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Does the Religious Right represent Christianity?

Yes_Minister said:
Does the Religious Right represent Christianity? I think making excuses for some of Trump's behavior seems like putting partisan politics before what is supposed to be acceptable in the Christian religion.

Then there are pastors like this guy, who use a religious position to gain material things for himself:

Minister Creflo Dollar asks for $60 million for a jet - CNN.com

How is that guy any better then the money changers Jesus kicked out of the temple and why are so many mega church pastors obsessed with material wealth for themselves?

It seems like some of these megachurches ignore some of Jesus' teachings on the poor and the rich, with Jesus saying the poor are blessed and saying its easier for a rich man to go through the eye of a needle then enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Many members of the religious right come off as Pharisees, the religious group who persecuted Jesus and thought themselves morally superior to all others, by virtue of belonging to that group.
Click to expand...

If one went purely by religion of a Christian, one wouldn't have been able to vote at all last year. Like most independents who went to the polls last year holding their nose and voting for the lesser of two evils, the least horrible candidate, I imagine a lot of Christian's did the same. Neither Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump epitomized the Christian ideals. Both were more or less completely opposite.

So most Christian's held their nose and voted for the lesser of two evils. My take anyway.

FYI Independents voted for Trump 46-42 over Clinton as the lesser of two evils, the least worst candidate while 12% voted third party.
As for religion: Protestant's went for Trump 56-39 over Clinton, Catholic's went for Trump 50-46 over Clinton. But the Jewish religions went to Clinton 71-23, Other religions, i.e. Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, etc. went to Clinton 62-29 with 9% voting third party and finally, those with no religion, atheist went for Clinton 67-25 with 8% voting third party.

There you have it.
 
Not only does the Religious Right *not* represent Christianity, it is in direct contradiction to Christianity on the topics of:

  • Immigration
  • Capitalism / Distribution of Wealth
  • Racism
  • Religious Discrimination
  • Social Justice
  • Social Assistance


The list goes on. There is very little about the Religious Right that bears any resemblance to the teachings of the Bible. It does, however, go a long way towards explaining why a lot of folks hate us so much. The moderate Christian has a lot in common with the moderate Muslim these days.
 
Yes, for the same reason that Islam is defined by fanatics. We are all defined by the worst thing we do.
 
Yes_Minister said:
Does the Religious Right represent Christianity? I think making excuses for some of Trump's behavior seems like putting partisan politics before what is supposed to be acceptable in the Christian religion.

Then there are pastors like this guy, who use a religious position to gain material things for himself:

Minister Creflo Dollar asks for $60 million for a jet - CNN.com

How is that guy any better then the money changers Jesus kicked out of the temple and why are so many mega church pastors obsessed with material wealth for themselves?

It seems like some of these megachurches ignore some of Jesus' teachings on the poor and the rich, with Jesus saying the poor are blessed and saying its easier for a rich man to go through the eye of a needle then enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Many members of the religious right come off as Pharisees, the religious group who persecuted Jesus and thought themselves morally superior to all others, by virtue of belonging to that group.
Click to expand...

What is so moral about "blessing the poor"?
 
No. They do not.
 
Yes_Minister said:
Hey man, its in the bible and traditionally helping the poor was considered the moral thing to do:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_5:3
Click to expand...

Actually, historically, there was a time when the Christian authorities considered it heresy to even suggest Jesus was poor. The Christian idea that Kings and Queens were divinely ordained is inconsistent with the idea that Christians valued the poor above wealthy people. But, you never answered my question, which was why is it moral to bless the poor? Let's say someone drops out of school, does drugs and has no intention of working? Why is blessing that person a moral thing to do? You established no parameters on blessing the poor, the sole basis for your assertion was that a poor person was somehow moral simply because they were poor and that they deserved a blessing as a result. How so?
 
