This is what happens to you when you read the Bible...

[Bucky]

It's important that Republicans keep their followers from reading

[WA-03 Democrat]

1. Thanks for posting

The Bible is very clear on how to love and support the less fortunate. You love them. We are the party of Christians. We are the party of Law and Order. We are the party of financial management. We are the party of conservation of the Earth’s limited resources.

Republicans only add value by going away.

[highplainsdem]

2. Well worth watching. I've never understood how anyone could read the New Testament

and not realize that the teachings of Jesus align more with liberal/progressive policies than conservative policies.

[mopinko]

5. lewis black has a bit where he says evangelicals are basically jews.

which i have often said. but even the old testament is more christian than those charlatans.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

27. Makes sense. They love the parts about SMITING.

Edit:
It's been many years since I went to church, but I remember the Old Testament seeming to be the focus of my sister's Southern Baptist church, when I went with her a few times as a favor.
Yet the New Testament was the overwhelming focus of the Methodist church that I'd attended as a child. I didn't realize it back then, but it was considered "liberal" compared to several other churches in the area.

[mopinko]

28. the def love the vengeful god.

[Hortensis]

11. :) That's why Republican Jesus was developed, to align with RW politics.

I read that this has been going on for most of a century anyway, but especially since the liberal New Deal era inflamed massive culture wars then.

So we know why pointing out the obvious, that Jesus's teachings were liberal, had no effect. Just identified apostates at best. Scripture's been rewritten too, but many of these people never studied it in the first place.

Btw, the last two (small, rural, fundie) GA churches I visited as a guest didn't mention Jesus at all. Literally. Opened and closed with songs proclaiming passionate devotion to God, one sermon in between about how to ask God for earthly goods of your choice, the other I don't remember, but it also totally failed the congregants. No references to scripture that I recall.

[Dawson Leery]

3. I have read the Torah, Bible, and Quran.

I am an Atheist now.

In fairness, all three books give consideration to the poor. Still, there are far more problems with religion than not.

[Bucky]

20. When you consider the influence that religion has had in developing ideas about...

bringing peace to the world, expanding the desire to investigate nature and cultivate scientific learning, the establishment of ideas of humanism, individualism, natural civil and political rights of citizens, the cultivation of ethical codes, the reform of harsh and cruel legal systems, the establishment of peaceful trade relations and cultural exchange between formerly warrying cultures and societies, and the importance of doing charitable works in other parts of the world, it's pretty clear that religion has done far more good than harm across human history.

[msfiddlestix]

30. I've only read a little bit of the Old Testament and a little of the New Testament

The little that I read in the New Testament was somewhat tolerant in that the myths were more humane than the Old. But the old testament is just bat shit crazy. I came to that conclusion when I was 11 years old. I'm over 70 and nothing I've seen in the public sphere which claims to revere and "BELIEVE IN" "The Bible" has made the case to reverse my conclusions then. If anything, they just continue to confirm my conclusions as 100 % correct.

It seems to me that the conversation should begin right now to amend the Constitution's 1st amendment. When you have religious fanatics in positions of power imposing their religious views through legislation, and decisions made by the Supreme Court based on religious beliefs well then, dismiss any notion of democracy, equality. We would resemble a western version of the power structure in Iran etc.

[Ohioboy]

4. The Bible is like the Mueller Report

Too many people are just fine not reading it themselves, and instead let others interpret it for them.

[StarryNite]

6. It seems the majority of White Evangelicals are hypocrites

who live in their own twisted world.

[oasis]

9. Exactly! nt

[TheBlackAdder]

7. You see the over 300 errors and conflicts that no amount of Biblical Inerrancy can explain away?

[Vogon_Glory]

8. I see no reason why liderals or Progressives are required to be faithless

The late Bernard Rapoport of Texas was a devout Jew and could quote passages from the Torah/Old Testament at length excoriating right-wing policies and politics. More than a few Christians see through the current crop of Republican hucksters, politicians, and apparatchiks BS.

