this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2025
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Three random atrocities you list don't hold any bearing.
As for your claim the scripture instructs you to "hate homosexuals"
Where does it say to hate these people? The whole context of this conversation is talking about the law and addressing pharisees.
Irrelevant.
"Red" to me means leftist. But I assume you're an American and talking about the American Republican party led by Donald Trump.
Pedantry aside, there are people who identify as Christian and fail to act on it. So what? Should I- someone who believes that God literally became man and died for our salvation, reject God's gift because Karen in Mississippi hates mexicans? By no means!
How do I feel about the current president of the United States of America? I believe he is an evil antichrist and he along with those who idolise him need to repent and turn to Jesus before it's too late for them.
The context is a list...
the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine
It drops homosexuality smack-dab in the middle of some of humanity's absolute worst. Even ignoring the other verse that states gays should be murdered with rocks, the one you linked paints a pretty clear picture of how christians are to think of gay people.
...how? That bit was contrasting the church against the book. The church is a function of the book. You ever heard the expression "the purpose of a system is what it does"? Kinda sounds stupid at first, but this is the kind of thing it's talking about, and the reason you see even memes saying things like "the system isn't broken and needs to be fixed; it's working exactly as intended and needs to be destroyed." The evil shit committed by the church is the result of the instructions from the lore. So, hard disagree - it's 100% relevant.
You are correct.
Naw that was a good distinction. We seem to be online around the same time, so I assumed you were also US, despite your instance.
Absolutely not, but back to the system spiel. I'm not talking about the occasional anomaly, I'm talking about recurring patterns, entire communities, voting patterns. Oppressive regimes have always had a cheat code to win elections, and that's be catering to christianity (in areas where christianity is the dominating religion... we could pretty well copy and paste this entire conversation subbed for islam or w/e if you wanted). It's the same us-vs-them shit every time. So should you- someone who believes in god, reject that mythology over the realization that it compels people to do evil things, consistently and frequently? That's up to you. I did. I'd at least encourage you to reject the evil - by which I mean the human element, the church. Cling to the book if you must, but advancing the church isn't doing humanity any favors.
antichrist... he certainly checks a lot of the boxes. I can say with a pretty high degree of certainty that the folks here won't be repenting in any meaningful way. Trump is their god; Jesus is just their mascot. ...I'm not convinced it isn't already too late for us.
And?
Matthew 5:43-44
So we should love them if they are our enemies..
So close yet so far! The whole Bible is about how we as humans are evil and need a saviour. This "evil shit committed by the church" isn't endorsed by the Bible at all! In fact, God's standard is perfection!
Matthew 5:48
We can't be perfect,
Romans 5:8
I have seen evil committed by Atheists as well, does that make every Atheist evil and depraved?
Yes. For example, Türkiye, the leaders often pay lip service to Islam. But if people who identify as Christians want non christian things, then populists will cater to that. Doesn't mean Christianity is at fault. The American republican party can be the same but stop paying lip service to Jesus.
No. Because I don't interpret the Bible to tell you to hate everyone who is sinful or different. I don't interpret it to mean "you are better than everyone else" or "elect a fascist". I think being a Christian means we need to act like Christ.
Can't argue with that. Not going to call the shots already and say he is THE antichrist, but he does check enough boxes to know that he should be avoided.
I covered that already: it paints a pretty clear picture of how christians are to think of gay people. Do you believe that homosexuality is fairly categorized into the same group as murderers, violent criminals, and slavers?
Should? Yes. Do? Rarely. Christians love to vote the rights away from the people scripture tells them to love. Why? Probably because scripture also tells christians to beat them to death with rocks. Which accomplishes the goal of bolstering hatred against that group while building a no-true-Scotsman scenario for people like you to dip in afterward and point to another verse and exclaim that "Oh no no no, those aren't true christians; everything's just unicorn farts and glitter between christianity and homosexuality, cuz we're supposed to loooove them!" So here you are, a knight in shining armor, defending evil and feeling like you have the moral high ground while doing it. It is absolutely wild how effective that book is at manipulating people with good intentions. This is why the contradictions are so glaringly unacceptable.
If god's standard is perfection and he made us evil, then he is himself evil. ...and the Bible absolutely endorses evil - this whole conversation is about a few of the specific examples of such.
