Why conservative Christians would have hated Jesus

[cbayer]

http://www.salon.com/2014/11/03/why_conservative_christians_would_have_hated_jesus_partner/

MONDAY, NOV 3, 2014 1:57 PM UTC

Even as they profess to spread his word, fundamentalists are forgetting Jesus' most important message

FRANK SCHAEFFER, ALTERNET


(Credit: Jaroslav74 via Shutterstock)

This article originally appeared on AlterNet.

Jesus never could have been the pastor of a contemporary evangelical church nor a conservative Roman Catholic bishop. Evangelicals and conservative Roman Catholics thrive on drawing distinctions between their “truth” and other people’s failings. Jesus by contrast, set off an empathy time bomb that obliterates difference.

Jesus’ empathy bomb explodes every time a former evangelical puts love ahead of what the “Bible says.” It goes off every time Pope Francis puts inclusion ahead of dogma. It goes off every time a gay couple are welcomed into a church. Jesus’ time bomb explodes whenever atheists follow Jesus better than most Christians.

Put it this way: Godless non-church-going Denmark mandates four weeks of maternity leave before childbirth and fourteen weeks afterward for mothers. Parents of newborn children are assisted with well-baby nurse-practitioner visits in their homes.

In the “pro-life” and allegedly “family friendly” American Bible belt, conservative political leaders slash programs designed to help women and children while creating a justifying mythology about handouts versus empowerment.

more at link

[clydefrand]

1. Well now,

I think atheists follow the 'teachings' of Jesus more than Christians do because we still have a very strong feeling for what is the RIGHT thing to do to/for our fellow man!

[cbayer]

2. So, are you saying that all/most christians don't have a very strong feeling for

what is the RIGHT thing to do to/for their fellow man?

Surely not.

There are good people and bad people. Some in each of those groups are christians, some are muslims, some are atheists, etc.

Making a broad brush statement about all atheists and all christians that has absolutely no data to back it up is only a statement of your belief, most likely based on faith of some sort.

[clydefrand]

3. guess I was just speaking for myself.

[cbayer]

5. So you are better than christians then? Ok.

I am sure that you are a wonderful person and do wonderful things, but that doesn't mean that you are better.

[Warren Stupidity]

16. welcome to the religion forum where some of our local relgionists feel free

to castigate and admonish atheists at the drop of a hat!

[rug]

31. welcome to the religion forum where some of our local antitheists feel free

to castigate and admonish theists at the drop of a hat!

Fixed.

[BillZBubb]

11. The original post was about conservative Christians. So for them, the answer is YES.

Conservatives are the least Christian people around.

[cbayer]

18. Agree, and I think it's really important to make that distinction.

Progressive/liberal believers and non-believers have a common enemy in the religious right, and I just like to make sure that people see that.

Not all people of faith are like the religious right, thank goodness.

[AtheistCrusader]

29. Yeah, I'd bet you'd like to pretend religion can shuffle off it's sins against humanity by blaming

a political party as the cause, rather than the hangers-on they are, who sought out religion for the bigotry, horror, and inhumanity it spews, rather than the other way around.

Christianity is a BIT older than the Republican Party/Religious Right, so, bark up some other tree.

The masters of deflection, denial, and hand-waving are starting to annoy me, with them marauding around here un-checked..

[phil89]

26. Relishing the idea of redemption through human sacrifice

and having someone else being tortured and killed for your "sins" doesn't seem like a rational basis for figuring out what is right for yout fellow men and women, imo.

[cbayer]

30. Your description of christians is extremely rigid

and dogmatic. You appear to be more of a literalist than most christians. What doesn't seem rational is being so literal and then applying it with a broad brush to a hugely diverse population.

So what is your basis for figuring out what is right for you fellow men and women? Do you think it is superior to that used by christians?

[1StrongBlackMan]

4. Posted to for later reading. eom.

[zeemike]

6. What you say it true.

And it can be proven by a red letter version of the bible...just read the red parts...conservitive Christians do not agree with most of it.

