Right, this "not a real Christian" bullshit that Christians use to brush away the hateful people and teachings within your religion.
Own up to these people, they're your fellow Christians no matter how much you claim they aren't. Own them and fix them, instead of sweeping them under the rug and claiming they aren't real
If they have to tell you they are Christian, they are not. If they have to tell you they are honest, they are not. If the have to tell you that they don't watch porn, they do.
If they're not following the teachings of the founder of the religion, they're not part of the religion. It's not the No True Scotsman fallacy, because being a part of the religion requires them to do something (repent and love others) which they refuse to do.
Incidentally, I'd love to "fix them," but they don't think that I'm a Christian because I don't worship Trump.
I have mixed feelings about that instinct. Calling out and distancing from the religious hypocrites is a Jesus thing to do. But also when non Christians fear Christians they need to understand why we feel that way and many Christians don’t seem to understand that I’m even scared of Christianity at it’s best.
So in short, do they just disavow or do they adamantly oppose as well? If they do the latter I’m happy they do the former, but I’ve seen far too many think the former is enough before they start shit talking atheists
I totally get your point, but I think there is validity in calling into question your right to identify as a member of a given religion when you go directly against your religion's teachings.
"No True Scotsman" is when you attempt to protect your generalized statement by placing counterexamples outside the bounds of the statement. But in the case of Christianity, people who don't love are self-selecting out of that group by the words of the founder himself, who said "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
I'm not saying they aren't a Christian, and the OP isn't saying that either. The person who is hateful is saying that they aren't a Christian, as surely as a person who kicks puppies for fun is saying that they aren't a dog lover. They could swear up and down later that they can't be a puppy kicker because they're a dog lover, but the fact that they're kicking puppies self-selects them out of that group.
Technically, yes. It's a fallacy to call all of the hateful christians "not real". Since there's just so many that identify and are identified as christians that are hateful, it's mostly an academic distinction.
It IS interesting that so many christains don't follow their own faith. For it is true that to be an overtly hatefuly or bigoted person is to ignore the core teachings of christianity.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
To define "fruit," reference Galatians 5:22-23 - "... the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."
Mike Johnson worships himself, like a lot of ignorant people who call themselves Christians right now.. calls himself Moses and so on, because he's full of pride.. and yeah, that is the same as worshipping Satan, or "being controlled by the Devil" or however else you want to say it..
I think when a Christian minister is making a statement about a guy who is VERY vocal about how his every action is influenced by his being a Christian, then a Christian denounciation feels adequate.
I don't know if this weird little man is controlled by the xtian devil, but I do know that like so many of today's cons/GOP, he is one creepy weirdo. A party filled with creepy weirdos.
Imagine thinking your god (note the lack of a capital g the provincial xtians love to use) gives you a right to poke around in others' lives.
I just want to pause here and say that this kind of thing, much like basically any bumper sticker ever, is stupid as fuck and I hate it. Whether it's my dumb fucking cousin saying "Killary" or equally annoying mouth breathers talking about "Drumpf." Like, I'm as atheist as the day is long, and holy shit does it make the parent comment annoying to read. Your super great "hillary lied, people died" bumper sticker, the "honk if Trump should go to jail," just all of it. It sucks, I hate it, it's the laziest form of persuasion (spoilers, it's persuading no one, it's just pissing off the people you want to convince.) Oh you didn't capitalize the 'g'? Well fuck it's me the pope, let's peace out and go get tacos this Jesus thing was dumb anyway.
Just in case you are unaware the entire concept of the anti-christ was supposed to be Nero. The last book of the Bible was very controversial partially because of this reason. Other stuff you can argue about but to me at least this is a proven false prophecy and really should not be part of Christianity. However, I am a non-believer so maybe you shouldn't follow my advice.
Christians have had years to see that Trump is not what they’d call a “godly” person. It baffles me how segments of the population who claim to uphold Christian ethics can so overwhelmingly support him, but of course by definition they are not objective or logical people.
What makes you think he doesn't support Christian ethics? I strongly associate his behavior and words with the Christianity I grew up with. He is vengeful, bigoted, childish, treats everyone he sees as weaker with contempt, prideful, and demands loyalty to himself over all other considerations. What part of that isnt things associated with a follower of Christ?
It’s the difference between their professed beliefs and their actual behavior. One could deduce that they like Trump because he’s like them. If people claiming to be devout Christians actually understood and followed the principles Jesus preached they’d be amazing people, but sadly it’s quite rare.
The devil has seen better days. You would expect a devil controlled human to be some sorta uber-human ultimate fighter. Zipping around the battlefield, single handedly committing whole outrages. Not some schmuck in a suit who got his job because of political stalemate.
I mean the devil is literally the great deceiver. in all biblical portrayals the only thing devil does is lie essentially. the lies sow doubts and people lose their faith.
what you're describing is more along the lines of demons. and they're technically easier to deal with because it's so obvious.
I'm not religious but the devil really is a clever construct in Christianity, and highlights the best "feature": salvation is based on faith and faith alone and everyone can be saved.
it is so much more effective at brainwashing than materialistic control
The devil never lies in the Bible. In the garden of Eden story (yes retrocon) he is the only one telling the truth. In Job he got something wrong but didn't lie.
In any case there is no god so you can move on with your life.
Yeah. He could've just went with "Mike Johnson is possessed by EVIL and left it at that. Would've been 100 percent accurate, no need to bring my boi Lucifer into this