There was a boycott of Denny’s in the pre-social media days because the staff wouldn’t wait on Black people. This is probably 20 years ago, but word got out, and a lot of us common people chose not to eat there. I was in college, and maybe college boys tend to be more progressive than the general population, but if we wanted the cheap breakfast it was fuck Denny’s, let’s go to Waffle House.
Fun fact I was born in Marietta. Grew up right across the river in WV.
You’re 1000% right about them hating WV, but a lot of it (from what my family says) is because of the drug trade. Apparently that bridge from Williamstown to Marietta is a major funnel point so they have a decent bit of local crime as the drugs head north
So in your view government is inept, but people suck, and you can’t expect them to do the right thing. You must be a card carrying member of the Philosopher King party.
I will have to disagree on need. An intelligent people can have very different values. Unless appealing to some absolute authority, those values are subjective. Just different opinions.
I keep waiting for people to make me change my mind.
I know that dilemma! I am trying to be patient.
Maybe. But I don’t think an intelligent people would base how they treat others on some irrational beliefs they hold.
I figured they hated WV because if you sleep through the river crossing and woke up in Marietta you would asume you were still in WV.
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I work in a very fucked up part of a fucked up city and I believe that most of the citizens I serve are pretty good. They might smoke crack and be a little lazy about changing grandma’s diaper, but they’re not that bad.
Then why is the city fucked up?
Most of the good paying jobs left, and crack, heroine, crystal meth and alcohol filled the void. The best and the brightest often have better options elsewhere so they leave. Predators smell weakness and move in.
If gainful employment was an option most would gladly choose that.
See why I have my doubts about people. I can’t find a job so I’ll do crack instead. It sounds like a neighbor I had, only she had a good job. Piece of crap boyfriend, it was slim pickings, but a good job. Soon she had no job, no car and no teeth and was hooking on the corner at night.
Yes Pat, It is Old Testament. You can’t have any religion of the “book” without the old testament. In Christianity the Old testament goes hand in hand with the New Testament. No matter how you want to paint it there is a huge amount of recorded fact about Christians doing violence, or harsh punishments such as torturing, burning, heretics and witches, and homosexuals. It was done institutionally through various inquisitions. That was considered normal Christian behaviour, done in the defence of Christanity. It seems logical that if someone believed the Bible was the word of God they would uphold those values. I’m not saying Christianity is or was wrong or bad. For its faults(no institution or ideology is flawless) Christianity on balance has been a very positive force in western civilization and even the entire human existence.
“Christians” today apparently don’t believe in most of these things, some don’t even believe God, or the divinity of Christ.
Only the vague warm feelings cherry picked by the individual from the New Testament seem to matter, in the Christianity of today. Its a faux Christianity, or Christianity lite, and is in denial so much because their beliefs are so far from the historical reality of what Christianity was.
If the Bible was considered the word of god, but isn’t now, then the whole notion of Christianity falls apart. You are left with a potentially very positive frame work of beliefs and a way of life from these remnants, but it isn’t actually Christianity anymore.
I personally don’t support stoning homosexuals or anyone else for that matter, its very uncivilized in this day and age.
Its hard to argue that a true believing Christian(Muslim or Jew for that matter) would not following the word of his god and stone such sinners to death.
In the early days of Christianity violence in all forms was prohibited. Stoning, capital punishment in general, was prohibited. Certain Old Testament teachings were not to be followed.
The problem is that Christianity was spread to pagan peoples who then reconciled certain cultural values and norms with Christianity. The idea of saints is rooted in pagan beliefs. Also, in order to justify the Crusades, the Catholic Church and the pope in particular, had to do some liberal Biblical interpretation.
You talk about painting something, yet you confuse the actions of people who called themselves with the teachings of the actual doctrine which you obviously aren’t very familiar with. You can find shitty humans who did shitty things to other humans because of or in spite of any reason can think of.
There are a lot of things proscribed by the Old Testament, like eating pork and shellfish and wearing clothes made of two different kinds of cloth that wear explicitly set aside by christians in the founding documents of the faith.
The OT is our history, I won’t divorce it from who we are. But we are also not ancient Israeli’s anymore.
If you look at Christian theology, the coming of Christ fulfills the old covenant meaning we are not bound by it anymore.
Further, those were specific commands for specific peoples to accomplish a specific goal.
The Bible isn’t rainbow’s and Unicorns, nor should it be. It’s not realistic. People are born, they die. Towns come up and they are razed.
But Christians are not bound by Mosaic Law.
It’s our duty to know and study the OT, but not live as a goat herder on the Euphrates.
The Bible tells us many things, much of which is hopeful and downright mysterious, others leave one confused and scratching one’s head.
It’s a multifaceted book, one worth knowing about.
I don’t mean believe every word literally.
I simply say give it a look. Perhaps, it may even speak to you.
Honestly, for most who haven’t read it or studied it at some level but criticize it I think they are afraid of it. What if it is true? What do you do then?
Perhaps they are afraid they may find some meaning in it requiring losing friends, family or even more. Its happened before.
Ever hear of Peter Hitchens? He is the brother of the once famous Atheist, Christopher Hitchens. Peter turned in to a Christian. They had great fights. They look the same and have eht same voice. But for Peter becoming a Christian he lost everything, including his brother. That’s the cost of Christianity… Sounds like it sucks, right? It’s awesome.
Hi Pat and Uncle G, I have read the Bible,(more than 20 years ago) but I can’t claim to be an expert. I think it provides a good philosophical guide to living your life in a generally healthy and respectful way, that serves to create a practical and functional society. You can definitely find meaning in it even if you can’t suspend your disbelief on its supposed origins.
How many denominations of Christianity have there been? I haven’t counted but its quite a few They all believed they were true Christians ever since the split from orthodoxy. Peoples views of Christianity have changed over long periods of time, as well as the values of societies. The world wide system of business and finance has a bedrock of usury, both before and after Christ, to this very day, even though he cast the money lenders out of the temple.
The orthodox Jews and Muslims(and possibly a very small minority of Christians) that abide by proscriptions on pork, shellfish, clothing etc even to this day have a consistency with the original views, of their belief system.
Modern Christians don’t. You can say they have adapted to reality the modern world by changing, and I would agree. In doing so they have lost contact with the supposed word of God, which is the lynchpin of any religion. How far away from original teachings can you go and still be logically, and objectively considered a Christian, before the term loses its meaning?
The truth is that people are full of crap and this includes so called Christians. They will hide behind religious belief and freedom when it comes to certain things. But when you point out how in other areas of their lives they don’t seem to be very Christian they respond with no one is perfect. It’s their get out of hell free card. You see it with the posters here who claim to be Christians.
Why such disrespect for Christians? They are some of the most charitable and kind people on the planet.
I am not religious in the slightest bit but this is a silly comment. You’re basically claiming someone can’t have a christian belief in one aspect and try to stay true to it unless they live life like a perfect Christian. That’s not possible. There’s going to be plenty of moments of hypocrisy but that shouldn’t be a deterrent to live your best Christian life possible.
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