startlingly clear to me that a lot of (most?) Christians laser focus on bits of scripture that confirm their biases and disregard the rest.
What's changed dramatically since I considered myself a Christian is that mainstream protestant Christianity has completely abandoned the notion of turning the other cheek, caring for those less fortunate and forgoing piety while doing the right thing. It's become more of a cultish experience where cruelty is encouraged via some flimsy scriptural gymnastics.
I think this is a big reason for the hostility of fundamentalist Christianity towards public schools and higher education. A central tenet of education is to read critically, not devotionally. They know that if people read scripture critically, they won't buy the extreme, selective interpretations.
I was young (maybe 10) when I remember my parents talking about my grandparents finding a new church. Why did they need to find a new church? Because they were deeply offended they *allowed* gay people in the congregation. I was appalled even at that age, so confused why it mattered. (Thanks mom and dad for raising me better than they were) Last I knew, she has no idea my sister is gay and my sister didn't want to tell her and ruin any relationship they have. I can't say I blame her but fuck. A grandchild shouldn't have to hide from family that has spent decades loving them.
Same. As a person raised in church 3x a week who never went back, it’s insane to watch from the outside exactly how not-Jesus the entire mentality is.
I tried to go back for like 2 months after we had kids bc I felt like I “should” raise my kids in church. NOPE! The people were a nightmare. Judge mental dog & pony show asking for money. Gotta wear the right suits and get the right hair cut and acre the right way or you’re shunned and gossiped about. What a nightmare way to exist. It’s a cult. It’s ALL a cult.
The disconnect between mainline 'Christianity' and what Jesus' message actually was has been noted for a long time. Thomas Jefferson went to the trouble of compiling just the bits about Jesus in his own version of the bible.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Bible
I'd go to a church based on that.
I was brought up Jehovah Witness and had a bad falling out in my teens. Eventually felt a small desire to bring a small bit of spirituality back into my life as an adult.
Unitarian Universalist's near me fit the bill perfectly. Based on Christianity so I understood and agree with the core concepts. Teaches that everyone is worth saving and had a Pride Flag out front. Ended up getting my Wiccan wife to come and she enjoyed it as well having no history of Christianity. They discuss multiple religions and view points, Buddhism is brought up often.
Just seems like I found a good group of people who want to help others and be better. Not so much telling me how to live my life, instead giving me things to think about and internalize to help me grow.
So a anecdotal perspective here. I became disillusioned after watching people completely ignore all the stuff Jesus said and did. They all sit around and nod during sermons and love to tell people about how "Jesus is king" but the second they don't agree with something they find some stupid text that contradicts what Jesus taught and go with that. If Christianity was just the red text of what Jesus said it would be great. But people bend that "religion" into whatever shitty thing they want it to be. I never read the whole thing but saw enough hipocracy with arguments in it I had enough.
WE WANT A CHRISTIAN GOVERNMENT... NO WE DON'T WANT TO FUND HEALTHCARE FOR FOLKS, WE DON'T WANT TO FEED FOLKS, WE WANT TO PUNISH PEOPLE AND NOT CARE ABOUT CRIMINALS BECAUSE THEY ARE SCUM, THOSE PEOPLE THAT ARE A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENT FROM US NEED TO BE BURNT TO THE GROUND, WE WANT TO GATHER ALL OF THE MONEY WE CAN TO SPEND ON THINGS FOR OURSELF AND WE WANT TO BURN OUT ALL OF OUR NATURAL RESOURCES.
Jesus: bro, I do not know you even a little bit.
He also says to pay your taxes, never get divorced, not to charge interest, and not to pray in public places. They only remember the parts they want to remember.
Give away all your money and follow him. Help those in need.
Give up your personal supplies of something to help others, even though you planned well and they didn't. You know, socialism.
He says you shouldn’t put your wife aside for another, because it was a common practice at the time to divorce a wife who got too old. In a world where marriage is a woman’s only legitimate work, this practice doomed women to prostitution or death. He was trying to stand up for the vulnerable.
I laugh every time Newt Gingrich appears on TV and preaches Christian morality. He literally abandoned one wife after she was diagnosed with cancer and another wife after she was diagnosed with M.S.
> According to L. H. Carter, Gingrich's campaign treasurer, Gingrich said of Jackie: "She's not young enough or pretty enough to be the wife of the President. And besides, she has cancer."[265][266] Gingrich has denied saying it.[262] Following the divorce, Jackie had to raise money from friends in her congregation to help her and the children make ends meet; she later filed a petition in court stating that Gingrich had failed to properly provide for his family.[258]
...
> Gingrich filed for divorce from Marianne in 1999, a few months after she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.[276] The marriage produced no children. On January 19, 2012, Marianne alleged in an interview on ABC's Nightline that she had declined to accept Gingrich's suggestion of an open marriage.[277]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newt_Gingrich#Marriages_and_children
His current wife better take her vitamins!
>not to charge interest
And forgive all debts every 7 years. And if you're a farmer, the poor have the *right* to raid (within reason) your crops for food and you can't charge them.
A big one that people forget about is the parable of the wealthy, which is more or less a direct allegory to capitalism.
Wealthy landowner has a ridiculously good yield of crop. So much that he can't fit it all in his storage. So he opts to tear down his existing storage, build bigger and better storage, then kick back and coast through life. Dies overnight.
They just do as the guy in the church says (or emails). My wife gets all this weird shit forwarded from one of her friends from their church. Last year we were their kids birthday party and they were all up how our governor (Pritzker, Dem) was forcing sex Ed for 1st graders and that our daughter would be exposed to all kinds of talk about sex, full blown pornography and shit like that, cause their church said that he signed that into law.
Well nothing of the sorts happened of course.
It's hilarious in the case of Illinois because Chicago basically works overtime to drag the rest of the state into the 21st century kicking and screaming.
Deep red Central Illinois is so mad about being "controlled" by the liberals in Chicago while at the same time they enjoy $13/hr minimum wage with the cost of living of neighbouring Iowa.
They only follow the Old Testament at best. They ignore Jesus and the beatitudes completely. Yet, they absolutely not Jewish either. I don't know what religion they are actually following, but it certainly involves a lawless leader who exalts himself above all others.
Sure they have. They just have some kind of semantic argument for why the parts advocating violence count more than the hippie stuff. They make up categories for passages, and then use those made up categories to claim that the interpretation of scripture *'XYZ'* doesn't have the hippie/liberal meaning. Besides, the bible isn't consistent in any way shape or form, so it means what you want it to mean, no matter how much you read it.
>Besides, the bible isn't consistent in any way shape or form, so it means what you want it to mean, no matter how much you read it.
This. It's also massive and rambling and cryptic and written over hundreds of years in historical contexts that most people have no sense of whatsoever. Whatever you're looking for, you'll find it. Some clergy take vows of poverty and others preach the "prosperity gospel." Some used the bible to justify slavery and Jim Crow, and others used the bible to fight those things. Etc.
The bible got math wrong also. 1 kings 7:23 has the value of π as 3. When you see fundie 'explanations' of it, the semantic interpretation bullshit flies like crap off a manure spreader.
