cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/3377375
I read an essay by a christian a while ago that pointed out that the separation of church and state wasn’t about protecting the state from religion - it was about protecting religion from the state.
The gist of the argument was that religion should be concentrating on the eternal, and politics, by necessity, concentrates on the immediate. The author was concerned that welding religion and politics together would make religion itself political, meaning it would have to conform to the secular moment rather than looking to saving souls or whatever.
The mind meld of evangelical christianity and right wing politics happened in the mid to late 70s when the US was trying to racially integrate christian universities, which had been severely limiting or excluding black students. Since then, republicans and christians have been in bed together. The southern baptist convention, in fact, originally endorsed the Roe decision because it helped the cause of women. It was only after they decided to go all in on social conservatism that it became a sin.
Christians today are growing concerned about a falloff in attendance and membership. This article concentrates on how conservatism has become a call for people to publicly identify as evangelical while not actually being religious, because it’s an our team thing.
Evangelicals made an ironically Faustian bargain and are starting to realize it.
Hahahaha of course the c/politics favorite source for news on Christianity is lgbtqnation.com’s opinion pieces. This is what gets front page on this community?
Yeah, even if people don’t believe fully in the bible, we can believe in many of the core values that Christianity preaches (that almost all of western civilization as we know it is based on).
We can understand that two parent households are better for children and the nation. That small communities helping each other is preferable than the government taking money out of our paychecks so they can determine what’s best for us. That the way towards a more unified people is not government overriding and pushing culture.
Getting to the core of the article, the author doesn’t back up anything that’s said in the title. He references someone who writes for a journal that references someone else referencing someone else that doesn’t like the ‘turn the other cheek’ verse the way the pastor was using it. What a shit article.
Why do you hate individual rights? It’s the core of what makes Americans, American. You can be who you want to be. Anyone who opposes that is Anti-American.
Ah, an enlightened Jordan Peterson protégé I see.
Removed by mod
For someone who doesn’t like gay people, you sure do talk about them a lot.
I was ready to discount this as satire, especially when they ran the quote from Russell Moore speaking to NPR, but failing to quote the source…
So I ran it down, sure enough!
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/08/1192663920/southern-baptist-convention-donald-trump-christianity
"On why he thinks Christianity is in crisis:
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” — [and] to have someone come up after 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."
Homophobia, bigotry, slavery.
Define Western civilization
I see. So why are you guys attacking gay couples adopting?
What part of the bible taught you that? What controlled studies did you perform? How do you define “better”? Why do you hate cities?
You mean like praying in school for over a century?
You don’t have to dog whistle btw. We all know what you are really about.