Liberals Hate Christianity

Discussion in 'Political Discussions' started by Bill Huffman, May 10, 2022.

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  1. Bill Huffman

    Bill Huffman Well-Known Member

    I was very surprised to learn that liberals hate Christianity! I consider myself a liberal. I do not consider myself a Christian. But, I don't hate Christianity. Or at least I didn't know that I did. Full disclosure here, I was brought up in the Mormon church. I have lots of relatives that are Mormon. I hate the Mormon church because I believe that it is based on a complete fraud named Joseph Smith but I don't hate people because they are Mormon. I actually am very fond of some of my Mormon relatives. I've also met other Mormons that seem like very fine people.

    Anyway, here's how I found out that liberals hate Christianity.

    Tucker: Modern liberals hate Christianity, not because it's repressive, but because they are
    https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-modern-liberals-hate-christianity-not-because-its-repressive-but-because-they-are

    Maybe I'm not a modern liberal though? (I'm very old.) That might explain it?
     
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  2. Rachel83az

    Rachel83az Well-Known Member

    Tucker loves to spout so much nonsense.

    There are plenty of progressive Christian groups out there. You just don't hear about them because they're not awful people like the ones that make the news.
     
  3. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

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  4. Charles Fout

    Charles Fout Active Member

    I cannot speak for all Catholics or all Christians. However, I love you, as Our Lord commands. Many modern liberals must be conflicted, as they also consider themselves to be Christians. I've taken zero time to study the LDS. This I can tell you - Every LDS person I've ever met impressed me as a kind courteous individual. I recently read a Washington Post headline regarding the DC Mormon Temple beginning to allow non-LDS members inside for the first time in a long while. Viewed from the Beltway, it is a strikenly beautiful structure.
     
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  5. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    I don't see any conflict with that whatsoever.
     
  6. cacoleman1983

    cacoleman1983 Well-Known Member

    Funny this is posted here. I've been very conflicted as a former Christian, now Gay Married Atheist / Secular Humanist. I just left a conservative deliverance / healing type ministry that some may consider a cult to reconnect with the Christian faith after walking away from it 7 years ago. After 6 months of everything I represent being demonized as a liberal and reminded of my shortcomings because of demons, I left that ministry just a few days ago. I consider myself a Cultural Christian at best now but definitely still a Freethinker!
     
    Last edited: May 10, 2022
  7. Charles Fout

    Charles Fout Active Member

    My thought was simply a retort to "Tucker: Modern liberals hate Christianity"
     
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  8. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Oh, I see. My bad.
     
  9. Rachel83az

    Rachel83az Well-Known Member

    Indeed. If you actually follow what's in the Bible (help widows, orphans, the poor, immigrants, people whose religious beliefs are in conflict with your own), you wind up being more on the progressive, liberal, side of things.

    Like, when Jesus heals the Centurion's servant? It doesn't specify, but there's a good chance that the servant was the Centurion's gay lover. Because that's just the way things were back then in Rome; mentioning it wouldn't have been necessary for contemporary people to understand that's what was going on. And Jesus didn't scold them or say that the servant deserved to die for being gay. He just healed the man.

    Or the Good Samaritan. That wasn't just a random guy. The Samaritans and the Jews had been in conflict for hundreds of years at that point, not unlike the modern Israel & Palestine. It's a parable about helping people, even if they belong to a group that is your mortal enemy.

    Many modern Christians could do with more of that.
     
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  10. Flelmo

    Flelmo New Member

  11. Vicki

    Vicki Well-Known Member

    Well…. The source is Fox News…. So…..
     
  12. Charles Fout

    Charles Fout Active Member

    No "bads in gentle conversation.
     
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  13. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    The Bible is a mixed bag when it comes to moral prescriptions regarding interpersonal relations. On one page, you get the golden rule, on another page you're told to kill your own children over religious disagreements. When I was a believer, it was a source of constant tension and cognitive dissonance.

    However, if we stick to the few most memorable lessons of neighborly love and kindness from the Gospels, I disagree that Christian teaching leads one to liberal progressivism. You don't need government run social programs and enforced income redistribution in order to be nice to orphans and widows. It's also not a given that using the government to feed, clothe and cure people consistently results in better outcomes than the free market, non profit organizations and social support networks. Conservatives donate much more money to charity and spend more hours volunteering than liberals. I don't think that makes them better people than liberals, but I do think that by aiming to prevent social problems through life choices and taking care of those in your own neighborhood who need a leg up is much more in line with Christian teaching than appealing to the state to take action.

    Consider, too, the political climate at the time of Jesus' ministry. The Roman government was the oppressor, and Jews were fighting hard to maintain their identity and way of life within their own little world while the bigger world around them posed a threat to their ability to do so. Then, amongst the Jews, the Christians were an even more disfavored and powerless minority who had no option of appealing to the state- the very state that executed their charamstic leader. I'm not sure if it's by design, by natural extension, or by coincidence, but that seems to be the prevailing attitude amongst conservatives today- that the world is out to get them and they need to protect their way of life. The government is seen as the antithesis of charity, generosity and the natural display of love.

    It often leads to absolutely bizarre results when conservative Christians have money and power. Somehow Donald Trump, a greedy, dishonest, immoral hateful, corporate fat-cat is painted as a divinely appointed savior for the little guy. Even when conservatives own the world and use their power for evil, they still imagine themselves as the oppressed minority fighting for freedom.
     
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  14. Stanislav

    Stanislav Well-Known Member

    This goes to the common criticism of Liberals being condescending, patronizing, or downright mean to poor old Conservatives. THIS is what we hear from the opposite side. I mean, on some level, it's #ucker Carlson being his usual #ucker self, but isn't he in the mainstream of GOP messaging nowadays?
     
  15. Dustin

    Dustin Well-Known Member

    And when there was no enemy at all, they invented one in the form of the Q cabal.
     
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  16. Bill Huffman

    Bill Huffman Well-Known Member

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  17. Bill Huffman

    Bill Huffman Well-Known Member

    I suspect that the DC Mormon Temple you speak of was either new and not blessed yet or was renovated and needs to be blessed again. Non-Mormons are not allowed in Mormon temples. As a matter of fact, Mormon church members are not even allowed in Mormon temples without a "recommend" from a Mormon bishop. Typically a member wanting to get a recommend will go to their bishop and assuming that they have paid their tithing will get the recommend. The recommend has a time limit on it. It's one year, IIRC.

    Most Mormon services are performed at churches, not temples. Temples are used for sealing marriages and people. Sealing means after death they will go to the same planet to live out eternity. Temples are also used to baptize for the dead.
     
    Last edited: May 10, 2022
  18. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Hehe.

    I'd like to repeat that I don't think conservatives are better people than liberals. I see the difference as liberals wanting an official solution to social problems and conservatives wanting a personal solution. I speculate that it has something to do with population density and the predominance of urban vs rural living among the two sides, and how your setting affects your interactions with your neighbors. But that's just a minimally educated guess.
     
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  19. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    The latter. The temple looms over the Beltway and is such a recognizable landmark in these parts that traffic reports will refer to it when reporting on slowdowns on that stretch of highway. I'm looking forward to the tour!
     
  20. Bill Huffman

    Bill Huffman Well-Known Member

    The Mormon Temple in San Diego also looms over the freeway. It is a very beautiful structure.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_California_Temple

    When it was finished some 30 years ago they let the public in. A group of friends at work were going there for lunch to see it. I declined to go. They said the inside was magnificent.
     
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