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They found ways to align what they were doing with scripture because that was how you a) persuaded people to accept those beliefs, b) tried to avoid persecution for heresy.
If you were born and raised Christian and decided that something was a good idea, since you also believed God was good, clearly you'd find a way to show why God would support it. Doesn't mean the idea had the slightest connection with a mystery cult that became the official faith of a bloodthirsty empire.Fair enough - I guess I'd argue that these progressive people had a clear understanding of the central redemptive message of Christ and that the rotters were using a religious framework to serve their own ends ("fuck all to do with faith" to use your terminology)
Rik_Van_Looy-
Thing is though, nobody is even sure what Jesus' message was. Did he do away with the Jewish laws for example? Can you save yourself by following law? Were his apostles correct in being such sexist douches?
I think we can all agree "nice Jesus" is way better than "hell to y'all", but it's not even clear that image is Biblically correct.
But yep, the rotters will use religion to their own ends if they can...that's one thing we can all agree on I think :)
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You mean no true Christian behaves like that? Tricky.
But yep, the rotters will use religion to their own ends if they can
@JWestland Scruton is one of those.
JWestland
itsbruce
Two men who happened to be Christian and whose faith - as they interpreted it - lined up against the regressive behaviour of most Christian churches and most Christians. Not much evidence for anything.
There have been several minority break-away movements over the centuries with an interest in social justice (e.g. during the English Civil War, John Wesley) but since everybody was Christian (or said so, to avoid painful death), you can't use them as evidence of Christian charity. Since those sects were consistently persecuted by the majority, I'd argue their progressive beliefs had fuck all to do with their faith, frankly. They found ways to align what they were doing with scripture because that was how you a) persuaded people to accept those beliefs, b) tried to avoid persecution for heresy. If you were born and raised Christian and decided that something was a good idea, since you also believed God was good, clearly you'd find a way to show why God would support it. Doesn't mean the idea had the slightest connection with a mystery cult that became the official faith of a bloodthirsty empire.