This pissed me off so fucking much when people defend Christianity by saying that all of the bad shit is in the Old Testament and that the New Testament is totally fine.
1 Corinthians 6:9
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,”
Gay people and gender non-conforming people are not allowed in to heaven
1 Peter 3:1
“Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands;”
It’s still an extremely misogynistic book even in the new testament
Romans 1:26-27 … 32
"For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
…
Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them."
Both homophobia and misogyny
I could go on and on, and I probably will in the comments, but it’s pretty fucking clear that all the nasty bigoted shit in the book just doesn’t go away in the New Testament
You cannot separate the bigotry from the Bible. The Bible is very clear that you cannot pick and chose, that you have to accept the full book or none of it, you can’t just take the verses you like and still be Christian. To be a good Christian who follows the entire Bible you must be bigoted
I hope you heal from your religious trauma and know that we love you comrade.
The Bible is a colonial construct, biblical canon was literally chosen by those in power so that they could wield power. The Bible says you cannot pick and choose because the people who picked and chose what books were in the Bible said so.
I think Christianity can be decolonized, though. Liberation theologies have made attempts at it and they’re very interesting imo
think Christianity can be decolonized
Why? What good is there? Jesus said like a couple nice things but you don’t need Jesus to be kind to other people, I don’t see any value under the bigotry that someone can’t just get somewhere else
Liberation theologies
I think a blood vessel in my brain bursts every time someone brings this up. Liberation theology doesn’t even come close to making up for all the terrible shit done in the name of Christianity
Yeah, and billions of workers are homophobic and transphobic, just because a lot of people believe something doesn’t mean it’s suddenly good or that it should go without criticism
Decolonizing something implanted through colonialism is tough. It feels like spiritual cope in a similar vein to African slaves’ adopting and molding of Christianity
Tough, but I think worthwhile.
All spirituality is cope, that’s the point. Are we just supposed to not cope with our suffering?
No, you deal with the root cause of that suffering rather than putting a God shaped bandaid over it
I find it to be bad theology to rely on Paul’s ancient letters to specific churches as a blanket condemnation of the times and works of Jesus. They were written in a specific context against Roman sexual removed (temple prostitutes and public orgies to name a few).
There is much the Church writ large must answer for, I agree, but there is ample room for the Lord’s love for all His children.
The past 1000 years of biblical theology stands on “To deny the overall structure of the bible as it stands, is to be heretical”. Re-interpretations, translations, minor inclusions of “new” parts, all are “tolerated”. But to suggest moving a book to the apocrypha at this point would be impossible without creating a new branch/religion.
1000-2000 years ago, they could because they hadn’t fully settled on the “God gave us this word for word” or “God guided the creation of this document” doctrine. And the east-western churches either weren’t fully split or largely could communicate changes to core scriptural inclusions. To add or to remove entire books now would call into question the validity of the entire document, years after it was “settled”.
When I was a teen, people were STILL judgmental of the NIV bible, insisting the KJV was better. NIV is about as unbiased as common biblical translations go. To seriously suggest removing the pauline epistles at this point would get you kicked out/shunned/excommunicated in the vast majority of churches, if not all “proper” christian churches.
I’m not saying I deny the words of Paul. I’m putting them in their proper context. He had specific advice, to specific people, to advance the Gospel. To take them out of that context is a disservice to the Bible, and it’s message. Paul is clear that meeting evil with evil is itself a disservice to Jesus, and his message as the Messiah.
I’m not relying on just a few letter to condemn Christianity, these were just examples. This shit is in the entire book
“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
To speak to 1 Peter chapter 3, you ignore the part where husbands are to dedicate themselves to their wives, and the part about repaying evil with good
"3 Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, 2 when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. 3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. 4 Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. 5 For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, 6 like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.
7 Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers. Suffering for Doing Good
8 Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. 9 Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. "
In the funny pope thread, “maybe we should at least consider cultural sensitivity re: the pope and be more kind to one anothet” was responded to with a slew of unfounded accusations, seemingly deliberate misreadings, and pushback from a defensive posturing.
And now this has spawned at least two major threads whose premise is, “Christianity us reactionary and we must explicitly and openly reject it to be a good communist”.
I’m not sure what the actual goal would be. Is it to berate any and all Christians on this website into disavowing a bunch of things they already don’t believe and apologizing for things done by other people? Is it to ban the dead Christianity comm? Socially police anyone from admitting to being part of the most popular religion regardless of their direct views on the topics where you note Christianity having reactionary sentiments?
Personally I don’t think there is a goal in mind. Just people getting in between a Hexbear user and their treats: a false catharsis because the pope died. And getting between the Hexbear and those treats in any capacity, you must be tarred a reactionary object of hate.
People are talking about state atheism and the church-monarchy feudal system and the USSR. Comrade, you (most likely) aren’t even in an organization. We are not the inklings of Chinese national liberation but in [X Western country]. We’re in a lost Redditor pro-trans vaguely commie site full of yt people eager to weaponize their marginalization to verbally kill each other and I’m suggesting you be slightly less reactive and escalatory towards comrades.
it’s weird to stake out this hill and die on it.
You have one flattened perspective on one religion and an axe to grind, but you’re bringing nothing interesting to the table, but a whole lot of bile- and for whom, exactly? is this an exercise in your own catharsis? It just looks like emotionally repressed anger at a target that’s not actually the source of your woes, big or small.
Christianity is just very personal to me as I was raised in a Christian household. I was home schooled and thought young Earth creationism and other such bullshit
I was denied the ability to transition after I came out to my parents because of Christianity. I could have started HRT at 16 when I came out but instead I had to at 22 after getting free of my family. Christianity and the bigotry based in it has forever caused me pain
I can relate at least on some level. Never had to deal with the transphobia angle because I’m cis, but I remember spending some time terrified that I would be tortured for all eternity because I couldn’t bring myself to believe that the Earth was 6000 years old.
