Christian Nationalist is an oxymoron and they aren't Christians. Christ is our king and we serve him by being kind to others and giving when it hurts whether that's time, talent, or money. He is not of this world and his kingdom is neither.
This is another cult. Trump is an Antichrist.
Edit: As another has pointed out, they are still Christians. But I stand by the rest its still a cult.
These books were written in a time where monarchy was the norm across the world and said monarchs could just do whatever the hell they want and basically nobody could do anything about it.
Having a king was a fact of life. The idea of a King above all other Kings, who would hold the unaccountable to account, who understood and sympathized with the plight of the common man, was a very appealing prospect to everyone. It also served to put the literal fear of God into the local monarchs and maybe prevent them from abusing their power too badly.
This still holds today because of the traditions of the holy books. Christ has been "the king of all kings" as written from the very beginning, and this was most likely political propaganda intended to reign in actual kings. But the title has stuck even when monarchy hasn't stuck around in a lot of places.
In addition the relationship between the Abrahamic God and His followers is heavily modeled off the relationship between a feudal lord and his vassals. That's why they call him Lord. The people follow the rules and regulations of the Lord, and provide him with income, and in return the Lord protects them from disaster or invaders. The same dynamic is used to illustrate the relationship between God and his followers.
Christianity has Christ as our king as one of the core beliefs. Not sure about other religions, but I think the general view is because religion is meant as a form of societal control, which isn't inheritably bad as we are a social species, but is abused by many of those in power.
I'd argue a majority of modern Christians are denied by christ, and more "anti-christ"ians. He said something like "You cannot worship material possessions and me" and we are shown what that looks like when he tells a guy who owns a house he rich and not going to heaven unless he sells it. Almost everyone who calls themselves Christian will try to make excuses for that, or rewrite it. "That eye of a needle was a gate", "homelessness was more common back then". Excuses and lies. If a Christian is a follower of Jesus, as long as there is a single homeless man who wants a home and you own one, he denied your following, you do not follow him by his word. I'm betting this describes most of the "that's not real Christianity " people though. Because it's so hard.
If you read it, Jesus doesn’t sound bad. I’d posit he’s probably the worlds first hippie. Acts is decent reading. The main issue is much of the book is filled with old law, several books in fact, that are there as governing rules for a society, not as a philosophy.
Religion can even work as such within small communities. 334million is not a small community, and people cherry pick what they like. Handmaids Tale cherry picked what was needed to fix a fertility crisis. Other communities cherry pick what they like for other means of making women subservient in a trad wife role. Others still go straight Jesus and are unrestricted, which, necessarily, ignores the entire Old Testament.
If the entirety was chosen, life would be very tedious and locked in contradiction.
Just the part about not being able to use furniture sat on by a woman actively experiencing her period, having to wait a week, or was it two?, for the furniture not to be unclean any more would break some people. It fascinates me that the biggest religious sticklers just ignore that one.
Oh. And no bacon. Or Christmas ham. A rule often ignored for obvious reasons.
It's even more shocking to modern standards if you look at pre-nicene Christianity where you get communes, some of which believed androgynity was holy as the divine was neither male nor female. And that view still pops up from time to time such as with the public universal friend in 16th century America.
It used to be it'd get your ass killed if you were caught being a christian, fed to lions and shit. Being a christian was a fundamentally progressive thing, with risks. Those people meant it.
Then one day the emperor became christian, and it became conservative overnight. Just how you suck up to the boss. It's been a weird mix of it all ever since, with too much of the bad.
It's been critically infused with unignorable doses of violence and bigotry, which makes it...well, pretty much the same as everything else, really.
Please read it again and get back to me. God commits several genocides, usually for petty reasons (if any reason beyond "you deserve to have this land because I say so" is ever even mentioned).
At one point I would have agreed. Still, they are Christian. This is how Christianity is now practiced in America. The mostChristian thing I've done in a while is leave the church.
I'm so sick of this bronze-aged bullshit. I've said this before but it feels like half the country are gleefully speeding down the highway with blindfolds on and the rest of us are having navigate the chaos.
They're not Christians. They don't follow the beliefs accredited to Jesus. But it sounds like you do. Don't let them tarnish your name and your beliefs. Good people are inadvertently lumping you together and you sound like a decent person. As a Jew, I teach my kid "he was a Jew like us, a great person if he was real, who cared about other people, worked an honest day's work with his hands, was humble, upstanded against tyranny and capitalists, and someone who shares our family's values, dirty hippie hard working Jewish 99%er with an open heart. We just don't believe he was the Messiah and we're still waiting"
Yeah... Christianity is us vs them most of the time bc it's weaponized. So I make sure he knows the dude is no different than us. Not us vs them. I love how in all those words, this is your focus. Touch grass baby
Yeah, anyone aware of the way antisemitism has weaponized Christianity should be able to understand why you teach your kid that. I grew up catholic after Vatican II and we were told repeatedly that Jesus was a Jew, as were his apostles and that modern Jews bear no responsibility for his death. These facts are vital for combating antisemitism in Christian societies.
Holy shit, really? I'm from Brooklyn where everyone I know growing up was Catholic (or black or Jewish) and there was tons of antisemitism. Like literally cognitive dissonance and 10 yrs old friends being like "but wait, half my friends are Jews and they're fine..." Where/when was this?
Southwest Ohio like 10-20 years ago. It might have something to do with the fact that it's a pretty German and Italian area. Or that just made my experience significantly more anomalous. It definitely wasn't a woke area by any means just that the bigotry wasn't directed at Jewish people from what I saw.
good on you for sticking to your values. sorry this platform is a r/atheism circle jerk even when you speak out against violence and hate from your own personal framework. don’t let them radicalize you; keep standing up for justice and dignity.