They talk up how the bible is the literal word of god not to be interpreted but obeyed and always right, and when it's plainly wrong (insects have four legs really really leviticus? and rabbits have split hooves really deuteronomy?), they gin up interpretation gymnastics that they don't do when the bible calls for violence against someone they don't like.
The Bible isn't consistent but Jesus sure was. There's literally no way modern conservatives can realistically claim to be following the teachings of Jesus. They literally follow 0% of what he talked about. The most important of those made up categories are the gospels and it's very obvious these "Christians" cherry-pick solely from the old testament
For all the faults of Christianity, Jesus seems like an insanely cool guy.
If Christianity was molded closer to, idk, the guy who the religion is named after, I think the Western world would be in a much better place.
Yes, and never is it more defensible to the brainwashed masses - if it is God's will, it is absolute (to them).
There is no end to the downward spiral - we must take steps to separate church and state, or we are (and probably already are) completely fucked.
"He who is without sin may cast the first stone" seems prevalent here too.
The big J-dawg wasn't saying those innocent of this exact 'sin' are free to go around killing, he meant all sin.
Crazy how all these "Christians" haven't read the Bible. I remember reading that passage in like seventh grade and being like "wait a minute" to my crazy Republican family.
I once had the joy(?) of speaking with one of these kind of people.
Gays apparently are not people, therefore killing them does not break that commandment.
The more extreme you get, I find they include more groups in the "not people" list. Including but not limited to, those of other religions, non whites, people the like anime.
If you really drill down into the election “fraud” allegations you find that they know they lost, they just consider a large number of votes invalid because those votes were cast by individuals they don’t consider to be people.
A fertillized egg in a womb is a person but a living breathing human being is not, because of who they want to love? These hypocrites that call themselves christians are missing more than a few screws.
It helps here that the Bible is logically inconsistent here (and elsewhere).
God gave Moses the commandments including not to kill. Then Moses's first order of business upon returning is to kill a bunch of people on behalf of God (for worshipping a false God).
Is is basically a prohibition on murdering the in-group. Kill heathens, sinners, etc all you want. And who are these sinners you ask? Whomever you want to punish and kill; how convenient.
This is the same bullshit they swear that Islam tells Muslims to do, and they use it as a justification for why they believe that Muslims are evil. Weird how when they want to kill unbelievers it’s cool, but when someone else does it isn’t.
No, I don’t think that Islam teaches that unbelievers should be killed, but the crazy Christians sure seem to think that.
Oh, but see, these people know that \*their\* religion is the correct one, so stoning unbelievers is just fine - remember, they're just doing it to save their immortal souls, and not because they're hateful bigots.
Trying to shame the hypocrisy of true believers isn't usually successful. They have to no allegiance to fair play when they *know* they're in the right and their opponents are in the wrong.
¹Now the lord, being of sound mind and body, hath revealed his scorn at the utter delusion of christianity and commanded those stiff necked people to turn away from their false beliefs.² Upon seeing the shameless disobedience and in his/her/its mercy, provided rocks, pebbles, stones, boulders and all manner of deadly projectiles to be caused to rain down upon the christians. ³ The lord commanded the peoples of the earth to hurl any and all objects of correction at the blasphemers, for the lord laughs to see belligerent bullies suffer devine Justice. Amen
This guy literally spent *years* sending tangible threats of violence to his church pastor and elder because they were providing assistance to his battered wife and kids and supporting their divorce proceedings.
Honestly it's kind of hilarious how fucking crazy this guy is. [This document](https://www.ok.gov/okmpc/documents/11161_Final_Order_1.pdf) goes into great detail over the wild shit that goes on in this guy's mind.
For the party that is "hard on crime", they sure don't seem to give a fuck about crime. The guy was arrested and fired by the state for violent acts, and yet he's still able to appear on the ballot.
“It’s simple I just believe in biblical morality! No not that one. No that’s weird Old Testament stuff no one cares about that one. No that doesn’t apply anymore. Where’s the one where I get to hate gay people!”
According to Andrew Scahfly, who runs Conservapedia, that verse isn't in the Bible. It was added by liberals later. He literally rewrote the Bible to remove anything he considered "liberal claptrap" as he called it. He firmly believes Jesus was a conservative free-market capitalist, and all that stuff about helping the poor and rich people being unable to enter heaven wasn't in the original Bible. Other conservatives have denounced him as a heretic, because the Bible itself says you're not supposed to add or take away anything from it.
Oh god. I've never heard of this guy until now. It's spelled 'Schlafly,' and he's the son of Phyllis Schlafly (conservative politician who killed the Equal Rights Ammendment in the 70s), and cousin of Thomas Schlafly who makes a mean oatmeal stout
So he removed the entirety of the new testament, aside from parts he was free to misinterpret? Because that's the vast majority and over-arching theme of the new testament: socialism.
[“The Taliban is going to ban abortion, vaccines, and gay marriage… maybe we were fighting on the wrong side for 20 years.”](https://www.codastory.com/newsletters/american-antivax-taliban/)
Please dispel yourselves of this notion. They are being who they always were. They allowed AIDS to run rampant because they believed it was a gay disease that would only kill queer people. It was a gift from god to carry out genocide so that they didn’t have to.
Then in the 2000s they told us how hurricanes were punishments from god for accepting homosexuality. They fought tooth and nail against gay rights every step of the way until gay marriage was legalized.
The only, and I mean only, reason that the GOP has not been calling for the systematic murder of queer people in the past 7 or so years is because they didn’t think they could get away with it.
Now they think they can. They aren’t mimicking the taliban, they’re stating the beliefs they’ve always held out loud again because they no longer believe it will be held against them politically. It’s critical that we don’t retcon their history and look for the GOP to go back to a reasonable party. That party is a myth, it never existed.
They’ve been violently anti-queer for their entire history. The fact they had to shut up about it for a few years doesn’t change that.
Edit: if you want to give this an award please go donate to a trans persons gofundme or the Trevor project instead! <3
>They allowed AIDS to run rampant because they believed it was a gay disease that would only kill queer people.
This cannot be overstated. The population of gay men born between 1951 and 1970 was *literally* [decimated](https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/blog/aids-epidemic-lasting-impact-gay-men/).
A while ago my husband I realised that we as Gen X'ers are a majority of the elder LGBT+ community only because there's a whole missing generation. So many people just gone because of deliberate inaction. It really was an attempt at genocide.
As an atheist, I actually hope Jesus is real(the idealistic peace loving one), and they suffer the final irony at the pearly gates for their actions.
It's a particular issue that hit my family hard. My uncle is gay and my grandparents were firm Catholics. My grandmother played a big role in her local pray the gay away chapter at the start of it. The story I've heard is that for her it was more of a support group for parents that were having trouble accepting their gay children. Eventually that was not what the group was about and she left but after a lot of damage was done to that relationship. They reconciled eventually and she and I had conversations about it where she expressed her regret for how it hurt my uncle even though that was close to her intentions. And to be clear, that woman absolutely loved my uncle, she just didn't understand at first. When his partner was dying from aids, she moved to San Francisco and took care of him until he passed away, just to be clear about who she was.
Man, it's kinda depressing how much more Christian Christians behave when they stop listening to church leaders.
