From the same people that ask "what keeps atheists from raping and killing" we have "Well Jesus was a puss" (Read the quoted NPR article). I don't see this ending well.
Moore calls it "tribalism" and he's right. Those folks aren't in church for spiritual reasons; they come to be part of a tribe. And some of their leaders, unfortunately, encourage that.
It's a brand identity. It's packaging. It's aesthetics. It's a logo. None of it signifies anything of substance, it's just sort of an identifier that they use to identify "us" and "not us."
@jeffsharlet.bsky.social wrote a book called "The Family" years ago which spoke about this phenomenon.
This is a group of intensely political, intensely right-wing Christians who talk in terms of what they call "Jesus plus nothing." To them, all of the moral lessons are just window-dressing. Only their personal connection to Jesus and the power they see him representing matters.
A lot of racism, a lot of misogyny, and a lot of turning a blind eye to child sexual abuse. How many youth pastors have been arrested in the last 10 years for molestation and/or rape?
They've replaced Jesus with Trump and the Bible with the front page of Truth Social.
There’s a theory that Jesus sharing the few fish/loaves they had with the hungry crowd goaded those who had brought their own food to share it with those who had none, and that’s how everyone got fed. Nothing magic about it.
Since I heard that interpretation I’ve thought that it’s so much better than the ~magic~ version. “If everyone stops being selfish, there will be more than enough to go around” is a much better message to impart, imho.
I remember someone on a TTRPG board a few years back working out what DnD class levels Jesus had to cast all his miracles. He was definitely multiclass.
Moore would know - he quit as head of ethics at SBC after they circled the wagons to protect the principals involved with sexual abuse and racism, and had already been on the rocks with his org for saying Trump was full of shit. That he's on the outside looking in said plenty about them already.
They're too stupid to see, that they've become the very people that put him to death. He was too liberal, his message was too inclusive, he was giving people ideas, he was teaching them to have more empathy for everyone. If there's one thing MAGAs hate, it's the idea that everyone is equal to them.
Watching members of the church I grew up in try to fit the right wing American values into the Bible was like watching a fully grown adult try to fit a square into a triangle hole
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In fact, it's kind of expected at this point.
@jeffsharlet.bsky.social wrote a book called "The Family" years ago which spoke about this phenomenon.
They've replaced Jesus with Trump and the Bible with the front page of Truth Social.
you do it to yourself, just you
you and no one else
Somewhere along the way, the Onion became this timeline's lead writer …
I know "fake Christian" is a term to avoid, as it merely deflects problems from within, but if there were EVER a textbook definition...
no sir not the good kind