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
The Bible (including the New Testament) is also pro slavery
Colossians 3:22
“Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God.”
There are several verses explicitly telling slaves to not rise up against their masters. If you are anti-slavery then you are at odds with the Bible
Leviticus 25:44-46
“‘Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.
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
Two things that hexbear can’t understand why people like it: Christianity and Cumtown.
I get why people like Christianity, I was raised in a Christian house and was one for the majority of my life. I get how an all powerful loving god is a comforting ideal. But I think it’s wrong, it’s has bigotry baked into it and it’s based off of lies. People should find their comfort elsewhere instead of this backwards religion that has done so much harm to the world and is still continuing to cause harm
it’s has bigotry baked into it and it’s based off of lies
Kind of like cumtown.
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.
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. "
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.
Condemning all religious people is a needless own-goal. It’s a great way to make enemies of a sizeable majority of the global working class for no benefit.
Take those two sentences and swap out “religious people” with people of any number of bad beliefs that we would not tolerate to see why that is not really a helpful statement.
Except we have proof of religion being used for liberation movements. It’s not bad in and of itself as much as op is trying to say it is because they had a bad experience with one subgroup of one religion that’s in one country. You can’t equate it to racism or sexism, something that’s bad in itself and it’s end goals.
