Sadly yes. If they really believe their book, they prefer them dying without sin than living and being damned to hell. Which nicely encompasses in a single sentence most off what is wrong with religions, Christianity in particular.
Except that isn’t in the Bible. The whole “Age of Accountability” thing is a very new idea, coming up only within the last 200-ish years or so. Like a lot of other stuff that fundamentalists bang on about, whether you believe that Christianity on the whole is made up or not, that part definitely is.
Some (but not very much) of the bullshit they ramble on about is in there, but it’s not in the important part.
All of the fire and brimstone, Sodom & Gomorrah, “I am a vengeful god” shit is in the Old Testament. Sure, the Old Testament is important (it’s like half of the book, after all), but it’s important as backstory. It’s literally just the Torah in a different order, included because Christianity started as a breakaway sect of Judaism.
The part that actually pertains directly to Christianity starts with a list of “begats,” some very confused shepherds, and a barn baby getting presents. The New Testament is mostly about helping others and being tolerant; and the star of the show, Jesus, literally goes around telling people that they can get into heaven just by being nice and helping the needy. He gets angry exactly once, and goes on a table-flipping rampage because someone else was taking advantage of poor pilgrims. It’s the kind of thing that a lot of the Christian Right would call “hippie bullshit,” but it’s also the entire point of their religion.
It kinda does, in this case. Their particular brand of it is all about fealty to the Bible; so if they aren’t upholding that basic tenet, they aren’t Christians. Ergo what they’re doing isn’t Christianity.
Today I went to church for the first time in years, and holy crap this could have been all politics on the good side. I don’t know what craziness your Christian’s call their Bible, but this branch was all about “love thy neighbor”, “tolerance”, “help the needy”, and a loooong discussion about how you can’t serve both gods and Mammon (greed/wealth).
There was no literal mention of politics, because “separation of church and state”, just good, honest Christianity that has a lot more to do with “the left” than anything I read here.
I am more or less that kind of Christian, and based on my study it’s the most accurate to the original intent. I’m glad you got a chance to experience that sort of Christianity.
Before it was collected as a compendium of official parts, sure, but most of the individual books (both the ones that made it into the current version and additional ones that ended up being rejected) were around. The Old Testament ones were already written down, and most of the Gospels were at least oral tradition very early on.
I believe it was over one hundred years before the Gospels were all written down, and early Christian sects had passionate disagreement over which texts were official or hearsay, but it’s not like they were completely without religious texts.
Put in modern terms, the Bible is a multiverse of fanfiction, with many different parts written by many different authors, some of the authors came later than others and wrote entries despite many of the earlier authors having abandoned their accounts long ago. Because of this there’s much disagreement as to which works are canon and which are just fanfiction. And later on when a compendium of the collected works was published, many works were excluded, and many had edits made for print that weren’t present in the original forum versions.
So the fandom has tons of opinions regarding which works are canon, and a few of the original forum posts were preserved so there is even more opinions but ultimately the forum was shut down a decade ago so mostly its all hearsay and various individual opinions and headcanons about it but finding the one true canon is basically impossible in part because there may not have ever been one true canon
Only partially. They had the Old Testament, which was a subset of the Jewish Bible. But more to the point, their concept of Christianity is, according to them, rooted in the Bible. But in reality, they haven’t read it.
Not reading the bible is not new. Reading the bible was something you literally were not allowed to do for like a thousand years in major sects like catholicism.
Isn’t that how it’s supposed to work? Parents preferring live children to dead ones in world that constantly throws weird bullshit their way?
Okay but what if my kid turns out gay or trans or a different kind of christian than me? It’s better that they die than any of that, right?
Sadly yes. If they really believe their book, they prefer them dying without sin than living and being damned to hell. Which nicely encompasses in a single sentence most off what is wrong with religions, Christianity in particular.
Except that isn’t in the Bible. The whole “Age of Accountability” thing is a very new idea, coming up only within the last 200-ish years or so. Like a lot of other stuff that fundamentalists bang on about, whether you believe that Christianity on the whole is made up or not, that part definitely is.
Some (but not very much) of the bullshit they ramble on about is in there, but it’s not in the important part.
All of the fire and brimstone, Sodom & Gomorrah, “I am a vengeful god” shit is in the Old Testament. Sure, the Old Testament is important (it’s like half of the book, after all), but it’s important as backstory. It’s literally just the Torah in a different order, included because Christianity started as a breakaway sect of Judaism.
The part that actually pertains directly to Christianity starts with a list of “begats,” some very confused shepherds, and a barn baby getting presents. The New Testament is mostly about helping others and being tolerant; and the star of the show, Jesus, literally goes around telling people that they can get into heaven just by being nice and helping the needy. He gets angry exactly once, and goes on a table-flipping rampage because someone else was taking advantage of poor pilgrims. It’s the kind of thing that a lot of the Christian Right would call “hippie bullshit,” but it’s also the entire point of their religion.
Exactly. Amen, go in peace, all that.
Not the point of their religion. Obviously.
Just because it “isn’t in the bible” doesnt mean it isnt part of Christianity.
It kinda does, in this case. Their particular brand of it is all about fealty to the Bible; so if they aren’t upholding that basic tenet, they aren’t Christians. Ergo what they’re doing isn’t Christianity.
Today I went to church for the first time in years, and holy crap this could have been all politics on the good side. I don’t know what craziness your Christian’s call their Bible, but this branch was all about “love thy neighbor”, “tolerance”, “help the needy”, and a loooong discussion about how you can’t serve both gods and Mammon (greed/wealth).
There was no literal mention of politics, because “separation of church and state”, just good, honest Christianity that has a lot more to do with “the left” than anything I read here.
I am more or less that kind of Christian, and based on my study it’s the most accurate to the original intent. I’m glad you got a chance to experience that sort of Christianity.
That’s a very ahistorical view of what Christianity is–Christianity existed for decades (centuries?) before there even was a bible.
Before it was collected as a compendium of official parts, sure, but most of the individual books (both the ones that made it into the current version and additional ones that ended up being rejected) were around. The Old Testament ones were already written down, and most of the Gospels were at least oral tradition very early on.
I believe it was over one hundred years before the Gospels were all written down, and early Christian sects had passionate disagreement over which texts were official or hearsay, but it’s not like they were completely without religious texts.
Put in modern terms, the Bible is a multiverse of fanfiction, with many different parts written by many different authors, some of the authors came later than others and wrote entries despite many of the earlier authors having abandoned their accounts long ago. Because of this there’s much disagreement as to which works are canon and which are just fanfiction. And later on when a compendium of the collected works was published, many works were excluded, and many had edits made for print that weren’t present in the original forum versions.
So the fandom has tons of opinions regarding which works are canon, and a few of the original forum posts were preserved so there is even more opinions but ultimately the forum was shut down a decade ago so mostly its all hearsay and various individual opinions and headcanons about it but finding the one true canon is basically impossible in part because there may not have ever been one true canon
But also it’s more than just texts included in one source–depending on sect.
Only partially. They had the Old Testament, which was a subset of the Jewish Bible. But more to the point, their concept of Christianity is, according to them, rooted in the Bible. But in reality, they haven’t read it.
Not reading the bible is not new. Reading the bible was something you literally were not allowed to do for like a thousand years in major sects like catholicism.