When This Period of History is Viewed by Future Generations


An evangelical columnist made clear his own personal version of the overriding issue in Christianity. He wants rules about how a family is to be managed. He has no doubts of his own righteousness. He is a walking talking example, in Catholic, Protestant, liberal and conservative Christianity as to why it is slipping in popularity.  

I am certain fifteen-twenty years from now pundits and historians will look back at this decade and conclude this is when Christianity switched from being a force of good for U.S. and Western societies and became a source of harm. There have always been harmful branches of the faith but what was considered "good" crowded out in the public's mind what was bad.  Today, the bad is crowding out what is or was thought to be good. Christianity is undergoing a change to being a force of bad in the public's perception. 

During our country's history, Christianity has been used to justify slavery, segregation, second class status for women and anti gay. Yet, beginning with our founding fathers, there was a belief that the faith encouraged lawful and productive behavior. Many of the founding fathers were not devout or were not at all Christian. But they saw the faith as something good for the country. 

About the time my grandparents were born, there were still public auctions of slaves. There was a big slave auction house in the middle of Washington, D.C. Babies were sold out of their mother's arms, never to be seen again. Perhaps the Quakers who opposed slavery represented only a small part of Christianity but loomed large in the perception of "good" about the faith. In a sense, they drowned out the bad.

Today, I don't see a modern version of the Quakers. That is, there is not a branch of the faith taking public risks to defend women's right to abortions nor the rights of gay people or trans people to marry and join the rest of society in living lives they aspire to live.

Instead, the "good" associated with the faith has become increasingly small and the "bad" grown by leaps and bounds.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Maybe the "Original Sin" Should be Reassigned

Image
We can all agree most Catholic priests are fine people and not guilty of sexual abuse. What Catholics must face, however, it that their church harbors executives who are dishonest . There is an incredible story about the Argentine Bishop Zanchetta. The Pope worked with him in Argentina and they are considered friends. Around 2015 Zanchetta sent nude pictures of himself and they began circulating world wide. He also was too friendly with young seminarians and some left because of him.  Three different officials say they made formal complaints to the Vatican about Zanchetta between 2015 and 2017. Yet, in 2018, the Vatican claimed it was unaware of any complaints about Zanchetta. This might be a good time to repeat the Catholic hierarchy claims to have the sole authority handed down from Jesus to what the faith stands for. It condemns as sinners those who practice birth control, have abortions and gay sexual relationships. Handing the hierarchy this responsibility would make...
Read more

Who Suffers from a "Hardened Heart"

Image
Some years ago on this blog there was a discussion about what the Bible calls "The hardened heart." The "hardened heart" was the explanation given for why people like me cannot accept the tenets of Christianity. We are unable to believe there are floating spirits and gods or imaginary places people go when the die. Now, a prominent Christian preacher and author has given us a way to diagnose the "hardened heart." It contained some surprises.  Rev. John Piper, who spoke about the hardened heart, said we can see this in a person who lacks "ordinary tenderness and compassion." He went on to describe the characteristics of a person without the affliction of the hardened heart. A healthy person displays empathy and sympathy. Those with the hardened heart are like stone. Jesus wanted compassion for the poor. The hardened heart discussion referred to atheists only if they are sinners and then it was indirectly. Sin, Piper said, hardens one's heart a...
Read more

Young Women can see Bull$hit a Mile Away

Image
Republicans including their Forced Birth subgroup is bother by recent election results and polling. All show young women going to the left. A poll shows young women are 30% more likely to be very liberal than young men. The link advises the Forced Birth community to give young pregnant women an uplifting message. The message suggested is, "Buck up. You've got this. You can give birth and have a happy life." Another way of saying this is, "It will be OK if you miss work and/or are fired because of the birth. If you cannot make your rent payment, it's OK. Somewhere out there is another place to live. We don't know where but be optimistic."   This is an add on to the new version of the Forced Birth message, "We're for both the baby and the mother." They are not and never have been for the mother. Their message has always been to condemn women who have abortions. Now, the "thoughts and prayers" message, which costs no money, it the me...
Read more