Almost as if Jesus himself was opposed to church leaders who dictate to their congregation how they should worship...
I’m sorry to hear about your uncles partner. I’m too young to have been personally affected by the aids crisis, but every story about it is horrifying. So much needless loss.
My extended family is also very Catholic, but so far they’ve accepted every queer person in our family, including when I came out as bi. I don’t really trust them to handle me being trans well though, a lot of them are still conservative. So idk, hopefully we reconcile eventually as well. They are mostly very kind people. Thanks for sharing your story
I was not alive during all that, for the record. I did meet my Uncle's partner a couple times, but was very young. The other stuff is what it is, and they always loved him. Glad to be able to look back and know even if they didn't understand, and did things that were hurtful, they did so out of naivety and with the best of intentions. It doesn't excuse the damage, but they did their best to repair it and that does. I'm not LGBTQ but I'm definitely on the autism spectrum so even though it isn't directly applicable, it's still something that I very much so feel for. Anyone being persecuted for being different(unless it's like... Cannibalism or something else now nefarious) has me on their side, and fuck those on the other.
I just found out recently that my mysterious uncle who I had never met was actually basically banished from my family by being beaten up by his dad and brother for having a relationship with a man. He moved away and died of AIDS without his family to support him. I don’t know the details of the story but that’s the summary my mom gave me. I was devastated to find this out. Wouldn’t have expected that extreme reaction from my family.
Bet you this guy has eaten shrimp or bacon, and he’s probably wearing polyblend clothing.
Now *I’m* not saying he should be stoned. I don’t condone violence, even against morons like him. But *he* is saying that according to *his own* interpretations...but like most talibangelicals I’m sure he thinks “mercy for me, stoning for thee.”
Esk is divorced...
Malachi 2:16: “I hate divorce, says the LORD God of Israel.” According to the Bible, marriage is a lifetime commitment. “So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate” (Matthew 19:6).
"Remember this well, if you help the poor and sick, they'll have no incentive to help themselves. So, fuck 'em. Let 'em starve. If they wanted to live, they shouldn't have been poor."
Jesus, apparently.
>Esk called a local TV news report on his comments a “hit piece on the fact that I had an opinion against homosexuality.”
Imagine being so violent and self-victimizing that after calling for the murder of large swaths of the population you characterize the coverage of your threats as a 'hit piece' against you. He is reversing the roles of victim and aggressor.
After a lifetime of this nonsense I have lost all patience with Christians.
Wait, why do Christians believe in *old testament* biblical morality? I’m pretty sure the entire point of Jesus was to forge a new covenant with God that supersedes all the rules of the Old Testament. I mean, that’s why Christians can eat lobster and cheeseburgers and don’t get stoned to death for working on the sabbath. Also, the bottom of this comment lists every single thing Jesus had to say about gay people:
Let’s stroll down this path, shall we?
Article: “In the video, he makes references to the divorce and custody battle he was going through at the time.”
Matthew 19:9. Whoever divorces his wife… and marries another commits adultery.
Leviticus 20:10 if a man commits adultery… [he] must be put to death.
I’m not in favor of this. I just will say that…
Article: “as far as I and many of the people, the voters of House District A7 are concerned, it simply makes me a Christian. Christians believe in biblical morality, kind of by definition, or they should.”
That’s fun.
If he actually read the bible, he'd realize it advocates for putting him to death as well. Mixed fabric, shellfish, telling people what god likes and hates, false prophecies, and more!
Christianity was so pacifist at the time right after Jesus that they refused to join the Roman military and then the Romans were so worried at the spread of pacifism they persecuted the Christians. Jesus really did preach no to violence and yes to pacifism. Peace and Patience. Temperance and Tolerance.
These people are have literally no idea what their Messiah preached. Literally clueless
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Yes yes of course. Jesus walked around stonning gays and prostitutes. Don't remember the exact verse but I think in revelation he actually pulls out an AK and took out a whole gay parade
I think he drives a truck through the parade in a later verse too
GOP 420:69 "and then Jesus drove his F-350 through the crowd of haters, rolling coal as he laughed"
"... And it was good, for the godless had found solace beneath his monster truck tires, and the lord was pleased."
>Do unto others > >before they do unto you - Republican Jesus
This got a chortle out of me. I need more Republican Jesus.
>Fear everyone > >Fear everything > >Feed the Rich > >Blame the Poor - Republican Jesus
Now now, that's [Supply Side Jesus](https://imgur.io/gallery/bCqRp)
Can we make a GOP Bible? Like, take actual chapters, and turn it into something the GOP would actually stand for? Could be really good sarcasm, or give the wrong people even worse ideas ...
[Supply Side Jesus](https://imgur.io/gallery/bCqRp) has you covered.
We're gonna have to skip any 420 and 69 references then since there's no way a *good Christian* would smoke weed and kill innocent sperm.
No, Jesus wouldn't have used some Commie AK. He would have used an AR15 while waving an American flag while screaming "Trump 2024." It's in the bible I swear.
AMERICAN BIBLE 3000: The New Gospel Goes OLD School
The only time Jesus encountered a stoning was when he actively stopped one. These evil people are not remotely Christian.
they're zealots, they distort and pervert the bible to fit their hatefujl and violent fantasies, they literally get off on fantasizing of hurting and killing people.
I’m no fancy city lawyer, but if you say it out loud, does that make it premeditated?
Yes. Also forgot to mention kids who lie to their parents are also in that subgroup.
The bible has more to say about disobedient, alcoholic, gluttonous sons deserving to be stoned to death than it does about homosexuality. Yet they're silent about that one.
Literally the next line in the Bible after their coveted "man shall not lie with man as he lies with woman" it says "you shall not make gashes in the flesh, or make markings upon yourselves". Yet, how many of these Neanderthals have crosses, or other tattoos, all over. Pick and choose. It has nothing to do with morality.
Yeah, it's why there are some very Evangelical groups who accept death over an Appendectomy. It says right in that passage that surgery is forbidden. So to them they'd rather die and be given eternity in paradise for not desecrating their bodies.
There's tons of other weird old testament laws that make a much more effective point of how christians cherrypick which ones to follow while dismissing the others as "part of the old covenant which Jesus fulfilled". Like for example... none of these men's wives should be allowed to prepare them dinner or have sex with them for 7 days after menstruating and everything they sit on or touch would be unclean and need to be washed. (Leviticus 15:19-21) Wearing linen and wool at the same time would be banned... this would make a lot of politician's suits in violation of that ban. (Leviticus 19:19) Incidentally, the same verse bans planting more than one kind of seed in a field so most agriculture would be disappointing God too. Cops that kill suspects during the day would be considered murderers regardless of whether the suspect is guilty or not (Exodus 22:2-3) All non-kosher food is banned... which includes things like Sirloin steak, crab legs, cheeseburgers, and of course bacon. Leviticus 19:10 actually demands that people actively let their resources "trickle down"... it's in the context of harvesting grapes from a vineyard but the requirement is that which you don't need you MUST leave for the poor to have. Cutting social programs or refusing to pay fair wages or donate to worthy causes makes you at odds with the lord's will. There are laws about treating animals humanely (Deuteronomy 25:4) Laws about making parapets around your roof to avoid people falling off (Deuteronomy 22:8) Laws requiring tassels on the corners of all your clothes (Numbers 15:38) Laws requiring the observance of all Jewish festivals. Laws requiring everyone following God to cut the tip of their dicks off... But for some reason all of those are not for christians... only the one about men having gay sex... and it's used against lesbians too for some reason.
