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I also don't understand why things like homosexuality are orders of magnitude more important than all the other sins named in the Bible -- and often far more cl
by api 12y ago
I also don't understand why things like homosexuality are orders of magnitude more important than all the other sins named in the Bible -- and often far more clearly and unambiguously.
You don't see Christians protesting outside credit card companies because they engage in usury, or against companies that make their employees work on Sundays, or for policies to help the poor, or anything else like that.
Ultimately what it comes down to is that ideology/religion is the cart, not the horse. People have prejudices and preconceived notions, then they cherry pick from their ideology of choice to rationalize them. People think gays are icky and weird, so they cherry pick from the Bible to support discrimination against them. But usury is profitable so they ignore those parts.
- anon808 12y agoOr how about the most obvious one, killing ie. wars. Conventional American Christianity and the military are very closely tied; how that disconnect is ignored is beyond me.
- happyscrappy 12y agoYou cannot be a pacifist without a protector, ask Tibet.
- phrogdriver 12y agoStrong jus ad bellum and jus in bello traditions in the military? For better or worse, people can justify killing in war.
- joshuapants 12y agoA more accurate translation of the commandment would be "you shall not murder." Conservative Judaism is also pretty big into the military, and pretty much every major religion makes a distinction between murder and justified killing. e: Just to be more clear, this isn't me coming up with my own justification. The Hebrew word "ratsakh" used in the commandment specifically refers to murder or manslaughter and isn't used in the context of killing in war.
- keehun 12y agoGood point. Even without cherry picking, in this instance, when the Bible/God/Jesus declares it the greatest commandment, you'd think they would pay a little more attention to it.
- mc32 12y agoInterestingly, it seems these things change over time. There was a time usury was seen as a scourge and homosexuality was not seen as something to counter, people were just left alone. I'm thinking eight to ten centuries ago. Usury was seen as pretty vile, but that seems to have changed over the past few centuries. Why? I have no idea, except societies change over time but don't know what brings about that change in sentiment... Some times forward sometimes regressive sentiments.
- Torgo 12y agoThey are lost causes, and you're generally not personally compelled to use them (except the ACA, now.) >People think gays are icky and weird http://research.vtc.vt.edu/news/2014/oct/29/liberal-or-conservative-brain-responses-disgusting/ http://research.vtc.vt.edu/news/2014/oct/29/liberal-or-conse... People with stronger disgust response tend to be conservative.
- toomuchtodo 12y agoCan we assume with the acceptance of interracial marriage in the 70's through the 90's, the acceptance of gay marriage between the 90's and now, and the beginnings of the acceptance of drug decriminalization/legalization now are signs the US is tilting "liberal/progressive" (or whatever the opposite of conservative is)? "Progress occurs one funeral at a time."