Wisdom said:
Actually, historically, there was a time when the Christian authorities considered it heresy to even suggest Jesus was poor. The Christian idea that Kings and Queens were divinely ordained is inconsistent with the idea that Christians valued the poor above wealthy people. But, you never answered my question, which was why is it moral to bless the poor? Let's say someone drops out of school, does drugs and has no intention of working? Why is blessing that person a moral thing to do? You established no parameters on blessing the poor, the sole basis for your assertion was that a poor person was somehow moral simply because they were poor and that they deserved a blessing as a result. How so?
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The American revolution denied the divine right of kings, so clearly American Christians rejected that.

Hey man, I am just pointing out what the bible says about poor people, don't blame me if the Bible says something that contradicts religious right doctorine.

Also why do you assume the poor are lazy? What about the working poor or homeless people with mental illness, are those people lazy?

You know why I think the religious right should bless the poor rather then curse them, because I think empathy is a basic compotent of morality. The bible talks a lot about how we should treat the poor and other people, the religious right seems to often reject that so they can use Christanity as means to gain wealth and feel superior to others, they want to serve 2 masters, Jesus amd Ayn Rand and to do they have turned Jesus into a twisted parody. They have sucked the compassion out of Christanity and turned it into something ugly. Its all about slogans, prescution complexes and feeling superior to others, rather then kindness, compassion or humality.

You should bless the poor rather then curse, because that is the Christian and human thing to do, cursing them is something a Pharisee would do.
 
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Yes_Minister said:
The American revolution denied the divine right of kings, so clearly American Christians rejected that.

Hey man, I am just pointing out what the bible says about poor people, don't blame me if the Bible says something that contradicts religious right doctorine.

Also why do you assume the poor are lazy? What about the working poor or homeless people with mental illness, are those people lazy?

You know why I think the religious right should bless the poor rather then curse them, because I think empathy is a basic compotent of morality. The bible talks a lot about how we should treat the poor and other people, the religious right seems to often reject that so they can use Christanity as means to gain wealth and feel superior to others, they want to serve 2 masters, Jesus amd Ayn Rand and to do they have turned Jesus into a twisted parody. They have sucked the compassion out of Christanity and turned it into something ugly. Its all about slogans, prescution complexes and feeling superior to others, rather then kindness, compassion or humality.

You should bless the poor rather then curse, because that is the Christian and human thing to do, cursing them is something a Pharisee would do.
Click to expand...

I did not assume the poor was lazy. I gave a specific example showing that your position that claims simply because a person is poor that they should be blessed is nonsense. A person who is poor is not necessarily worthy of being blessed in any way, especially if they are responsible for their poverty.

You are also wrong about the Pharisees, which largely comes from Christian anti-Semitism. The Pharisees were actually quite moral and falsely portrayed in Christianity. Of course, there is nothing even remotely about Christianity, so lying about another group of people is par for the course.
 
Wisdom said:
I did not assume the poor was lazy. I gave a specific example showing that your position that claims simply because a person is poor that they should be blessed is nonsense. A person who is poor is not necessarily worthy of being blessed in any way, especially if they are responsible for their poverty. .
Click to expand...

Don't blame me for stuff the bible says, when did Jesus ever condemn the poor as lazy vs. saying people should help the poor?

Wisdom said:
You are also wrong about the Pharisees, which largely comes from Christian anti-Semitism. The Pharisees were actually quite moral and falsely portrayed in Christianity. Of course, there is nothing even remotely about Christianity, so lying about another group of people is par for the course.
Click to expand...

So what do they call self rightious hypocrite zealots who like to feel superior to others and use religion to demand everything of others and demand nothing of themsleves?

The religious right and those who condemned Jesus are cut from the same cloth. The Religious Right should be honest with itself, they are interested in power, not faith, they may as well start worshipping Mammon, because the version of Jesus they worship is not the real one:

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.was...3368de-3964-11e6-8f7c-d4c723a2becb_story.html

No wonder the Pope thinks the religious right is corrupt:

http://billmoyers.com/story/pope-franciss-associates-condemn-american-religious-right/
 
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