there4eyeM
unlicensed metaphysician
- Jul 5, 2012
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In a Christian, faith based context, the fundamental concept is that everything comes from "God". Egoistic concerns about "owning" and what is "mine" are subsided. The limited and limiting concept of property is mitigated by the force of "God" being generous, so one must also be. Fundamentally, there is a realization that to possess is to be possessed."A", you state your case lucidly and well. Your arguments need to be heard, but hearing doesn't seem to go on very much in current American political dialog. It is almost all shouting and cliché exchange.I know it's not true. I just did what PrincessAwesome did.On the contrary, so-called Republican Christianity is more similar to Biblical Christianity when it comes to their view of the poor.No, that's the wackiness of mainstream and evangelical Christianity.You should get a load of how different and whacked-out liberal "Christianity" is.I do find it funny that Republican Christianity is so different from Biblical Christianity, that you guys have to condemn the pope. If Jesus was alive today, you'd hate that brown Socialist.
Liberal Christianity? You mean because they don't follow Hal Lindsey or believe in the Rapture?
Liberal Christianity is voodoo Christianity; it incorporates Eastern spiritual practices. It teaches God as male and female and co-creator alongside humankind. It advocates for big government and disruptions in family cohesion. With their noses in the air, they accuse traditional Christians of moral superiority.
Most bizarre, I think, is that they deny the deity of Christ, which should make them not any kind of Christian. But then, as with everything else, they like to change definitions.
But so-called Liberal Christianity is more similar to Biblical Christianity when it comes to their view of the poor.
Conservatives only care about Christianity when it comes to oppressing certain groups of people.
Liberals only care about Christianity when it comes to oppressing certain groups of people.
That's not true, because they scream and yell when we oppress no one. Samaritan's purse setup a free clinic in NYC, that was open to everyone, and they tried to have it closed.
As for Republicans and Christianity, yes both care about the poor in the same way, which is good and moral.
You miss nuance.
But what I did was actually true, whereas you were lying.
Liberals care about helping the poor, Conservatives say that helping the poor is "big government."
Conservatives only invoke Christianity when it comes to oppressing minorities.
Isn't it odd to you that a political party would invoke Christianity and then viciously lie and slander their opponent?
Viciously lie and slander? Like saying Trump was a Puppet of Putin, or Bret Kavanough was a rapist, or that Maga Hat people attacked Jussie Smollett in Chicago at 1 AM, at 14º below zero?
Pointing out that left-wingers are in fact liars, is not lies and slander.... it's fact.
We share many similar thoughts and observations, though not all. "Left" and "right" in our culture don't function as meaningful terms anymore, thanks to distortion form all sides. The entire dictionary is nearly obsolete. My positions are mine and what labels people place on them are of no interest to me. "What works?" is what is important to me. This goes with the willingness to try something and the flexibility to change if the results are not what are desired. Overall, attaching to an "ism" looks to be much too limiting and often leads to dreadful excesses. "Eclecticism" is about the only one I could class as acceptable.
The early Christian communities were communistic by today's definitions, but that is not the "Communism" we saw in the 20th century and certainly no endorsement of it. In a basic manner, families are communal, in that those who can (the parents) work and those who need help (the children) receive help until they, too, can contribute. That's fine. Parenting should be a lifting up process ('raising' children). Society can take a lesson from that and help 'raise' the lesser enabled to a point at least closer to self sufficiency.
Calling that "Socialism" is a great way to sabotage what could be progress. At the same time, simple "aid" that only keeps the dependent dependent serves malevolent interests, not human ones.
There is too much fascination with formulaic, simplistic, one-size-fits-all, doctrinarian, polarized approaches. This duality is illusion and will not take us to the best destination, and may easily bring us to the end.
Good post..
Families are communal and depend on each other.. extended families live that social contract.. Conflating that with socialism seems like a stretch to me. Would you imagine that a small church congregation would help each other without being called communists??
There is nothing wrong with any of that, because it's not social control. Families helping each other, is not socialism. There is no social control, or controlling the means of production and distribution.
For example, the head of the family, still has one hundred percent ownership of his wealth and property. He choose to share that wealth with his family, or the community.
But he is not required to, or forced to.
If the father came home, and decided to not share his pay check, there is nothing anyone could do about it.
Socialism involves forcing people to give up control of their own wealth, property, and income. That's one of the key problems with claiming the Bible supports the concept of socialism, is that not one person was forced to share anything with anyone. And there were most certainly people who did not share with everyone, and we know that because Jesus himself was buried in the tomb of a rich man.
Under socialism the rich man would have his wealth confiscated from him, and distributed to those who had not earned it, and there would be no wealthy man's tomb for Jesus to be buried in.
We could say that "socialism" demands generosity while lacking the moral force, at least for anyone who is not immersed in the ideology.
In any case, the excesses of "me-my-mine" are responsible for wealth disparity that always brings disaster. Materialism is a killer.