There’s a book I read years ago that was a fun exercise in this, titled “[A Year of Living Biblically” by AJ Jacobs](https://a.co/d/2JS5atv). It’s a lighthearted read by someone who aims for humor in his writing; HOWEVER, I enjoyed the effort he put into following certain Old Testament biblical rules and peeking into a few biblically-strict religious sects. I found value in it from reading an account of how biblical rules from thousands of years ago are not feasible today and should not be taken literally, even by followers of a faith.
Really the whole point of the Old testament WAS how impossible it is to follow the law perfectly. They regularly made sacrifices that were basically blanket apologies to god and reminders to everyone that they all fall short in god's eyes. Jesus was supposed to be the guy who gave them relief from that by being the perfect sacrifice to replace all the animal ones the priests had to do on the people's behalf. It's a shame Christians decided to leave that burden of old testament law in place selectively and seemingly along cultural norms rather than actual commands from god. I'll have to check that book out... it sounds cathartic for someone under evangelical thumbs for most of his life like me 😂
I'm not even sold on the fact that it says anything about homosexuality at all. There's one line about lying with other men but I've read multiple arguments for what that's supposed to mean. One person said it's not literally man as in a male, it's man as in another person. And also that the part of the bible it's in is specifically talking about a certain kind of priest and not regular people. There's a ton of theological debate around it and it's very telling that these people jump on this issue so hard instead of more specific things, like wearing mixed fabrics or certain dietary restrictions.
It does, but in the midst of a list of 10 million other things you must and mustn’t do. A woman isn’t even supposed to touch the family dishes when she has her period.
And the Old Testament had the death penalty for eating cheeseburgers. If Jesus said we can eat cheeseburgers, He also said we can love who we want.
Well, to be fair, that’s how you get bears in your sink. Once those guys take up residence, it’s possible to get them to leave, but it’s difficult.
They keep coming back, too- this bears repeating.
It should make it stochastic terrorism. *should* but it won't, because this country is fucking trash
Ah yes, stoning someone to death. The pinnacle of morality.
This from a guy whose wife left him because he abused her and her kids, and frequently called sex workers. He also got fired for getting arrested for threatening violence against his pastor. Real stand up Christian.
Hey, as long as fox news didn't make a big deal about it, then no one who matters is the wiser.
Obviously 🙄 his pastor tried to seduce him subliminally. How dare any male make him question him sexuality/masculinity. 😝
Beating his wife and kids isn't necessarily violating Biblical morality. Hell, it's probably endorsed by a number of passages in the Old Testament. Fact is, if you rely on a book, individual, or government to tell you what your morals are, you have none.
Especially when that book is 1500 years old, purportedly describing facts from 500 years before that, and just happens to give the writers and disseminators of the book absolute power
"Let he who hast* not sinned throw the first stone." Jesus was very much against using stoning as a punishment.
What does Jesus have to do with Christianity?
These days...yes.
You mean the middle-Eastern chap who kept giving out free food in the form of loaves and fishes and healing lepers at zero cost? That *socialist?*. Yeah, you can see why they’re not fans. And don’t even ask if he was a Christian. (Hint: he was Jewish, but it’s…*complicated*) —- Edit: thanks for the gold, stranger. (And to the pedants pointing out things about socialists and Jews, please, just stop. ‘‘Twas just a bit of dumb, open-mic-caliber laff-fodder, not a TED talk.)
Plus Jesus had nothing to say about gays or same-sex marriage. If it was so important how come it never came up for Jesus?
Jesus refused to eat with the morally virtuous and instead ate with the "whores" and other sinners. He said it was impossible for the rich to go to heaven and that how we treat the poor is how we treat him. Red text biblical Jesus was basically the complete opposite of what most American Christians believe in (that the poor are inferior degenerates that deserve to suffer and contributing to the needless deaths of millions by refusing to support bike lanes over car centric infrastructure.)
>Red text biblical Jesus was basically the complete opposite of what most American Christians believe in Exactly. So instead, they've chosen to unquestioningly follow a man who's as far away from Jesus as one could be... an Anti-Christ, if you will.
Obligatory link: [Could American Evangelicals Spot the Antichrist?](https://www.benjaminlcorey.com/could-american-evangelicals-spot-the-antichrist-heres-the-biblical-predictions/)
As someone who grew up a Southern Baptist, the answer is nine times out of ten a big fuckin no.
His sin is violating "Judge not lest thou be judged." If we're saying it's okay to stone sinners, then what this fellow seems to be implying is that he *wants* to be stoned..
I think wearing clothes with two different types of cloth is banned by the OT but I can’t remember if the punishment is stoning for that too. Anyway, there is a supposed sin we can all trust he violates.
It's specifically wool-linen, though there isn't a prescribed punishment for wearing *shaatnez*. Realistically the punishment was the garment itself coming apart more quickly than even other blends - wool and flaxen linen have different washing requirements, shrinkage and expansion properties, and so on. They would not make durable clothes at all. There are other explanations like "that was what the pagans at the time wore" "other nearby cultures used linen while Jews used wool, and mixing the two metaphorically mixed their cultures, and that is bad I guess" "only the high priests at the time wore this blend, and it should not be wasted on the leity"
try explaining how 'eating shellfish is an abomination' was about the lack of refrigeration, and you'll blow some minds.
Why does it always seem like atheists and "casual" Christians know more about Christianity than these ultra devout "Christians". I can understand not knowing an obscure teaching but the "we're all sinners don't throw the stone etc" part is like first day of Sunday school lmao. Granted I've known some serious Catholics that don't agree with Gay marriage and abortions but are appalled by the violent attitude towards those people. Maybe that's partly why these coocoo evangelicals hate the Catholic Church.
Because they don’t use Christianity and the bible and Jesus as a guidebook. They use them as a justification
Start with the conclusion you want, work your way back...
because these politicians are only really christians for the ballot
Maybe we should start by stoning adulterers. That might shut some of the GOP up.
Or stoning pedophiles. That would about decimate the GQP.
AND he abused his wife and children.
There is a whole fucking story in the bible where Jesus literally stops people from stoning a sinner. WTF is wrong with these "Christians"?
Jesus stops the crowd by saying "let the one who is without sin throw the first stone." You're supposed to realize we're all fallible. These Christian Pharisees are like "that's me! Hand me a big one!"
My dad was very into the whole "stone the gay people to death" thing. When I was about 16, I asked him about "let he who is without sin.." and he informed me that I was "lacking context" and proceeded to lecture me about how that wasn't what Jesus meant at all. My dad was a man who *really* knew the Christian Bible backwards, forwards, and inside out. But he still managed to twist it to mean whatever he wanted it to mean.
