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Why doesn't the laws of the US reflect the "Nation of Christians" it claims to be?

From what I observe, the Bible can be interpreted in many different ways.
Each Xian still has his/her own personality. Interpretations will reflect this.

Right, however, I never understood if this book is suppose to be the Truth, why do we have so many interpretations? I would think God would say this is my word and follow it to the T regardless of the changes of life. But it doesn't. Preachers preach on THEIR OWN interpretation and just since it came from the Bible then it's right. The Bible sets people up to be hypocrites. Otherwise, it would be straightforward.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Right, however, I never understood if this book is suppose to be the Truth, why do we have so many interpretations? I would think God would say this is my word and follow it to the T regardless of the changes of life. But it doesn't. Preachers preach on THEIR OWN interpretation and just since it came from the Bible then it's right. The Bible sets people up to be hypocrites. Otherwise, it would be straightforward.
Truth....I wouldn't know it even if it came up & bit me.
 

Benoni

Well-Known Member
No I don't think it's being "brainwashed" to believe that the we are heading to destruction. We are the Cancer in God's body. I believe that instead of going along with the program that was written long before our time that places a few in control of the masses, that we should be focused on working together to accomplish our mission for God. I can tell you are a person that believes that since things have been like this for so long why change it? But I hate to tell you that if things continue, then your and my great grandchildren will suffer the most. With all the technology we have now, we still TOLERATE slavery of humans? And I bet you believe that we are different too. That's why you have this condensing attitude about how things can be. That perspective you have is why things haven't changed yet. In religion, people strive to go to their version of "heaven" but my belief is why can't we try to make the home we have now the same way or at least close to it.


I really think you should read your history. Everything going on in America today happened before and let me tell you, there is no Roman Empire today.
I am far from a traditional Christian and do not fit their mode and pretty much toally disagree with main stream Christianity. I believe the world is right where God intended it to be and nothing happens outside of God’s will. God uses the human system for a purpose and in the end babylion will be distroyed,
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Matthew 25:41-46
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

There have been an increasing trend to make laws that criminalize being homeless or feeding the homeless in many cities across the US. A nation, where 83% of its citizens claim to be Christains, is showing signs of being more Anti-Christ then Christ-like. The scripture provided above is a parable told by Jesus that describes how to treat the poor. I always thought, while growing up, being Christian was to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, which the religion is named after. There are Christians that will literally do physical harm to you if you disagree with anything Jesus taught but yet the laws of the land reflect otherwise. But I guess the other 17% of people are the ones making the laws in this country. Or is it just the normal hypocrisy of religion? What are your thoughts.

Columbia isn't the only town to criminalize homelessness | Public Policy LTD. | Charleston City Paper

Near as I can figure it out, a lot of Christians don't really like their professed religion all that much.
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Jesus was down right anti religious. Ask the Pharasees and Sadusees of his day.

How anti-religious Jesus was is a subject of debate. Some folks think Jesus was more interested in reforming Judaism than he was interested in abolishing it, or interested in founding a new religion.

At any rate, the question seems off topic to me, so I won't debate it further.
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
The "social consciousness" that Christianity largely inherited from Judaism seems to have been overwhelmed by the politics of the Religious Right. But this sort of thing seems to go in cycles. If you traveled back to the late 1800s, you'd find a majority of Protestant churches in the Midwest and Northeast (especially) being led by Progressive pastors. Or so I've been told.
 

ChristineES

Tiggerism
Premium Member
There are lots of reasons:
1. There aren't only Christians in this country who vote.
2. Some Christians believe that people who don't follow the faith don't have to follow the rules for it.
3. Sometimes Christians disagree on what a sin is.
And of course, there are more reasons.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
There are lots of reasons:
1. There aren't only Christians in this country who vote.
Blaming the heathen, eh? Hmmm...come to think of it, I'm one of those voters
who advocates a rather non-Xian agenda. I guess you're on to something.

Btw, I'm not shaking me fist at you. I'm just drawn that way.
 

Benoni

Well-Known Member
How anti-religious Jesus was is a subject of debate. Some folks think Jesus was more interested in reforming Judaism than he was interested in abolishing it, or interested in founding a new religion.

At any rate, the question seems off topic to me, so I won't debate it further.
Agreed about off topic. But think about it Jesus never started the Chrsitian Religion it was Rome. Faith in religion and faith in Jesus are two totally different beliefs.
 

Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
The US is not a "Christian nation", as in it's governed by Christian law. Christians themselves don't even know what Christian law is supposed to be, as seen in this thread. Jesus says to sell all that you own and give it to the poor? Well, they'll just say that that's not what the text means when it's clearly what it says. If we look at the original followers of Jesus' ministry and Jesus himself and how they behaved, you could make a good argument that the vast majority of self-proclaimed Christians are a bunch of fakes. If they weren't, they'd be a bunch of anarcho-communists living in a commune. But that's not how it is.
 

lewisnotmiller

Grand Hat
Staff member
Premium Member
Well here is the place to debate it big fella.

:D

Really? Thought it might be too OT. But in short you can pick your measure. How is the US the best? Biggest and most powerful perhaps. But by what measure do you judge them 'best'?
 
The US is not a "Christian nation", as in it's governed by Christian law. Christians themselves don't even know what Christian law is supposed to be, as seen in this thread. Jesus says to sell all that you own and give it to the poor? Well, they'll just say that that's not what the text means when it's clearly what it says. If we look at the original followers of Jesus' ministry and Jesus himself and how they behaved, you could make a good argument that the vast majority of self-proclaimed Christians are a bunch of fakes. If they weren't, they'd be a bunch of anarcho-communists living in a commune. But that's not how it is.

Totally agree. Those "fake" Christians hide behind that claim that, "God didn't literally mean that, He meant..." to justify why they don't follow what the scriptures actually say. I hope this post wasn't too much...
 

InformedIgnorance

Do you 'know' or believe?
Why don't the laws of the US reflect widely accepted (by Xian denominations prevalent within the US) recorded sources of revelation (i.e. the testament)? Firstly, not all the denominations are (or were) able to agree on what is meant in those testaments such as to facilitate the codification of law. Secondly and more importantly, the majority of US citizens are not psychotic - which is what would be required to accept the prescriptions of morality and law as depicted in these testaments in the modern era.

Even before the establishment of the US significant we had made sufficient advancements in philosophy and our understand of the universe as to be able to recognise why certain claims within those texts were perhaps unsuitable to be taken as literal guidelines for society or as claims to facts about the universe or history. For example killing your child for talking back is not appropriate, or killing a woman because she was raped - not appropriate; this was something that even the more fundamentally Xian among the pilgrims at the time of the founding would have been cognizant of to some extent (though clearly not so much as we are now).

Given they considered (and still do) the bible infallible, this meant that they either accepted these claims as facts (which meant going against the law which is to some extent the codification of the established norms of society) or else that they reconsidered the nature of how certain components of the bible might have been intended as an attempt to square their assertions of infallibility with their comprehension of reality. Thus (to assist in managing cognitive dissonance) they determined (as they still do) that there are some portions of the record which are either not intended to be taken literally or are else inaccurate because of human influences over those sections.
 

ChristineES

Tiggerism
Premium Member
Blaming the heathen, eh? Hmmm...come to think of it, I'm one of those voters
who advocates a rather non-Xian agenda. I guess you're on to something.

Btw, I'm not shaking me fist at you. I'm just drawn that way.

Christians and non-Christians have an equal opportunity to vote. Not everyone exercises that right.
:)
 
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