I think a lot of conservative “Christians” think that if they pretend like they are following the way of Christ according to their bastardized version where they hate queer people, that they’ll somehow be able to declare themselves right and be able to stay the mean shits that they are. When in reality Jesus would not approve of their behaviour at all.
Edited to add: I actually practice Christianity and go to a very progressive church. I love queer people, I think conservatives are a cancer on society, and I believe in birth control and abortion rights like I invented them. I am not wild about Jesus or the Bible, and I mostly attend because I believe in a God and I think attending a community space where we want to be better humans together in a happy and life giving way is a vital part of life. I do not in any way expect people to believe what I do and I welcome most points of view, conservative trash and Nazis excluded. I have sort of a gnostic view I guess where I think intelligence and the ability to act accordingly is what saves you as a human.
But everything conservatives are doing religiously to me is utter self serving rotten trash.
I’m a “progressive” Christian as well. Quoting Bible verses to MAGA’s is a fun exercise. They often get this guilty looking expression for a minute and then just kind of shake it off and go back to whatever hypocritical BS they were up to before.
More of the right will identify as Christian’s but the left is much closer to the teachings of Jesus because the fruits of the spirit are: love, compassion, empathy, understanding, kindness, gentleness, truthfulness, brotherhood, forbearance, faith, joy, just to name a few.
When thinking of those “fruits” not many people think of the conservative Christian’s. It bothers me more than anything they hide behind their “beliefs” to push their personal agenda that goes directly against the teachings of Jesus. Gives Christianity a bad name, then again I would say each religion has it’s on group of extremist that make the whole look bad.
Give up the building and start meeting in people’s homes/apartments, coffee shops and the like. The rest only holds you back anyway. Imagine good tippers who the wait staff eagerly looks forward to returning regularly - what a reversal that would be from when “Christians” show up after “cHuRcH” and abuse them!
I am so far left I got my guns back, as the saying goes, and I believe in radical kindness and love, but to those who wish the same, which is not the right.
I had a neighbor come to my door wanting to read some bible verses. I was initially combative because I’m trans and have a pride flag in my window and was ready to be preached to about how I’m a sinner. I’m not religious but we actually had a really nice conversation about exactly this. I told them that I don’t believe in Jesus but do believe in the message of the bible, being a loving and caring person to everybody, and how conservatives have completely twisted the meaning to attack people like me. They read me a couple verses supporting that and how conservatives go against everything the bible says. It really gave me hope and what I was expecting to ruin my day actually made it instead.
Honestly there’s some lovely Christians out there who love queer people without question. It absolutely does not have to be the conservative way. My church has gay people and two trans ladies, and the one time I overheard one of them talking to a bunch of the guys about the local football team. Like it absolutely does not have to mean a thing.
Sorry if this comes off as rude, but without Christ, you’re not a Christian. Christianity is the state of being saved, and you can’t good-person your way into salvation. There are three problems with that approach:
If you believe you can save yourself, that’s an issue of pride. How can your living works ever compare to God’s own son dying for you?
If you willfully ignore Christ’s salvation (the easier option) in favor of doing good works, that shows an unwillingness to repent of your sins.
If you try to meet God’s standards (or even just what you think they are) through your works, you’ll never catch up, and you’ll exhaust yourself.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying there’s no point in good works or being a good person. They’re the fruits, but they’re not the tree. You can put effort into showing fruits, but without the tree, it’s not going to do you any good in the long run. Or you can grow the tree, and if it’s real, the fruits will come naturally (and if they don’t, the tree is dead[1].)
It’s only by humility that you can come to salvation. You must recognize your sin and be willing to turn from it (and keep trying whenever you fail.) Otherwise, you’re ultimately not that different from the conservative politicians who pretend to be Christian while sticking to their hateful ways (only in your case, the ways in question might not be hateful.)
I say this not to condemn you, but in hope that you can be saved. Please don’t ignore it.
James 2:17, though on further consideration, the whole chapter is fairly relevant. ↩︎
Funny you mention this because I was about to bring it up but as a bad thing. They don’t care about Jesus or his teachings or any of that because they see the whole “all of your sins will be forgiven” as “I can do whatever I want and then just have to tell a priest about it before I die and then I get into heaven”. Why they think they can pull a fast one on a being they believe is omniscient is beyond me, best guess is maybe they have a really simplistic view of rules and think exploiting loopholes can be done in good faith?
The Bible actually has things to say about that mindset. Namely, if you think “I can go back to sin and just get forgiven afterwards no biggie,” and then do so, you’re not going to get forgiven (Hebrews 10.) But that doesn’t get preached much, probably because it’s easy to get it twisted and think that an inadvertent slip into sin will have the same effect.