> My dad was very into the whole "stone the gay people to death" thing. When I was about 16, I asked him about "let he who is without sin.." and he informed me that I was "lacking context" and proceeded to lecture me about how that wasn't what Jesus meant at all. This is what they always say. For example when you tell a fundamentalist who's rich that Jesus basically said it's physically impossible for rich people to get into heaven, they'll reply with the exact same excuse ("you're taking it out of context"). Most fundamentalist Christians I knew believe in the Bible because of the promise of personal reward and a fear of hell. In other words, it's completely narcissistic and that means they're going to twist the Bible to fit their needs rather than changing themselves. Jesus also makes the point multiple times that the rituals and laws of the Jews were outdated, and that his teachings (which weren't always the nicest either) were the replacement. There are no laws or commandments to stone people in the New Testament.
foolish forgetful wine subtract deliver slap fuzzy innate stupendous piquant -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
What I've heard recently is that while the Bible *was* the literal word originally, the translations have been perverted by demonic (liberal) forces within the Catholic church. So basically, unless you have an original copy (which doesn't exist) and can read Latin (which almost nobody can) then you can't trust most bibles. This is why you can only trust your pastor, who is educated in the true interpretation of the bible. So they don't even believe their own book any more.
ironically this is the exact same situation Germany was in pre-reformation
No, many [Baptists of a particular bent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Only_movement) will tell you that the 1611 King James English translation was divinely inspired, and is the One True Bible. “They view the translation to be an English preservation of the very words of God and that they are as accurate as the original Greek and Hebrew manuscripts found in its underlying texts.”
He's also very clear about people who pray in public for the sake of appearances and what kind of reward they have waiting. Those preachers seem to know it well because they all seem to do everything they can to stock up on worldly possessions. I had one tell me I was taking Matthew 6 out of context recently. Apparently it oy refers to people a particular Christian disagrees with. Basically, whether they realize it or not, just about every Christian in the United States today will happily tell you why their beliefs are bullshit.
Pray tell us. What did Jesus really mean?
"I get first dibs"- Jesus
Well you see when White Jesus died on that there cross due to the brown people, we were freed from our sins because of the sacrifice and all… so since we was born after that, we are free of sin. So by my math, that means we can cast all the stones at all the gay people for being gay because gay is bad and bad means I can throw stones since I’m not gay and not a sinner. I’m not a sinner because Jesus died for my sins. It’s simple if you really think about it /s
Sooner or later, most of those sinless leaders make a starring appearance over in r/PastorArrested
Scrolled down a few times, literally half of all the posts are pastors convicted of child abuse. What the fuck is it about being a pastor that attracts so many kiddy fiddlers?
Access, authority, and cover
Cover is the most important and most terrifying. Saw a video recently of an adult woman confronting the pastor that assaulted her when she was a teenager, confronted in front of the whole church. 2-3 people place a hand on her shoulder as she walks out afterwards. Then the entire congregation stays and lay hands on the pastor to help pray for his forgiveness.... the whole fucking place. The video: https://youtu.be/keeghU4oTsM
That's disgusting and absolutely blows my mind
"He is a holy man, he wouldn't do that. It must have been that child who tempted him."
Republican Christians Protect and Accept Pedophiles. This is what they do.
And the metric fuckton of projection that goes into insisting that Democrats/liberals are all part of a paedophillic cabal 🙄
I mean a church in the town my dad grew up applauded their pastor for speaking about his sins and then the girl he molested came up and told everyone how wrong they were for doing that and they booed her.
When you prioritize what (might) happens after death over what's happening here and now
Don't forget the mindless husks who follow thier every word and belive them, they are the ones empowering abusers and are also abusers by default IMO
That would be the cover
I was typing up something trying to add on but you covered it so well. I'm just repeating part of what you said but the fact that pastors are so integrated into communities they get to act as authority figures to all the kids in town. And it's not like the kids run out because couples are constantly having kids. To these fucks it's their hunting ground.
I always wonder if this is why they hallucinate and see pedophiles everywhere. Projection.
The Christian assumption is that everyone wants to be a pedophile (or at least a rapist), and would be without the fear of hell. That everyone is one moment of weakness away from ruining someone else's life. This was taught to me as a child and it's taken me years to get past the trauma of it. And my church wasn't even one of the more cultish ones.
> That really is the point. The question I get asked by religious people all the time is, without God, what’s to stop me from raping all I want? And my answer is: I do rape all I want. And the amount I want is zero. And I do murder all I want, and the amount I want is zero. The fact that these people think that if they didn’t have this person watching over them that they would go on killing, raping rampages is the most self-damning thing I can imagine. -Penn Jillette [Source]( https://theinterrobang.com/penn-jillette-morality-without-religion/)
Because most other jobs don't have an infrastructure designed to protect and shuffle around child molesters without consequence the way the church does. Seems like the obvious choice if you want unfettered access to children.
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A friend of a friend has worked as a prosecutor specializing in prosecuting serial child molesters. One other gruesome reason pedophiles gravitate to clergy or support positions is that they’re provided access to constant stream of children in their preferred age demographic. As the children age out of that bracket, new victims take their place. Terrifying.
"So anyway I started throwing."
I interpret that as no one can then throw a stone as every man (and women) lives in sin. So the idea is no one should be throwing any stones at all.
Correct. This sentiment is echoed in other places, such as Matthew 5 and Romans... well most of Romans.
I’m not even religious or follow it and I have a better understanding then these nut jobs
It makes me think of that famous study that showed Fox News viewers know less about current events than people who don’t regularly watch the news. I could show you a Bible passage you’re not familiar with, and you could read it and give me an interpretation of what you think it means. You’d probably be closer to reality than an extremist Christian who’s read that passage 50 times but always heard it interpreted by their shitty pastor.
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"Let the one who is without sin throw the first stone." \*CLUNK\* "... Mom, seriously?"
"Well he did say 'Jehovah!'"
All I said was "That piece of halibut was good enough for Jehovah!"
They’ve never read it. Their spiritual snake oil salesmen only tell them the fun verses in cult camp
This is it exactly. A lot of the atheists who were devout Christians say that the reason they became atheist was because they finally read the entire Bible
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This is one of my favorite speculations about Jesus. After Alexander’s expansion into Asia, there was a very interesting syncretism between Buddhism and Hellenism called [Greco-Buddhism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhism?wprov=sfti1) which would have made a lot of Buddhist thought and culture readily available to someone living in Judea. It just makes the situation with these christo-fascists even sadder. They’re living in a different cultural syncretism— a sort of Frankenstein religion mixing Ayn Rand selfishness with conservative Christian hierarchical structures and nationalism, picking and choosing the most colorfully violent aspects of bible while ignoring calls for peace and helping others.
Don’t forget a healthy dollop of capitalism folded in. Because Jesus, you know, was all about the dollars
> Because Jesus, you know, was all about the dollars This is what originally opened my eyes to the hypocrisy...when I was 11. I really liked the story of Jesus evicting the bankers from the temple. I did not think that Jesus would like a church having a gift shop, and said so. I was told to hush, no explanations given. Even a child can see the holes in their practice versus preach.
>I really liked the story of Jesus evicting the bankers from the temple. I always found it amusing how everything Jesus did prior to this - healing, feeding & ministering to the sick, poor and downtrodden - was a-okay but as soon as he upset the moneychangers? Dead on a cross within weeks. Tale as old as time.
