That’s because for a couple of hundred of years, it primarily WAS the religion of slaves and subject peoples.
Paul, eager to spread the faith outside of the Hebrew enclaves, reinforced the “servant” facet of Jesus’ teachings and in several of his letters he appeals quite directly to slaves, urging them to obey their masters in all things and accept their lot in life (as an afterthought, he allows that masters should treat their slaves decently). The Romans - practical folk that they were - quickly picked up on that message as well as the whole “non-violent suffering in silence” thing and started to encourage their slaves and non-citizen subject races to adopt the religion. That’s one of the reasons that a relatively minor Jewish mystery sect spread so quickly around the Mediterranean basin and became a distinct religion in just a couple generations.
I understand why you might say this, and it has elements of truth to it, but it’s representative of a common misconception about Christianity. Christ gave his followers the two greatest commandments, and ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ comes after (per theology, is a result of, since man is not naturally inclined toward loving his neighbor) ‘love the Lord your God’.
Which isn’t to say that Sanders doesn’t do good things, or stick up for the downtrodden in a way that Christians also ought to–that’s just not sufficient to make him a better Christian than most Christians.
(There are also plenty of theological debates over whether ‘give your money to the government, which will then care for the oppressed’ is sufficient to discharge the command ‘care for the oppressed’. I tend to come down on ‘no, it should be you, directly caring for the oppressed’, given that the reasoning behind most Christian teachings is that they should in some way reflect God’s grace toward men, but the other view is perfectly defensible too.)
Well, Jesus cribbed the neighbors part from Rabbi Hillel, so there’s that. But since a vast swath of mostly evangelical Christians seem to believe all they have to do is answer the altar call, say a magic phrase and they’re saved, all is good from here on out, the hard part is over - I think it might just be sufficient ;-)
From my perspective, where I was raised Catholic, later brainwashed with creationism (which is a whole religious culture, not just a set of scientific falsehoods), and am now fully secular, I think it’s pretty silly to classify religions based on mythology or scripture.
It is quite evident that they have little bearing on what the faithful choose to believe. It’s much better to form a religious taxonomy based on the tenets of each culture. The liberal forms of Christianity in the Pacific Northwest, say, have almost nothing in common the with fundamentalist flavors in the deep south & midwest, save for their mythology.
When we’re talking about Republicans, it’s pretty easy to say that we’re talking about fundamentalist Christianity. They tell us as much themselves almost every time they open their mouths.
It’s a waste of time to take issue with it. That’s just what the word Christian means in those parts of the country. It hardly matters that it’s not very Jesus-like. (It’s easy to say Sanders is more Jesus-like, too. It’s a much less ambiguous term.)
So, this ad is playing in Nevada for Hillary. It really pulls at the heart strings.
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It’s a waste of time to take issue with it. That’s just what the word Christian means in those parts of the country. It hardly matters that it’s not very Jesus-like. (It’s easy to say Sanders is more Jesus-like, too. It’s a much less ambiguous term.)
I think it’s perfectly fair to call them on it, because clearly their pastors aren’t doing their job.
Those people are the same as fundamentalist Muslims who allow some Imam to twist Islam to be some weird bastardization of the religion.
If you don’t do any of the shit Christ said, then you are a shitty Christian. Maybe people don’t like hearing that. I don’t care.
That’s a good way of putting it.
Definitely one of her better efforts.
By all means, of course we should call them out on all their hypocrisy and evil.
But there’s no sense wasting time over what the word Christian means, because it’s come to embody the vile forms of the religion as much as the moderate ones.
I totally thought he was going to be the nominee somehow. I still think it will be an establishment candidate. But I guess that won’t be Jeb!, maybe Rubio then I guess.
Yep, it’s really down to Trump, Cruz, and Rubio at this point. The irony being that most of the people who run the GOP, or who thought they were running the GOP, want nothing to do with two of the three candidates.
Of course this won’t be the first time that someone whom the GOP insiders wanted nothing to do with got the nomination. I mean, there was Goldwater in '64!
So, on the assumption that Kasich is out pretty soonish, then all his votes go to Rubio.
If Rubio were to drop out, I reckon his votes would go to Cruz.
If Cruz were to punt… I dunno… I imagine that they’d mostly (maybe 2/3) go to Trump, right?
I’m honestly surprised that Bush dropped out before frikkin’ CARSON. It couldn’t have take too much more money to get him through to Super Tuesday, right? It’s just a couple weeks away. I’d suspect a deal with one of the other candidates for the VP nod, but Rubio can’t use him (Florida overload!), and I can’t imagine that Bush would ever stomach being Trump’s running mate. Cruz maybe? Weird.
He could stick around for a while if he doesn’t have a large campaign staff.
So Jeb is called Jeb because he’s John Ellis Bush. Holy shit, he’s the Gob of the Bush family. It explains everything.
Was listening to Sympathy for the Devil on the way home from Tahoe tonight and I think that if any candidate running for president were actually the antichrist, it would be Cruz.
@MikeDrucker
“Remember when I choked on a pretzel, Jeb?”
“Please not now, George.”
“They made me president twice.”
“OK.”
“I dressed like a fighter pilot”