The older I get, the more dangerous I see Calvinism as being. Mind you, I believe it is true, but I see why it is difficult to explain. The child-like laws, given to literal children, seem to me to be a way of gently guiding people into the deeper waters. Unfortunately some people refuse to ever grow up, not just in Christianity but in every single aspect of life. It is so much easier to just play make-believe and spare people’s feelings (namely, probably the people doing that are attempting to spare their own). We are wounded, due to the effects of sin, and then for lack of knowledge the people perish.
The very surface level of Calvinism, being that God is sovereign in all, is something I agree with, but it includes predestination, which is where I take issue. Why would God not offer the same mercy to everyone? And when He does offer mercy to someone, why would He not let us choose? He is sovereign, yes, but He is also loving, and love is not forcing some people to become model citizens while letting others perish without ever having any hope of salvation.
I do believe predestination is technically true in that God already knows the future and knows who will or won’t ultimately be saved, but that doesn’t preclude free will being an operative part of what gets us there.
What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
Like an author who makes both villains and heroes, and normies too I suppose… maybe, for the sake of the particular flavor of spice that they choose.
And Hebrews 10 also tells a bit of the story: God offers the entire world His son, and refusing that just might leave someone hopeless. Like an infant who died at birth, it’s sad but you don’t keep it in the house, give it the room and perhaps even college fund that you prepared in advance for it. It’s not its’ fault, but it’s dead so… you put it outside like trash (special trash, with a ceremony, but not like a “family member”, who gets to stay inside the house and be fed and can play with toys and such).
Setting blame aside, something either produces fruit or it doesn’t, period. When you turn on your computer, you expect it to work, not ignore you, and if it doesn’t, then after all the attempts to fix it yield no results, you throw it out and get a new one that will. All this is what we already do, here and now. Whatever He does… could very well be similar? Or not, but I have no problems with the idea that he would let some computer programsfictional characters human beings be discarded forever. The creator gets to decide, it has nothing to do with “fair”, it’s just what is.
But honestly I have no idea, beyond that it’s possible:-).
Do you think Elon bros love Jesus? It doesn’t strike me that way personally.
A lot of Christians don’t seem to like Jesus ethier. They just like the brand.
I think a lot of conservative “Christians” think that if they pretend like they are following the way of Christ according to their bastardized version where they hate queer people, that they’ll somehow be able to declare themselves right and be able to stay the mean shits that they are. When in reality Jesus would not approve of their behaviour at all.
Edited to add: I actually practice Christianity and go to a very progressive church. I love queer people, I think conservatives are a cancer on society, and I believe in birth control and abortion rights like I invented them. I am not wild about Jesus or the Bible, and I mostly attend because I believe in a God and I think attending a community space where we want to be better humans together in a happy and life giving way is a vital part of life. I do not in any way expect people to believe what I do and I welcome most points of view, conservative trash and Nazis excluded. I have sort of a gnostic view I guess where I think intelligence and the ability to act accordingly is what saves you as a human.
But everything conservatives are doing religiously to me is utter self serving rotten trash.
I’m a “progressive” Christian as well. Quoting Bible verses to MAGA’s is a fun exercise. They often get this guilty looking expression for a minute and then just kind of shake it off and go back to whatever hypocritical BS they were up to before.
It’s fascinating to watch.
It’s absolutely absurd. They’re so awful.
More of the right will identify as Christian’s but the left is much closer to the teachings of Jesus because the fruits of the spirit are: love, compassion, empathy, understanding, kindness, gentleness, truthfulness, brotherhood, forbearance, faith, joy, just to name a few.
When thinking of those “fruits” not many people think of the conservative Christian’s. It bothers me more than anything they hide behind their “beliefs” to push their personal agenda that goes directly against the teachings of Jesus. Gives Christianity a bad name, then again I would say each religion has it’s on group of extremist that make the whole look bad.
This is why my church is down to like 10 members and we’re struggling to pay monthly bills.
Give up the building and start meeting in people’s homes/apartments, coffee shops and the like. The rest only holds you back anyway. Imagine good tippers who the wait staff eagerly looks forward to returning regularly - what a reversal that would be from when “Christians” show up after “cHuRcH” and abuse them!
I am so far left I got my guns back, as the saying goes, and I believe in radical kindness and love, but to those who wish the same, which is not the right.
I had a neighbor come to my door wanting to read some bible verses. I was initially combative because I’m trans and have a pride flag in my window and was ready to be preached to about how I’m a sinner. I’m not religious but we actually had a really nice conversation about exactly this. I told them that I don’t believe in Jesus but do believe in the message of the bible, being a loving and caring person to everybody, and how conservatives have completely twisted the meaning to attack people like me. They read me a couple verses supporting that and how conservatives go against everything the bible says. It really gave me hope and what I was expecting to ruin my day actually made it instead.
Honestly there’s some lovely Christians out there who love queer people without question. It absolutely does not have to be the conservative way. My church has gay people and two trans ladies, and the one time I overheard one of them talking to a bunch of the guys about the local football team. Like it absolutely does not have to mean a thing.
