What IS good, and how do we determine it?

[Catholic_Lady]

The answer to all those questions, of course, is no. Which is precisely why honestly believing that Jesus condoned slavery seems very strange to me.

When Jesus told us to turn the other cheek if we get slapped, do you think He meant it's moral to slap someone? When He told us to give someone our shirt if they steal our coat, do you think He meant it's moral to steal?

What are you on about? Jesus said treat others as you'd have them treat you, and yet he also says treat your slavemaster like you do your god in heaven ... but quite frankly, would you be kind to a man who had stolen your freedom? Would you worship a man who controlled every aspect of your life as a whim?

And more to the point, why would Jesus give this advice to slaves? Methinks Jesus wants folks who are accustomed to such self-abnegation. Methinks ole Jesus wants folks who value that sort of slave mentality.

Perhaps I'm wrong here and forgive me if I am. But I feel as though you are being dishonest in this. I feel as though you are *wanting* to be able to say "Jesus condoned slavery."

Nonsense.  You have to understand how to infer facts from what is written.  You, who have throughout this thread  have told everyone else that interpretation is required to understand the Bible, are now arguing that you aren't allowed to interpret the actions of Jesus in the context of his times.

Nonsense.  Rexy is right, your mental gymnastics are hurting my back.

And so you are ignoring everything else He taught and just relying on one paragraph addressed where He doesn't order them to run away or fight back. I think that if you were being completely objective and completely honest, you would not be doing this. I don't understand why you would have a desire to do this. Again, forgive me if I'm wrong about you here, but please clarify.

Because you are ignoring this inconvenient paragraph in order to maintain your perspective on your Savior.  You are quite literally ignoring a salient fact about his behavior in the face of what you yourself have condemned in order to preserve your image of him.

In other words ... as I've said to you several times already ... you are cherry-picking the Bible in order to support your own morality which has already been established.  You are ignoring those parts which contravene your preferred view.

That doesn't make you a bad person, but it doesn't make you a convincing person, either.

If you want to convince me that you have even the smallest understanding of the Jesus you worship, you will need to account for all his actions, not just claim the ones which make him look good.  Until then, meh ... you're a Christian dodging questions on an internet forum -- color me shocked.

Parker's Tan,

I give you my interpretation of that paragraph, and you respond with telling me you don't believe that this is actually my honest interpretation and that I'm deliberately cherry picking. I don't know what else to tell you. We cannot have a discussion about this if you don't believe I am being honest. At least I questioned your honesty and asked you to correct me if I'm wrong, rather than just assuming you were being dishonest and using that as my argument.

No problem. I am not looking for apologies. I am merely saying that I cannot have a productive discussion with someone who assumes I am being dishonest and using that as an argument.

I will point out that you never did answer my questions about the slapping of the cheek and the stealing of the coat.

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I appreciate the exception but I am going to choose not to do this.

I feel like at this point, if I post it here, a ton of the members from this forum may join with the sole intention of antagonizing the Catholic members to see what happens. It wouldn't be fair to those people if I did that. Especially since Randy and I are on there.

I know neither of you would be so disrespectful as to do that, but I don't know who else is reading these posts.

With that being said, since I will not provide you with evidence, you are, of course, free to not take my word for it. I apologize.

Feel free to PM me this site.  I will not share it with anyone here, nor will I violate its rules.

will do.