this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2023
837 points (96.4% liked)

politics

19090 readers
5913 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] -3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

There's not really any room for interpretation in "by this they will know you're my disciples: if you love one another."

There is room for interpretation in every statement, and that is far from the only quote in the Bible that defines what a Christian is.

and I'm not going to accept their redefinition of a term that applies to me.

Then nobody else needs to accept your definition either.

I'm not trying to convince non-Christians that he's not a Christian. I'm trying to convince other Christians that he isn't.

You are literally trying to convince me, an atheist, right now.

Love to, but he (and those like him) doesn't believe I'm a Christian, because I'm not a Republican. So they won't listen to people like me.

You can't do anything about it and it's his fault that you can't? Because that's a really pathetic defense.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

This is a really dumb slapfight you've picked and you should apologize to this guy.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It seems you just want to argue. If he said that grass was green, you’d come back with “well actually it’s all colors EXCEPT for green. Green is what’s reflected back to your eye.”

The fact is there are basic truths. Christians believe and follow the teachings of Jesus. If someone is not following those teachings, they are not Christian.

I can say I’m a purple elephant and I hate all pink mice because my savior in the Book of Phants told me to. None of that is any more true just because I said it. Likewise, for Mike Johnson. He and his friends can say whatever they want. Their actions show their true beliefs.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

There is room for interpretation in every statement,

Not if you're intellectually honest. Which...ok, fair enough, but I stand by my statement.

and that is far from the only quote in the Bible that defines what a Christian is.

Very true. But the guy who started it all said it quite clearly, and everything else he said that drew edges around this thing points to or flows out of that statement. It's not like there's some arcane other thing people can do that's completely unrelated; there's no secret magic. It's all pretty straightforward.

Then nobody else needs to accept your definition either.

I'm not asking non-Christians to. I'm asking people who claim to be Christians to understand what that term has historically meant, and what it meant at the beginning.

You are literally trying to convince me, an atheist, right now.

You're the one asking.

You can't do anything about it and it's his fault that you can't? Because that's a really pathetic defense.

I mean, if you've got any better ideas, I'm all ears. Seriously, I'm willing to try quite a lot at this point.

I do want to point out that this is a standard that most groups are not held to. Dog lovers are not called to "come get your boy" anytime sometime who claims to be a dog lover kicks a puppy. I'm all for Christians being called to a higher standard—I think we should be, and I think we should rise to it—but I'm really not sure what you think the options are here.