I sort of have an allergic reaction to people cherry picking the Bible to justify any action that they don't feel justified enough to do without God's permission.
Loved the column! I have members of my immediate and extended family who go to church every Sunday and therefore think it's ok to act against all a good man named Jesus stood for (if we are to believe the verses written years after his death).
Heh. There are a whole lot of verses in the Bible about loving your neighbor, loving the stranger, loving the immigrant -- and just a small handful like Romans 1:26-27 (which I put in a drawer labeled "IDK").
I can't bear to watch politics for the next four years. I'm going to need some religion.
Paul, the original false profit er prophet. Paul was not an apostle. Paul was a troubled man who wrote of his own political leanings. And despite his misogyny, he was financed by a woman.
It's really telling how often the words of Paul are used as an excuse to ignore the words of Christ.
I often think if I was still a Christian I'd have become one of those nuts (or are they?) who go on about how Paul was just a grifter hijacking Jesus's movement for his own personal gain.
Romans 13 was just about Quaker-style political quietism, not making waves or starting trouble, in order to avoid catching shit from the state -- not worshiping the state. The early Church didn't have God-n-Caesar services every year, complete with fasces and SPQR banners, to celebrate the AUC.
And half the scriptural prophet narratives involved striding into royal courts and pronouncing, in essence, "God damn Israel" or "God damn Judah," a la Jeremiah Wright.
The righteous sure do love those two sentences out of 16 chapters.
I'm a non-believer but even I know Romans 2 starts with a big "STFU you creepy ass weirdos and stop getting up in other people's shit." That is from memory, so I might be paraphrasing.
Thank you for today’s column. I am endlessly curious about how about we humans love to put the all-powerful into various deity-as-consumer-product boxes, with no reflection or further questioning. I am now more grateful for Lincoln’s care in not presuming to speak on God’s behalf. Good model.
Christians. The story goes that a man named Saul had a job that required him to support the state religion, which was not Christianity. And in fact, he actively hunted Christians & martyred them.
I don’t presuppose those stories are real, I’m just talking about what he was persecuting exactly. Christianity as a sect wasn’t vastly different than the other sects at the time. Paul was the one that got into arguments about Torah observance
But on the road to Damascus, God struck him blind & he had a change of heart. Changed his name to Paul, regained his sight, & became the asshole who wrote most of the New Testament.
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Our little Scouting unit is chartered by a similar faith community. Like many, I guess. I hope.
The scope of his interest began and ended with people.
What a weird thing to quote at someone.
"Salt the fields! Salt the Fields"
Attributed to some commander after he heard Karthago delenda est!
I can't bear to watch politics for the next four years. I'm going to need some religion.
You're a treasure!
Did you know gossips and slanderers should be put to death?
And those who disobey their parents?
Scripture mining is the worst.
I often think if I was still a Christian I'd have become one of those nuts (or are they?) who go on about how Paul was just a grifter hijacking Jesus's movement for his own personal gain.
how refreshing!
I'm a non-believer but even I know Romans 2 starts with a big "STFU you creepy ass weirdos and stop getting up in other people's shit." That is from memory, so I might be paraphrasing.
- Marcus Brutus probably