this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2023
836 points (96.4% liked)

politics

19135 readers
2246 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 90 points 11 months ago (6 children)

Important to understand that there's also a form of civil war going on within the Church in the US between the more liberal churches, which this pastor represents, and the conservative, evangelical churches, which Mike Johnson represents.

[–] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 58 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Can confirm.

In my town, a lot of the churches are more about peace and love and helping the community. They fly lgbtq+ flags. Their biggest outdoor events involve feeding homeless, or cleaning the parks.

They absolutely hate these mega church types, and often get lumped into the shit.

[–] whereisk@lemmy.world 33 points 11 months ago (2 children)

That sounds a lot more Christ-like (feed the hungry, give as much as you can to the poor etc) than whatever mutation the evangelicals are worshipping.

[–] EatYouWell@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

The Episcopalians do it right. They allowed gay ministers well over a decade ago.

[–] prole@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Jesus also instructed us on how to properly beat our slaves

[–] teuast@lemmy.ca 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

< nitpick >I could be operating with incomplete information, but I don't think that was technically Jesus, I'm pretty sure that was in Exodus, which was much earlier.< / nitpick >

[–] prole@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 months ago

Far more than just Exodus

https://www.biblestudytools.com/topical-verses/bible-verses-about-slavery/

And yeah my mistake, it was NT but not Jesus. Southern states used all of these verses to justify chattal slavery in the US.

That being said, Jesus referenced slavery all of the time without condemning it (in fact I think he tells slave masters to treat their slaves well. That's not ok). He used slaves and slavery as allegories in his parables, etc.

Jesus himself said that he came to fulfill the old law and that not a word of it will change (in so many words). He explicitly supports Old Testament law, and therefore supports slavery and the rules surrounding beating them. If he didn't, he could have very easily had said so.

He tacitly approved of it. And I couldn't care less about "the times". Slavery is bad, period. No matter what/where it's taking place.

[–] TechyDad@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

There's a church near me that flies a pride flag. Now, I'm not Christian (or LGBTQ) so I wouldn't go to pray there, but I was happy to see it. Too many places of worship make the news for how hateful they are. It's nice to see one advertising how inclusive they are.

Again, I'm not Christian and thus not an expert on Jesus, but from what I know his message was a pretty good one. Help the poor, the sick, and anyone else who needs assistance. If more churches actually followed Jesus instead of screaming that the Bible says you should buy more guns, assault immigrants, hate people different from you, and worship Trump while giving the pastor as much money as possible, then maybe they would be in better shape.

[–] MaxVoltage@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

Viva Christo Rey

[–] eestileib@sh.itjust.works 43 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Important to note that the sides are in like a 5:1 ratio and Johnson is on the larger side.

Also the liberal churches are far older and are shrinking; denominations and mega-churches who act like Johnson's are growing.

Young people see it all as a bunch of bs, except the radical ones, which drives religion to greater and greater insanity.

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago

It's also a simple matter of funding.

The megachurches preaching prosperity gospel, cramming 10,000 people into a building, and hoarding their wealth (most don't pay apportionments to a larger denomination that is used to fund service projects) find it easier to keep the doors open than the little churches that focus on compassion and community service.

[–] cybersandwich@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

Righteous Gemstones vibes

[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 7 points 11 months ago

So if theres a break between the churches... again. How long till we get some christian anarchist type beheading random pastors or some other John Brown type shit.

[–] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

The divide falls between small churches that help their community, and large churches that help themselves...

[–] elbarto777@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

It just dawned on me that evangelicals are the evangélicos in South America. Let me tell you, South America being 90% Catholic, we see evangelicals as crazy fanatics. If someone told me that an evangélico was part of the government in the country I grew up with, most people would immediately dismiss whatever they have to say about people going to hell or whatever.

I guess the only difference with this guy is that he's wielding too much power, which makes him dangerous. But other than that, anything he has to say will be met with "sure, sure, old man, praise the lord whatever, go pray somewhere far away from me."

[–] whofearsthenight@lemm.ee -1 points 11 months ago

You know, watching religion decline in the west largely as a result of the more fanatical like Johnson, I kinda hope their side wins so we can be done with it. There are few things that are more of a cancer on society (globally as well) than religion and the dogmatic approach to the world that it espouses.