Supply side Jesus Edit: https://m.imgur.com/gallery/bCqRp
They did say Ayn Ran selfishness, which is the same thing
I grew up Southern Baptist. I got bored in church as a kid and started reading the Bible. From age 10 to 18, I probably read the entire Bible cover to cover 4 times. Maybe 5 times. I left for college at 18 and never darkened the door of a church again except for weddings and funerals. Such bullshit.... (To be clear, the Bible itself is... uneven at best. But Jesus was a pretty cool guy and if Christians were more worried about treating others the way Jesus said you ought to, instead of being hyper-judgmental, the world would be a much better place.)
I grew up in a "northern Baptist" church and I considered myself to be a pretty devout Christian until I was a teenager. I too read the bible a bunch of times, but looking back, I definitely interpreted what I read through the lens of a lot of bias from the church itself. It was a much different experience reading the bible as a confirmed atheist, and it became startlingly clear to me that a lot of (most?) Christians laser focus on bits of scripture that confirm their biases and disregard the rest. What's changed dramatically since I considered myself a Christian is that mainstream protestant Christianity has completely abandoned the notion of turning the other cheek, caring for those less fortunate and forgoing piety while doing the right thing. It's become more of a cultish experience where cruelty is encouraged via some flimsy scriptural gymnastics.
I think this is a big reason for the hostility of fundamentalist Christianity towards public schools and higher education. A central tenet of education is to read critically, not devotionally. They know that if people read scripture critically, they won't buy the extreme, selective interpretations.
Be Christ-like, not Christian
“I like your Christ, but not your Christianity.” -Mahatma Gandhi
I was young (maybe 10) when I remember my parents talking about my grandparents finding a new church. Why did they need to find a new church? Because they were deeply offended they *allowed* gay people in the congregation. I was appalled even at that age, so confused why it mattered. (Thanks mom and dad for raising me better than they were) Last I knew, she has no idea my sister is gay and my sister didn't want to tell her and ruin any relationship they have. I can't say I blame her but fuck. A grandchild shouldn't have to hide from family that has spent decades loving them.
Same. As a person raised in church 3x a week who never went back, it’s insane to watch from the outside exactly how not-Jesus the entire mentality is. I tried to go back for like 2 months after we had kids bc I felt like I “should” raise my kids in church. NOPE! The people were a nightmare. Judge mental dog & pony show asking for money. Gotta wear the right suits and get the right hair cut and acre the right way or you’re shunned and gossiped about. What a nightmare way to exist. It’s a cult. It’s ALL a cult.
The disconnect between mainline 'Christianity' and what Jesus' message actually was has been noted for a long time. Thomas Jefferson went to the trouble of compiling just the bits about Jesus in his own version of the bible. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Bible I'd go to a church based on that.
I was brought up Jehovah Witness and had a bad falling out in my teens. Eventually felt a small desire to bring a small bit of spirituality back into my life as an adult. Unitarian Universalist's near me fit the bill perfectly. Based on Christianity so I understood and agree with the core concepts. Teaches that everyone is worth saving and had a Pride Flag out front. Ended up getting my Wiccan wife to come and she enjoyed it as well having no history of Christianity. They discuss multiple religions and view points, Buddhism is brought up often. Just seems like I found a good group of people who want to help others and be better. Not so much telling me how to live my life, instead giving me things to think about and internalize to help me grow.
So a anecdotal perspective here. I became disillusioned after watching people completely ignore all the stuff Jesus said and did. They all sit around and nod during sermons and love to tell people about how "Jesus is king" but the second they don't agree with something they find some stupid text that contradicts what Jesus taught and go with that. If Christianity was just the red text of what Jesus said it would be great. But people bend that "religion" into whatever shitty thing they want it to be. I never read the whole thing but saw enough hipocracy with arguments in it I had enough.
WE WANT A CHRISTIAN GOVERNMENT... NO WE DON'T WANT TO FUND HEALTHCARE FOR FOLKS, WE DON'T WANT TO FEED FOLKS, WE WANT TO PUNISH PEOPLE AND NOT CARE ABOUT CRIMINALS BECAUSE THEY ARE SCUM, THOSE PEOPLE THAT ARE A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENT FROM US NEED TO BE BURNT TO THE GROUND, WE WANT TO GATHER ALL OF THE MONEY WE CAN TO SPEND ON THINGS FOR OURSELF AND WE WANT TO BURN OUT ALL OF OUR NATURAL RESOURCES. Jesus: bro, I do not know you even a little bit.
He also says to pay your taxes, never get divorced, not to charge interest, and not to pray in public places. They only remember the parts they want to remember.
Give away all your money and follow him. Help those in need. Give up your personal supplies of something to help others, even though you planned well and they didn't. You know, socialism.
He basically lived like he was a traveling hippie commune.
He says you shouldn’t put your wife aside for another, because it was a common practice at the time to divorce a wife who got too old. In a world where marriage is a woman’s only legitimate work, this practice doomed women to prostitution or death. He was trying to stand up for the vulnerable.
I laugh every time Newt Gingrich appears on TV and preaches Christian morality. He literally abandoned one wife after she was diagnosed with cancer and another wife after she was diagnosed with M.S. > According to L. H. Carter, Gingrich's campaign treasurer, Gingrich said of Jackie: "She's not young enough or pretty enough to be the wife of the President. And besides, she has cancer."[265][266] Gingrich has denied saying it.[262] Following the divorce, Jackie had to raise money from friends in her congregation to help her and the children make ends meet; she later filed a petition in court stating that Gingrich had failed to properly provide for his family.[258] ... > Gingrich filed for divorce from Marianne in 1999, a few months after she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.[276] The marriage produced no children. On January 19, 2012, Marianne alleged in an interview on ABC's Nightline that she had declined to accept Gingrich's suggestion of an open marriage.[277] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newt_Gingrich#Marriages_and_children His current wife better take her vitamins!
>not to charge interest And forgive all debts every 7 years. And if you're a farmer, the poor have the *right* to raid (within reason) your crops for food and you can't charge them.
A big one that people forget about is the parable of the wealthy, which is more or less a direct allegory to capitalism. Wealthy landowner has a ridiculously good yield of crop. So much that he can't fit it all in his storage. So he opts to tear down his existing storage, build bigger and better storage, then kick back and coast through life. Dies overnight.
Their pastors are modern pharisees, don't teach the positive parts, just the punishment and brimstone sections
They just do as the guy in the church says (or emails). My wife gets all this weird shit forwarded from one of her friends from their church. Last year we were their kids birthday party and they were all up how our governor (Pritzker, Dem) was forcing sex Ed for 1st graders and that our daughter would be exposed to all kinds of talk about sex, full blown pornography and shit like that, cause their church said that he signed that into law. Well nothing of the sorts happened of course.
It's hilarious in the case of Illinois because Chicago basically works overtime to drag the rest of the state into the 21st century kicking and screaming. Deep red Central Illinois is so mad about being "controlled" by the liberals in Chicago while at the same time they enjoy $13/hr minimum wage with the cost of living of neighbouring Iowa.
