More Fake “Christians” On The Right
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They’re happy because a doctor who performs abortions has leukemia.
Funny, none of the Bibles I grew up with says that’s the right response. Oh, it’s conservative Christians? Then the actual Bible need not apply.
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See, I think you’re cutting these people too little slack, and Christians too much, Oliver.
These people *are* Christians. Real, actual Christians. There are Christians like this. They aren’t all good, moral people who turn the other cheek. Lots of Christians are fucking assholes, just like the rest of us. The mistake is assuming that being a Christian ensures that you aren’t a total fucking dickhole.
Religion has never, ever been incompatible with being an absolute piece of shit. When religious people have been ‘good’, it’s been a straight-up coincidence. *That* is what this story is about.
Let me see if I got this right – some christians are cheering because an abortion Doctor has leukemia. I think their god won’t have any problem with that at all – in fact he might think they’re whimps.
Surely the guy that in his own right is a multiple-occasion, mass-murdering maniac would not even raise an eyebrow at a mere prayer to him wishing for death and mayhem – after all – killing men, women, children, the first born of cattle, and for that matter almost all life on earth are just another day at the office for the Butcher Up There. His followers wish to spend eternity in that guy’s “loving embrace” – good luck guys – methinks you’re gonna need it.
When will religion just die!
Par for the Christian Taliban course
Henry: If they’re cheering this sort of thing on, they aren’t actually Christians. Its as if I said “I’m skinny” the fat on my stomach clearly makes that assertion invalid.
Have you read the Bible? It’s full of stuff that’s a lot worse than cheering for leukemia. I’m always surprised when someone says that “true” Christians wouldn’t behave so badly. Really? I’d think “true” Christians would behave worse than anyone.
I say, let’s be happy they’re just cheering, and not actively bashing people’ brains in with rocks or setting them on fire, like it says to do in the book.
Gotta agree with 3D, real orthodox christians are just as intolerant and violent as the nutters in Al Qaeda.
I need someone to define the difference between this kind of Christian and Al Qaeda.
You know what? I get kind of tired of people claiming that I’m not a “real” Christian because I don’t believe what these nutters do. The ironic thing? Half the folks who do so are coming from the left.
When people mask their hate and anger with religion, instead of channeling it into good, they’ve taken the spiral staircase to hell. Can I get an amen
What religion are these people? Why, clearly they worship the Author of Cancer, which is surely another title of the Father of Murder, the Original Liar and the Lord of the Flies.
Oliver: You know, my wife and I have that discussion somewhat frequently. She takes your point of view, that ‘Christian’ means something about adhering to what’s in the bible. I understand this, but I disagree.
I’m a Quine man — the word means whatever the people who use it intend it to mean, and has an element of consensus in it. I’m also a proponent of generally erring on the side of self-identification — so for me, these people are pretty clearly Christians. They believe in The Jesus, and they call themselves Christians.
I *used* to agree with you, but then I found myself in the crowd that Southern Quaker identifies — I’m not comfortable with deciding rillness. Southern Quaker’s a real Christian, and so are these pieces of shit.
Plus, if you take my POV, you get to point out that being a Christian isn’t at all incompatible an awful person. It doesn’t make you awful, but it doesn’t protect you from being awful. As an atheist, that’s a very important point for me.
Southern Quaker says:
August 6, 2010 at 8:03 am
Well, where do the “nutters” get their beliefs from though? It’s not like they made them up out of thin air. They come from… *drumroll*… reading the Bible. Because the Bible is nutty.
You disagree with the nutters is because, I’m going to go out on a limb and make an assumption that you are a GOOD PERSON, and on some level you know the Bible is nutty. For whatever personal reason you have, you still want to be a Christian but, when the Bible’s teachings contradict the morals of evolved 21st Century society, you ignore the Bible and go with the 21st Century society.
But the nutters don’t, they follow what the Bible says and that’s why they’re nuts.
hnice says:
August 6, 2010 at 9:23 am
I don’t think Christians are awful people, at all. I think most of them are very good people. The proof is that when their personal moral code conflicts with the outdated stuff in Bible, most of them ignore that part of the Bible. (The ones that don’t are the “nutters” and a small majority.)
I just don’t see how it’s possible to “believe in Jesus” and not believe in and follow the Bible. Seems like kind of a package deal to me. If you believe that Jesus was real and really walked the Earth, well the only place we get that knowledge from is the Bible. He isn’t mentioned anywhere else in any historical documents until way after his early cult movement started. So the beliefs kind of have to come from the Bible. So how do you separate the Jesus stuff in the Bible from the freakish, bad stuff?
“I’d think “true” Christians would behave worse than anyone.”
If not for the government, regulations and laws. They had their rule and they brutalized people for hundreds of years. The Christian Right has been trying to reclaim that pinnacle of power for decades now. So yeah, let them “pray” all they want for a person’s death; just keep them the hell out of government.
“I just don’t see how it’s possible to “believe in Jesus” and not believe in and follow the Bible.”
Well, and here’s where I’ll jump in on Southern Quaker’s side again –
The fact is, Jesus was in all likelihood an historical figure who probably said many or most of the things that the bible records his having said.
But he didn’t actually copy-edit the thing. There’s a version of Jesus-belief that doesn’t involve a literal belief in the bible — in that version, it’s just coincidence (sort of) that the bible, which contains a bunch of other stuff, is also the primary ‘primary’ source about Jesus.
I’m not saying that I buy this. As I mentioned, I’m an atheist. But, for example, I think the cleansing of the temple is an awesome story, and if someone actually *did* that, I don’t have to think that touching pigskin is an abomination to think it’s kick-ass and a good lesson about something or other.
And I think that if the defining characteristic of being a Christian is believing that Jesus was the anointed one, you can buy into the bible as an imperfect documentation of his activities.
Which is not to say that all, or most, or many Christians are this moderate. I have no idea about that. Just that ‘Christian’ means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, and I think they’re pretty much all right.
One fine day I shall surely find myself skinny dipping in the Prince of Peace’s eternal lake of fire.
hnice says:
I don’t agree with this. I don’t think Jesus existed.
Well, no. It isn’t the “primary” source, it’s the ONLY source. Not just for stuff Jesus said, but for his existence, period.
I guess. The temple story seems more like a tantrum, to me. But different strokes.
What about where he promises that praying will bring you whatever you want? Those passages have actually gotten thousands of people killed over the years. Like when parents insist on praying for their kids to get well, and don’t take them to the doctor, and they die. That is an example of where the Jesus myth does actual, tangible harm to people living in the real world.
Well, the problem for me is that there is no other documentation of Jesus, about his supposed teachings or stuff he said, anywhere outside the Bible — other than from people living long after the supposed events occurred, and repeating the myths. Nothing contemporary from during his supposed life.
So, it doesn’t make sense to me that someone can come to believe that Jesus was God, but then reject 90% of the Bible. If you don’t believe most of what the Bible says, why believe he did any of the stuff the Bible (and only the Bible) claims he did?
Which would be fine with me, except that they continue to insist on pipe-bombing each other’s cars and whatnot, based on each other’s “wrong” interpretation of their fairy tales.
Seems to me God must be cool with abortion–otherwise there’d be no such thing as miscarriages. But you know conservative Christians. From the Gospel of Ayn: “And Jesus spake unto the blind man, saying, ‘Thou hast not private health insurance; remain thou blind!’”