Sorry if this comes off as rude, but without Christ, you’re not a Christian. Christianity is the state of being saved, and you can’t good-person your way into salvation. There are three problems with that approach:
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying there’s no point in good works or being a good person. They’re the fruits, but they’re not the tree. You can put effort into showing fruits, but without the tree, it’s not going to do you any good in the long run. Or you can grow the tree, and if it’s real, the fruits will come naturally (and if they don’t, the tree is dead[1].)
It’s only by humility that you can come to salvation. You must recognize your sin and be willing to turn from it (and keep trying whenever you fail.) Otherwise, you’re ultimately not that different from the conservative politicians who pretend to be Christian while sticking to their hateful ways (only in your case, the ways in question might not be hateful.)
I say this not to condemn you, but in hope that you can be saved. Please don’t ignore it.
James 2:17, though on further consideration, the whole chapter is fairly relevant. ↩︎
No gods are real
Funny you mention this because I was about to bring it up but as a bad thing. They don’t care about Jesus or his teachings or any of that because they see the whole “all of your sins will be forgiven” as “I can do whatever I want and then just have to tell a priest about it before I die and then I get into heaven”. Why they think they can pull a fast one on a being they believe is omniscient is beyond me, best guess is maybe they have a really simplistic view of rules and think exploiting loopholes can be done in good faith?
The Bible actually has things to say about that mindset. Namely, if you think “I can go back to sin and just get forgiven afterwards no biggie,” and then do so, you’re not going to get forgiven (Hebrews 10.) But that doesn’t get preached much, probably because it’s easy to get it twisted and think that an inadvertent slip into sin will have the same effect.
The older I get, the more dangerous I see Calvinism as being. Mind you, I believe it is true, but I see why it is difficult to explain. The child-like laws, given to literal children, seem to me to be a way of gently guiding people into the deeper waters. Unfortunately some people refuse to ever grow up, not just in Christianity but in every single aspect of life. It is so much easier to just play make-believe and spare people’s feelings (namely, probably the people doing that are attempting to spare their own). We are wounded, due to the effects of sin, and then for lack of knowledge the people perish.
The very surface level of Calvinism, being that God is sovereign in all, is something I agree with, but it includes predestination, which is where I take issue. Why would God not offer the same mercy to everyone? And when He does offer mercy to someone, why would He not let us choose? He is sovereign, yes, but He is also loving, and love is not forcing some people to become model citizens while letting others perish without ever having any hope of salvation.
I do believe predestination is technically true in that God already knows the future and knows who will or won’t ultimately be saved, but that doesn’t preclude free will being an operative part of what gets us there.
Romans 9:22 gives one possible answer to that:
Like an author who makes both villains and heroes, and normies too I suppose… maybe, for the sake of the particular flavor of spice that they choose.
And Hebrews 10 also tells a bit of the story: God offers the entire world His son, and refusing that just might leave someone hopeless. Like an infant who died at birth, it’s sad but you don’t keep it in the house, give it the room and perhaps even college fund that you prepared in advance for it. It’s not its’ fault, but it’s dead so… you put it outside like trash (special trash, with a ceremony, but not like a “family member”, who gets to stay inside the house and be fed and can play with toys and such).
Setting blame aside, something either produces fruit or it doesn’t, period. When you turn on your computer, you expect it to work, not ignore you, and if it doesn’t, then after all the attempts to fix it yield no results, you throw it out and get a new one that will. All this is what we already do, here and now. Whatever He does… could very well be similar? Or not, but I have no problems with the idea that he would let some
computer programsfictional charactershuman beings be discarded forever. The creator gets to decide, it has nothing to do with “fair”, it’s just what is.But honestly I have no idea, beyond that it’s possible:-).
Studies in chimpanzees reveal that they do the same thing. It’s not even just “human nature”, it’s nature itself, pure and simple.
We should ride above that. We won’t, but we should.:-)
Not ignoring it, I’m recently baptized even. It’s just not my comfort zone.
“Well, it was the result of having multiple pastors tell me essentially the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount parenthetically in their preaching - turn the other cheek - to have someone come up after and to say, where did you get those liberal talking points? And what was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, I’m literally quoting Jesus Christ, the response would not be, I apologize. The response would be, yes, but that doesn’t work anymore. That’s weak. And when we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we’re in a crisis.”
Same for the rest too.
They like trump because he’s a great “business man”. Yet he’s not.
They like kid rock because he’s a ‘country rock rebel.’ Nahh he’s just old and stale.
They like elon because he is a ‘genius.’ LOL no.
They just vibing and can’t be bothered to actually give a shit.
I wouldn’t have thought so either, but I bet there is a lot of spill over from Trump > Elon and a lot of Trump supporters are religious nut jobs.