Are you ignoring the spiel about systemic patterns and drawing attention to individuals, or is there an atheist playbook somewhere successfully convincing hordes of atheists to carry out the same types of evil against the same types of people? I'm not aware of the latter. There is no atheist dogma. If an atheist chooses to commit evil, that's on them... atheism isn't a cohesive group in any sense other than of the thousands of gods humans have invented, atheists believe in one fewer than you.
As you've probably guessed, my issue isn't with christianity specifically, but religion in general. I don't care if the user manual has a cross, star, crescent etc on the cover, it's all the same shit; that said, I'm more familiar with christianity, as it sounds you are as well, and christianity is the veneer of choice for a hefty chunk of the evil taking place where I live, and the one that me ensnared throughout my childhood, so that's the one I'm most vocally opposed to. Had I been born somewhere with a different regional mind-poison I'd be bitching about that one instead.
As did I... with a few uncomfortable exceptions that we've gone into great length discussing. That's why I asked how you reconcile the disparity between the church and the book: I could not. The purpose of a system is what it does... and what it does is incite hatred, sometimes to the extent of full-blown war. It is a tool of evil like no other.
For a start, don't truncate what it says. I will reword your question.
"Do you believe that men who practice homosexuality are fairly categorised into the same group as the lawless and disobedient, the ungodly and sinners, the unholy and profane,those who strike their fathers and mothers,murderers, sexually immoral, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whoever else practices what is contrary to sound doctrine?"
In that case, the answer is yes.
You could reword it to say also "do I believe that liars belong in the same category as murderers". In which case, it depends on the context. Is murder as bad as lying? No. But are murder and lying both sinful? Yes.
To round it off,
James 2:10-11
Romans 6:23
Quoting that fallacy is fallacy in itself.
James 1:26-27
No it doesn't. That was in the levitical law and was for the jews of that time. The law has been fulfilled through Christ who stopped the stoning of an adulterous woman. (John 8:1-11)
There is. And that is that "there is no God". Which also naturally follows "There is no final judgement". And if there is no God, one could reason morality doesn't exist. It can and has resulted to cruel acts. Hate and evil knows no creed.
I try to live out the change that I want to see, and rebuke those who act unchristlike.
There was a fella a while ago who I presume was just racist. He joined our Christian group and identified as Christian. Then he started spouting absolute vile hatred against muslims and even boasted about harassing them. I took the stand in telling him that even though we see islam itself as a heresy, the way he was acting was not only unconstructive but unchristlike. I guess because I lead, the others joined in an were like "yeah, Flax is right". He eventually got so fed up that we were so "weak" that he renounced Christianity and left us.
We're starting to go in circles, so I'm gonna skip the bits we've already addressed.
One could argue that, but not well. Morality and theology are a venn diagram. Religious doctrine can be and often is a source of morality, just as well as it can be and often is a source of evil. The former is why near the start of this conversation I mentioned that if christians actually behaved as their book instructed, things would be still fucked, but better than they are today. In any case, you can find examples of atheists behaving both morally and immorally as well, the moral side showcases that the threat of hell or w/e isn't necessary for people to behave. We have an innate sense of empathy that is enough in itself to show that morality doesn't need some parent in the sky threatening us with an eternal spanking if we don't keep our hands and arms to ourselves. There are also atheists who are absolutely rancid examples of a human, who may act in all flavors of greed or malice etc, in the same way you'll see christians succumbing to those traits. The distinction -and this is the important bit- is that with christians there's an additional source of hatred coming from their handbook, which will embolden the negative traits in those who already have them, but also add negative traits to those who otherwise would not. You stand out as a prime example of the latter: chastising racism and living the positive elements of christianity to the best of your ability; but you opened your previous post by revealing a touch of darkness directed at homosexuals. Your religion compels you to look at that group with some degree of hatred- albeit not to the extent of the other entries on that list, but it's there. Were you not influenced by christianity, I have no reason to believe you'd be any less moral in the aspects of your life in which you appear to be solid role model; and being that you appear to be an otherwise accepting person, I am confident you'd be able to look to the LGBT community without that hatred.
Unless ofc you're only behaving morally under the threat of a spanking from sky-daddy... and if you need to be tricked into that kind of performative morality, then you're no better than the garbage end of the spectrum of atheists who act on that same greed or w/e without the fear of a sky spanking. Which, funny enough, is really similar to the cautionary tale of the Pharisees, which you appear to already familiar with. So far though, I don't suspect that's you: even considering the faults that come with your religion, you strike me as pretty admirable person overall, and the kind of person that I kicked this conversation off by lamenting at christians in general not being. My perception of religion would be very different if you were the norm.