[Jack Rabbit]

7. Because they support crooked bankers on Wall Street

who routinely cheat their customers like the moneychangers in the Temple.

[trotsky]

8. Great. Yet another person is absolutely certain they know what god wants.

That always works so well.

[47of74]

9. If Jesus showed up at the Vatican

Someone like Burke would intercept him, excommunicate him, and have him sent away before Francis got a chance to talk to him.

[trotsky]

10. What do you think Jesus would say to the pope about gay marriage?

The pope said that children need to be raised by a father and a mother, and that marriage equality was "from Satan." Do you think Jesus agrees with him?

[47of74]

12. I imagine Jesus would give him a good talking too

But the reich wingers in the Vatican would be so afraid of what the Pope would do afterwards that they'd never let Jesus get anywhere near him.

[trotsky]

15. You mean "reich wingers" like the guys who say marriage equality is from Satan? n/t

[DirkGently]

13. American conservatives are all Old Testament.

No redemption. No forgiveness. No mercy. Women and children will obey.

I was thinking about this the other day. The conservative / liberal divide, the way it's discussed in the U.S., follows the divisions between the Old and New Testaments pretty closely.

Take any issue. Prison, for example. Staunch American conservatives believe prison is to punish and injure people. Not to rehabilitate. No air conditioning. No books. Maybe a labor gang. And no return of rights at the end of the sentence. An eye for an eye.

Women's rights? You can obey your husband and marry your rapist. If he dies, you can marry his brother, but if your womb is "barren," he can sleep with prostitutes or relatives to try to conceive.

Raising children? Don't spare "the rod."

Slavery? Sure. Daughters can even be sold for a profit.

All in all, not a nice book. Not a nice god. Likes sacrifice, punishment, genocide against your enemies.


Jesus turns all that on its head. Love your neighbor. Even your enemy. Forgive. Treat others as you would be treated. It's a big difference, to the point of contradiction on a lot of points.

But American conservatives just treat Jesus as pleasant window dressing on the hard, mean, angry law of Jehovah. He's their real god, and the Old Testament is all the Bible they need.

[ms liberty]

21. Well said; I've thought the same. n/t

[kairos12]

14. For rethugs hypocrisy is a stinky cologne.

[alfredo]

17. They wouldn't accept Jesus because he wasn't Christian, he was a Jew.

[Warren Stupidity]

20. which is why they enacted the "no need to clip the dick" rule a couple of centuries later.

[alfredo]

22. That was because Paul brought non Jews into his cult. John was influenced by

the Hellenist.

James was the real torch bearing of Jesus' teachings.

[rug]

32. It was at the Council of Jerusalem in 70.

Facts, schmacts.

I'd discuss with you the implications of that decision but I doubt you could handle it.

[AtheistCrusader]

28. Oh you're so charitable.

They wouldn't care about that. They'd scurry the other way as soon as they saw the color of his skin.

[Warren Stupidity]

19. Of course anyone can make any argument they want for what the alleged son of god

really meant by the contradictory and frequently ludicrous reports in the books that make up the new testament. "Why liberals would have hated Jesus" is an equally plausible thesis.

Here are some fambly values:

For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+10%3A35&version=KJV

And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+19%3A29&version=KJV

I suggest that both liberals and conservatives would hate Jesus, and that He only spoke to and for Men's Rights Activists eager for a Hobby Lobby exemption to child support and alimony.

Plus that picture is ridiculous. A picture of Osama bin Laden would be more accurate.

[jonjensen]

23. They hate everybody else they might as well hate jesus too!

They aren't making jews like jesus anymore! Kinky friedman and the texas jew boys.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

24. First off, they'd have to convert to judaism.

And most right wing Christians will never own up to that.

[lobodons]

25. I'm a Democrat because

That's WJWD

[Spitfire of ATJ]

27. I told a Republican that I was an Atheist....

Which means I don't believe Reagan was God.

.....either.