How (And Why) The Right Stole Christianity

Post Reply New Topic

I don't even need to watch this. We all know they hijacked Christiainity as a way to gain more power over the country. It's not the first time in history that religion was weaponized by those in power and it's not even a concept unique to Christiainity.

What bothers me though is that while I myself am no longer a Christian I do firmly believe in religious freedom for everybody, but because of the way Trumpism is staining American Christiainity it's giving those leftists and annoying communist wannabes all the ammo they need to declare this as a "bad religion" and someday they might decide to actually persecute Christians if they gain total power and try to become like the USSR all over again.

It's a damn dirty shame that the few good things about my country (like freedom of speech and religious freedom) are slowly being chipped away by both sides.

Interesting video! I find Christian nationalism particularly fascinating because adherents get very…creative in how they use/interpret the Bible to support their beliefs. When I was younger, I never would’ve imagined that people would view someone like Trump as a Messiah in our time. It makes one wonder how much farther things could go under the right circumstances. The Bible can be used to support just about anything, so it’s unsurprising that the Bible and Christianity were used by a prominent political party to garner support. It wouldn’t be hard to capitalize on people who think that the Bible is the literal word of God. According to a 2022 Gallup poll, that’s 20% of Americans (down from 40% in 1985) with 49% who think that it’s inspired by God but not to be taken literally.

When it comes to gay issues, there are scriptures in the New Testament which he didn’t mention that are homophobic. Paul… (1 Corinthians 6:9 and Romans 1:26-27). Yeah, Jesus didn’t say anything problematic on this topic although he did uphold some stuff from the Old Testament and directly quoted from it. One would think that he could’ve spent more time on important issues rather than ambiguous parables, but I digress.

That sounds like a slippery slope.

The majority of the population in the US is Christian. It’s extremely unlikely that they will experience widespread persecution. Scrutinizing beliefs does not equal persecution. Nothing should be above scrutiny.

While the majority population in the U.S. may claim Christianity as their belief system, many also believe that their Christianity is the only true Christianity.

Pick any one of the Christian religions in America.  Now imagine what your life would be like if their doctrines became the law of the land.

Better still, try to imagine what your life would be like if MAGA Christianity took over.

So many denominations of Christianity in the US are homophobic and sexist. Some still preach racism too. Evangelicals persecuting people is a huge problem we’re currently facing, and it could get worse.

Yeah true, there's a good chance we could end up in a MAGA pseudo-Christian Theocracy *shivers* but given the fact that so many young people in the US now a) hate Christians and b) are talking about wanting Communism tells me that at the flip of a coin we could potentially face the opposite problem.

Communists have a history of persecuting religions in favor of creating an atheist state. Not just the Christians and Jews in Eastern Europe but the Chinese have done the same with Taoist and Buddhist religions in their own country (not to mention what they are doing to Uyghurs Muslims today. Yeah I'm still not choosing to forget about that one).

I'm not saying Christiainity should be above scrutiny, I'm just saying I also don't want to wake up one day to see churches set on fire and pastors lined up and shot execution style.

I'm not a Christian now but when I was I missed the part where you must commit adultery with a porn star; also how you must constantly lie and have distain for the poor.

Isn't it weird how they have such disdain for the poor and yet the (white) poor make up the greater majority of Trump's supporters?

For anyone who didn't watch the video it was opposition to civil rights and abortion that caused the evangelical right to emerge as a significant political bloc.

Long vid. But worth watching. Quite informative. Thx for posting.

Lotsa tidbits.

At around 3300 he says that according to surveys "most GOPers believe that Trump is more devoutly religious than Biden (at Catholic mass every week), Mitt Romney (famously Mormon), and even Mike Pence (picked by Trump as his running mate because he is Evangelical)".

That Trump persuades folks that Trump has any convictions at all amazes me.

You cant get into anyone's head to see how "Christian" they really are (Trump or Pence or whomever). But still...make a Pope out of a p**** grabbing grifter?

That's what cult leaders do best.

I dont understand how the billionaires like Trump took over Christianity when Jesus hated wealth and the first Christians in Acts shared everything in common and had a common purse which is totally the opposite of the Billionaire Class.I dont how Christians can have this cognitive dissonance and think people with billions can go to Heaven when Christ said it is basically impossible for the rich to inherit the Kingdom of God.I wish Trumps devout Christian supporters could just understand that Trump is not sincere when he appeals to their faith and their Christianity.He is just using them and playing them like a fiddle.

Well, I suppose that not ALL Evangelical Christians are bad people

cnn.com/2024/04/28/us/evangelical-christianity-false-white-gospel-wallis-cec/index.html

Apologists for the massively wealth would likely claim that the relevent verse:

Matthew 19:24 - "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God"

doesn't categorically say it's impossible. Their interpretation is that the wealth itself doesn't directly disqualify a man, it's the massive temptation to value his wealth more than he values God. So if his heart is "in the right place," which would be extremely hard for a human being but not quite impossible, and he has the "right attitude" about his money, then he's not disqualified.

Infuriatingly, scripture portrays Jesus as being fond of hyperbole - exaggeration to achieve emphasis - which seems to invalidate the simple argument that "you can't get a camel through the eye of a needle, therefore a rich man can't get into the Kingdom." When Jesus says a thing is impossible, it's unfortunately plausible that he only means it's very hard. The man in the story can't bring himself to obey Jesus and give it all away, thus showing that he was too attached to his wealth to qualify. So I suppose if a very wealthy person claimed to be a good Christian, they could just say that they'd be quite willing to hand over their money......as soon as God opens the heavens and tells them to.

Thus, there is no categorical ban on extreme personal wealth in scripture, and super-rich Christians can hold that God's view of morality, as shown in "His Word," is the morality of choice, that if divine morality clashes with secular morality, then God's view wins every time.

I'm very glad to know that not all Christians agree with that. Despite the watertight appearance of the above, it remains an opinion, an interpretation, and the matter can't be definitively laid to rest one way or the other. So the individual Christian can pick whichever side they want. In the same way as a clever lawyer can get you off the hook in a legal case, so can a clever apologist in a matter of scripture. And the side with the most money wins more often.

So, the cognitive dissonance is fixed in the usual way - by rationalising.

I'd agree with you. I'm not Christian but I was raised with enough familiarity with the teachings to know the people pushing that understanding of Christianity aren't actually pushing any sort of Christianity that Jesus would recognize.

I just don't get how it doesn't inspire revulsion among more Christians because (to me at least) it seems a lot more offensive to Christian morals than anything Marilyn Manson (for example) has ever done.