[Mariana]

12. Whoever said liberals or progressives are required to be faithless? nt.

[Bucky]

21. Several posters in this thread are exhibiting the prejudice that Christianity is GOPism

I'd contend that the majority of Republicans who claim to be Christians are actually worshipping power and money and only pretending that those are Jesus. It's really a tribal identity based philosophy that has little relation to the teachings of Christ and St. Paul.

[Vogon_Glory]

23. Oh, I definitely agree with you there

The Religious Right, particularly the Fundamentalist/Evangelical part of it, has been playing up tribalism far, fat more than the teachings of the Nazarene.

[bluestarone]

10. The Christians of today are a completely new breed of cat for sure

I just wish they would stick to their thinking ALL THE WAY! (If they get covid, STAY the fuck home or go to their church for treatment) FAITH has to be faith ALL THE WAY!

[Mariana]

14. Are they?

What are Christians doing today that is completely different from anything Christians have done before?

[bluestarone]

15. I remember Christians would

At the very least CARE for their neighbors. NOT let them suffer and die. Maybe i'm wrong but That's how i feel.

[Mariana]

16. Many Christians still do that.

However, history pretty clearly shows that generally, Christians don't behave any better than non-Christians.

[bluestarone]

17. Well then i mean only on

Sundays i guess! I know one thing, i'm so happy i'm a Democrat and NOT a Christian like the ones of today!

[Buckeyeblue]

25. Honestly, not really

Southern Christians used the Bible to justify slavery and then Jim Crow. The modern evangelical is poor, white, uneducated and pissed off. They crave the attention that they see others getting. So they double down on stupid. And use religion to justify--and protect--their stupidity. The entire anti-vaxx movement is based on this. The pandemic has served to shed light on how dreadful the people are. Hillary called them deplorable. In my opinion she was being nice.

These people are nothing more than fascist scum. And they always have been. They are just more willing to be open about it now. If there is a hell, I suspect it is packed full of "good" Christians.

[RFCalifornia]

13. I read the entire bible. Different versions too...

All the way through

Now I'm an atheist

[lindysalsagal]

18. k for later

[Midnight Writer]

19. I remember Jerry Falwell twisting the passage about rich people, camels, and the eye of a needle.

He claimed that historically the entrance gate to a town was called "the eye of the needle" and it was specifically designed to allow camels to easily pass into a town.

Therefore, to say the rich are as likely to enter Heaven as a camel is to pass through the eye of a needle means that the Gates of Heaven are designed to let in the most prosperous and productive.

A good con man can twist anything.

[sakabatou]

22. I keep on wondering why Evangelicals would vote for someone

who is the embodiment of the 7 deadly sins.

[lindysalsagal]

24. IMHO: These believers are starting to think critically, and so will eventually either leave

the church, or move to a softer version of christianity, or maybe even become unitarians. Their evangelical monolith days are waning.

[hamsterjill]

26. I have long identified as a Christian but not an Evangelical

The biggest issue that I, personally, see with Evangelicals today is greed. They see Joel Osteen, and all of the other mega churchers as what they aspire to be - that God has blessed their preachers with abundance and that God surely wants His children to have that. So if you pray and worship hard enough or long enough, that is your reward.

I fail every day as a Christian. Full stop.

But I hope that should I ever have abundance, that I will have the grace to help someone who needs it.

And I have no desire to try to force my beliefs on anyone else. I’m happy to share when asked but otherwise, my belief is private, and you are free to believe as you see appropriate for you.

[Silent3]

29. I'll take allies wherever we can find them

I'm also happy to be able to say my own sister, who is still very religious, was among these few American Christians who finally hit a breaking point because of Trump, a few months into the COVID outbreak. Since then her views have become more and more liberal, and she's definitely embracing the message of love and caring that can be found in Christianity, rather than the authoritarianism (which is also there to be found, if that's what you want to find).

I'm still very uncomfortable with how religious thinking works. Even when the end results can sometimes be positive, there's a lot of scary rationalization and mental gymnastics going on to reconcile dogma with reality.