RE: Damned Christians
March 4, 2024 at 7:53 am
(This post was last modified: March 4, 2024 at 7:53 am by Fake Messiah.)
It seems so strange when people wonder why "Christianity is not a healing force in the world instead of being a divisor".
I mean when was it ever a healing force? It was always dividing people to look at non-Christians and "different" Christians with suspicion and then as enemies.
Like this article where the author is even stunned by "the political idolatry" - I mean, hello; ever heard of Popes, kings and other ruling figures "chosen by god"? And then he goes on cherrypicking the new testament where Jesus says people to "love our enemies", but ignores the parts where Jesus says he'll burn everyone who disbelieves in him, as well as antisemitic amd other hateful parts in the new testament.
I mean when was it ever a healing force? It was always dividing people to look at non-Christians and "different" Christians with suspicion and then as enemies.
Like this article where the author is even stunned by "the political idolatry" - I mean, hello; ever heard of Popes, kings and other ruling figures "chosen by god"? And then he goes on cherrypicking the new testament where Jesus says people to "love our enemies", but ignores the parts where Jesus says he'll burn everyone who disbelieves in him, as well as antisemitic amd other hateful parts in the new testament.
Quote:Where Did Evangelicals Go Wrong?
One might reasonably expect that Christians, including white evangelicals, would be a unifying, healing force in American society. After all, the apostle Paul wrote that Jesus came to tear down “the dividing wall of hostility” between groups that held profoundly different beliefs. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God,” Jesus said. In that same sermon, Jesus also said, “I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Even if those goals have always been unattainable, they were seen as aspirational.
Yet in the main, the white evangelical movement has for decades exacerbated our divisions, fueled hatreds and grievances, and turned fellow citizens into enemies rather than friends. This isn’t true of all evangelicals, of course. The movement comprises tens of millions of Americans, many of them good and gracious people who seek to be peacemakers, including in the political realm. They are horrified by the political idolatry we’re witnessing and the antipathy and rage that emanate from it. But it is fair to say that this movement that was at one time defined by its theological commitments is now largely defined by its partisan ones.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...mp/677610/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"