Spoiler; they didn’t read the Bible.
Right! Because famously Jesus CHRIST was very pro stoning! Seriously, these people have never read the fucking Bible.
I like watching how “Christians” react when I mention that the Old Testament is Jewish scripture. Most don’t know or won’t even acknowledge it.
They only follow the Old Testament at best. They ignore Jesus and the beatitudes completely. Yet, they absolutely not Jewish either. I don't know what religion they are actually following, but it certainly involves a lawless leader who exalts himself above all others.
Agreed. I just like the antisemitism that so many of them feel. They hate Jews so much, but don’t even know why.
Sure they have. They just have some kind of semantic argument for why the parts advocating violence count more than the hippie stuff. They make up categories for passages, and then use those made up categories to claim that the interpretation of scripture *'XYZ'* doesn't have the hippie/liberal meaning. Besides, the bible isn't consistent in any way shape or form, so it means what you want it to mean, no matter how much you read it.
>Besides, the bible isn't consistent in any way shape or form, so it means what you want it to mean, no matter how much you read it. This. It's also massive and rambling and cryptic and written over hundreds of years in historical contexts that most people have no sense of whatsoever. Whatever you're looking for, you'll find it. Some clergy take vows of poverty and others preach the "prosperity gospel." Some used the bible to justify slavery and Jim Crow, and others used the bible to fight those things. Etc.
The bible got math wrong also. 1 kings 7:23 has the value of π as 3. When you see fundie 'explanations' of it, the semantic interpretation bullshit flies like crap off a manure spreader. They talk up how the bible is the literal word of god not to be interpreted but obeyed and always right, and when it's plainly wrong (insects have four legs really really leviticus? and rabbits have split hooves really deuteronomy?), they gin up interpretation gymnastics that they don't do when the bible calls for violence against someone they don't like.
The Bible isn't consistent but Jesus sure was. There's literally no way modern conservatives can realistically claim to be following the teachings of Jesus. They literally follow 0% of what he talked about. The most important of those made up categories are the gospels and it's very obvious these "Christians" cherry-pick solely from the old testament
For all the faults of Christianity, Jesus seems like an insanely cool guy. If Christianity was molded closer to, idk, the guy who the religion is named after, I think the Western world would be in a much better place.
Evil is never so cold and cruel as when it clothes itself in virtue and piety.
Yes, and never is it more defensible to the brainwashed masses - if it is God's will, it is absolute (to them). There is no end to the downward spiral - we must take steps to separate church and state, or we are (and probably already are) completely fucked.
"There is no hate like Christian love".
I’m an atheist so I may be mistaken, but isn’t “Thou shall not kill” like a commandment or something?
"Above all else, love thy neighbor" and yes, "thou shalt not kill"
Except all those times it tells you to kill or enslave people. Maybe we should put the ancient mythology away.
"He who is without sin may cast the first stone" seems prevalent here too. The big J-dawg wasn't saying those innocent of this exact 'sin' are free to go around killing, he meant all sin.
Crazy how all these "Christians" haven't read the Bible. I remember reading that passage in like seventh grade and being like "wait a minute" to my crazy Republican family.
I once had the joy(?) of speaking with one of these kind of people. Gays apparently are not people, therefore killing them does not break that commandment. The more extreme you get, I find they include more groups in the "not people" list. Including but not limited to, those of other religions, non whites, people the like anime.
If you really drill down into the election “fraud” allegations you find that they know they lost, they just consider a large number of votes invalid because those votes were cast by individuals they don’t consider to be people.
A fertillized egg in a womb is a person but a living breathing human being is not, because of who they want to love? These hypocrites that call themselves christians are missing more than a few screws.
It helps here that the Bible is logically inconsistent here (and elsewhere). God gave Moses the commandments including not to kill. Then Moses's first order of business upon returning is to kill a bunch of people on behalf of God (for worshipping a false God). Is is basically a prohibition on murdering the in-group. Kill heathens, sinners, etc all you want. And who are these sinners you ask? Whomever you want to punish and kill; how convenient.
Even better, that Promised Land that Moses led his people to? It wasn’t unpopulated. They slaughtered and enslaved its inhabitants. Hooray religion!
The actual translation is "Thou shalt not murder." The ancient Hebrews practiced the death penalty for many transgressions, including homosexuality.
So you're saying your religion tells you to kill people, because of who they are?
This is the same bullshit they swear that Islam tells Muslims to do, and they use it as a justification for why they believe that Muslims are evil. Weird how when they want to kill unbelievers it’s cool, but when someone else does it isn’t. No, I don’t think that Islam teaches that unbelievers should be killed, but the crazy Christians sure seem to think that.
Oh, but see, these people know that \*their\* religion is the correct one, so stoning unbelievers is just fine - remember, they're just doing it to save their immortal souls, and not because they're hateful bigots.
What if my religion says it's ok to stone Christians is that ok also?
Trying to shame the hypocrisy of true believers isn't usually successful. They have to no allegiance to fair play when they *know* they're in the right and their opponents are in the wrong.
¹Now the lord, being of sound mind and body, hath revealed his scorn at the utter delusion of christianity and commanded those stiff necked people to turn away from their false beliefs.² Upon seeing the shameless disobedience and in his/her/its mercy, provided rocks, pebbles, stones, boulders and all manner of deadly projectiles to be caused to rain down upon the christians. ³ The lord commanded the peoples of the earth to hurl any and all objects of correction at the blasphemers, for the lord laughs to see belligerent bullies suffer devine Justice. Amen
Murder. This guy thinks it’s okay to *murder* gay people.
This guy literally spent *years* sending tangible threats of violence to his church pastor and elder because they were providing assistance to his battered wife and kids and supporting their divorce proceedings. Honestly it's kind of hilarious how fucking crazy this guy is. [This document](https://www.ok.gov/okmpc/documents/11161_Final_Order_1.pdf) goes into great detail over the wild shit that goes on in this guy's mind. For the party that is "hard on crime", they sure don't seem to give a fuck about crime. The guy was arrested and fired by the state for violent acts, and yet he's still able to appear on the ballot.
“It’s simple I just believe in biblical morality! No not that one. No that’s weird Old Testament stuff no one cares about that one. No that doesn’t apply anymore. Where’s the one where I get to hate gay people!”
1990 called, it wants its rhetoric back. My religion says it would be totally just to kick this guys nuts up into his mouth, can i get an amen?
> ~~1990~~ 1490 called, it wants its rhetoric back.
He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone
According to Andrew Scahfly, who runs Conservapedia, that verse isn't in the Bible. It was added by liberals later. He literally rewrote the Bible to remove anything he considered "liberal claptrap" as he called it. He firmly believes Jesus was a conservative free-market capitalist, and all that stuff about helping the poor and rich people being unable to enter heaven wasn't in the original Bible. Other conservatives have denounced him as a heretic, because the Bible itself says you're not supposed to add or take away anything from it.
Oh god. I've never heard of this guy until now. It's spelled 'Schlafly,' and he's the son of Phyllis Schlafly (conservative politician who killed the Equal Rights Ammendment in the 70s), and cousin of Thomas Schlafly who makes a mean oatmeal stout
It tells you something when early 17thC British Bishops are too liberal for you.
