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Rik_Van_Looy in reply to @itsbruce

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)

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itsbruce in reply to @Rik_Van_Looy

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.

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Rik_Van_Looy in reply to @itsbruce

no true Christian?

Haha fair point - It's certainly not for me to decide who is and isn't a true Christian.
As far as I'm concerned it's not about being 'in' or 'out' of a 'social club', or the adherence to a set of arbitrary rules or laws. It's more of a journey in relationship with a creator God, through which ones outlook and behaviour change.

My personal observation on this journey and it's relevance to the discussion on this page is that what I understand to be the attitude of Christ to social justice, human rights etc is quite a bit closer to a modern humanist viewpoint than it is to historic Christian theocracies etc...

I'd best shut up now or I'll get redirected to the relevant God-bothering threads, but it's been an excellent discussion, cheers.

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