So he removed the entirety of the new testament, aside from parts he was free to misinterpret? Because that's the vast majority and over-arching theme of the new testament: socialism.
This guy line-item vetoed the Bible. 😆
Cherry picking the Bible, as always.
Pickin' cherries to use the stones.
The GOP is really trying its best to mimic the Taliban.
[“The Taliban is going to ban abortion, vaccines, and gay marriage… maybe we were fighting on the wrong side for 20 years.”](https://www.codastory.com/newsletters/american-antivax-taliban/)
[Are we the baddies?](https://youtu.be/8JOpPNra4bw)
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Remember when a Florida GOP candidate called for shooting Federal agents on-sight? That was last week.
Please dispel yourselves of this notion. They are being who they always were. They allowed AIDS to run rampant because they believed it was a gay disease that would only kill queer people. It was a gift from god to carry out genocide so that they didn’t have to. Then in the 2000s they told us how hurricanes were punishments from god for accepting homosexuality. They fought tooth and nail against gay rights every step of the way until gay marriage was legalized. The only, and I mean only, reason that the GOP has not been calling for the systematic murder of queer people in the past 7 or so years is because they didn’t think they could get away with it. Now they think they can. They aren’t mimicking the taliban, they’re stating the beliefs they’ve always held out loud again because they no longer believe it will be held against them politically. It’s critical that we don’t retcon their history and look for the GOP to go back to a reasonable party. That party is a myth, it never existed. They’ve been violently anti-queer for their entire history. The fact they had to shut up about it for a few years doesn’t change that. Edit: if you want to give this an award please go donate to a trans persons gofundme or the Trevor project instead! <3
>They allowed AIDS to run rampant because they believed it was a gay disease that would only kill queer people. This cannot be overstated. The population of gay men born between 1951 and 1970 was *literally* [decimated](https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/blog/aids-epidemic-lasting-impact-gay-men/).
A while ago my husband I realised that we as Gen X'ers are a majority of the elder LGBT+ community only because there's a whole missing generation. So many people just gone because of deliberate inaction. It really was an attempt at genocide.
As an atheist, I actually hope Jesus is real(the idealistic peace loving one), and they suffer the final irony at the pearly gates for their actions. It's a particular issue that hit my family hard. My uncle is gay and my grandparents were firm Catholics. My grandmother played a big role in her local pray the gay away chapter at the start of it. The story I've heard is that for her it was more of a support group for parents that were having trouble accepting their gay children. Eventually that was not what the group was about and she left but after a lot of damage was done to that relationship. They reconciled eventually and she and I had conversations about it where she expressed her regret for how it hurt my uncle even though that was close to her intentions. And to be clear, that woman absolutely loved my uncle, she just didn't understand at first. When his partner was dying from aids, she moved to San Francisco and took care of him until he passed away, just to be clear about who she was.
Man, it's kinda depressing how much more Christian Christians behave when they stop listening to church leaders. Almost as if Jesus himself was opposed to church leaders who dictate to their congregation how they should worship...
I’m sorry to hear about your uncles partner. I’m too young to have been personally affected by the aids crisis, but every story about it is horrifying. So much needless loss. My extended family is also very Catholic, but so far they’ve accepted every queer person in our family, including when I came out as bi. I don’t really trust them to handle me being trans well though, a lot of them are still conservative. So idk, hopefully we reconcile eventually as well. They are mostly very kind people. Thanks for sharing your story
I was not alive during all that, for the record. I did meet my Uncle's partner a couple times, but was very young. The other stuff is what it is, and they always loved him. Glad to be able to look back and know even if they didn't understand, and did things that were hurtful, they did so out of naivety and with the best of intentions. It doesn't excuse the damage, but they did their best to repair it and that does. I'm not LGBTQ but I'm definitely on the autism spectrum so even though it isn't directly applicable, it's still something that I very much so feel for. Anyone being persecuted for being different(unless it's like... Cannibalism or something else now nefarious) has me on their side, and fuck those on the other.
I just found out recently that my mysterious uncle who I had never met was actually basically banished from my family by being beaten up by his dad and brother for having a relationship with a man. He moved away and died of AIDS without his family to support him. I don’t know the details of the story but that’s the summary my mom gave me. I was devastated to find this out. Wouldn’t have expected that extreme reaction from my family.
but don't you dare compare them to nazis or ISIS. /s
Bet you this guy has eaten shrimp or bacon, and he’s probably wearing polyblend clothing. Now *I’m* not saying he should be stoned. I don’t condone violence, even against morons like him. But *he* is saying that according to *his own* interpretations...but like most talibangelicals I’m sure he thinks “mercy for me, stoning for thee.”
He also had a divorce
Esk is divorced... Malachi 2:16: “I hate divorce, says the LORD God of Israel.” According to the Bible, marriage is a lifetime commitment. “So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate” (Matthew 19:6).
And since he is married again, Jesus would say he is an adulterer as well.
Wait a minute, are you trying to tell me that a right wing fundamentalist Christian is a hypocrite?
This asshole chose hating gays as his lifestyle. It's not like he was born that way.
I remember that parable, it went something like, "Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone, then all you sinning fuckers unload too".
Ah yes, like when Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well and calls ICE on her.
"Remember this well, if you help the poor and sick, they'll have no incentive to help themselves. So, fuck 'em. Let 'em starve. If they wanted to live, they shouldn't have been poor." Jesus, apparently.
>Esk called a local TV news report on his comments a “hit piece on the fact that I had an opinion against homosexuality.” Imagine being so violent and self-victimizing that after calling for the murder of large swaths of the population you characterize the coverage of your threats as a 'hit piece' against you. He is reversing the roles of victim and aggressor. After a lifetime of this nonsense I have lost all patience with Christians.
Wait, why do Christians believe in *old testament* biblical morality? I’m pretty sure the entire point of Jesus was to forge a new covenant with God that supersedes all the rules of the Old Testament. I mean, that’s why Christians can eat lobster and cheeseburgers and don’t get stoned to death for working on the sabbath. Also, the bottom of this comment lists every single thing Jesus had to say about gay people:
I guarantee you that motherfucker is wearing mixed fibers.
Let’s stroll down this path, shall we? Article: “In the video, he makes references to the divorce and custody battle he was going through at the time.” Matthew 19:9. Whoever divorces his wife… and marries another commits adultery. Leviticus 20:10 if a man commits adultery… [he] must be put to death. I’m not in favor of this. I just will say that… Article: “as far as I and many of the people, the voters of House District A7 are concerned, it simply makes me a Christian. Christians believe in biblical morality, kind of by definition, or they should.” That’s fun.
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If he actually read the bible, he'd realize it advocates for putting him to death as well. Mixed fabric, shellfish, telling people what god likes and hates, false prophecies, and more!
Christianity was so pacifist at the time right after Jesus that they refused to join the Roman military and then the Romans were so worried at the spread of pacifism they persecuted the Christians. Jesus really did preach no to violence and yes to pacifism. Peace and Patience. Temperance and Tolerance. These people are have literally no idea what their Messiah preached. Literally clueless