The Religion Thread

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > The Religion Thread

Azathoth: Apr 3, 2001

lmao the unitarians i know are all some of the most chill people ever, that is out of loving nowhere

# ¿ Dec 8, 2022 21:36

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 17, 2024 23:41

Azathoth: Apr 3, 2001

indigi posted:

I’m pretty sure it's a bit

boooooo

# ¿ Dec 9, 2022 02:06

Azathoth: Apr 3, 2001

Weka posted:

Just another trinitarian boob imo.

Now I want to watch Total Recall.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2022 15:18

Azathoth: Apr 3, 2001

Harold Fjord posted:

Someone posted and another thread about the thing where you have the thing and then symbols of the thing and then eventually everyone is just chasing weird corrupt symbols and when I'm trying to say is that Jesus was actually an early socialist but then you know a bunch of assholes subsumed him into the broader project of imperialism that eventually evolved into capitalism

I'm always leery of applying modern concepts or ideologies to people who didn't have the frameworks that we have, particularly economic ones, but as much as Christians focus on Jesus' spiritual message, he had just as strong of a temporal message about taking care of the worst off in society.

So much of what he said can be boiled down to "make sure everyone's physical and spiritual needs are met" but so much of modern Christianity definitely likes to leave out the physical part.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2022 15:27

Azathoth: Apr 3, 2001

Harold Fjord posted:

They had people who owned things they could leverage for power and people who didn't and that's really all it comes down to

Yeah, and as much as Prosperity Gospel evangelicals want to twist the message, the Gospels are pretty drat clear that Jesus' message was that being rich was bad and not taking care of the poor was bad. Given that Jesus and the people of his time did not really have a concept of the separation of church and state, and given how often Jesus directly calls out leaders who we would understand today as a combination of religious and civic leaders, it isn't hard to see Jesus as someone calling for the government to take care of the poor. If that isn't socialistic, I don't know what is.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2022 17:47

Azathoth: Apr 3, 2001

Animal-Mother posted:

They leave the spiritual part out too. They have an emotional experience that masquerades as a spiritual one.

Yeah, very fair.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2022 19:24

Azathoth: Apr 3, 2001

Pentecoastal Elites posted:

I think Jesus-as-early-socialist is less illuminating than looking at his teaching as being distinctly and radically anti-class, especially against the backgrounds of politically classed Roman Judea and spiritually classed Judaism of the time. History would seem, to me at least, to bear this out -- the earliest churches were like, apocalyptic Bookchinean communalists, and overwhelmingly persecuted. As Christianity grew it gained enough adherents to reach a critical mass where it had to be synthesized and assimilated and from there you get the perversion of Jesus' teachings into whatever the social structure of the time was.

You immediately got an explosion of cults/heresies/syncretic traditions where Christian groups adapted to Roman social structure and political economy and eventually solidified became organized into a proto-orthodoxy that went on to become Catholicism to adapt Christianity to European feudalism (and vice versa) as/after Rome fell. Protestantism arises after/amidst (depending on how you want to look at it) the crises of the late middle ages as mercantilism supplants feudalism and eventually resolves as capitalism. Catholicism persists in Europe thanks largely to well established modes of feudal power then later in Europe's colonies as a tool of colonial extraction.

You can see it in continue on in America, too, where various Christian projects all eventually peter out and are consumed by American Evangelicalism, which distills early capital Protestantism into its fully atomic mature capital form where the only thing that matters is the singular individual's specific and personal relationship with God, through whom all things are forgiven -- the new spiritual justification for whatever horrors you visit on your fellow Christian in the name of the market. And finally the full and complete synthesis of Christianity and capitalism in Mormonism, which completely obliterates the remaining spiritual aspects of Christianity to replace it with the idea that you get to actually, materially, be God when you die.

The core truth of Jesus' teachings, that there is no distinction between any of us, can't exist in a class society and, if it can't be destroyed, has to be twisted to reify the status quo, and every time it does it loses more and more in the deformation. It's not really any wonder anything you see in eg. contemporary American Christianity is so incredibly divorced from even the gospels, not to mention hideously alien and brutal to anyone not exemplary of the societal ideal.

Well said.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2022 23:30

Azathoth: Apr 3, 2001

KirbyKhan posted:

Wife was invited to go to non-denominational church tomorrow. I'm going to wear my suit and make my baby look cute. I have no idea how to conduct myself as a guest, but I do not want to do the binding rituals that christians do, what is the tactful way to refuse a communion or a baptism?

The most common way to refuse communion is to just stay in your seat when told to go up for it. No one will read anything into it, as you could just as easily be from a stricter sect that doesn't take communion outside of their church or denomination as you are someone who is not taking communion because you don't confess the same beliefs as they do.

If you don't feel comfortable doing that, when you go up and get in front of the person distributing the bread and wine, stand with your arms crossed in front of you and down, so like put your arms down and grab one wrist with your other hand. The pastor will likely give you a blessing, in much the same way that they do for children who haven't taken first communion. Depending on the church, this might involve getting the sign of the cross made on your forehead but will probably just be verbal with maybe a hand sign tops.

If you're super concerned, just ask one of the ushers or people handing out bulletins what you should do. There's a wide range of Protestant views on communion, particularly as it relates to non-members, so if you are uncomfortable just winging it, that's gonna be your best bet.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2022 16:41

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 17, 2024 23:41

Azathoth: Apr 3, 2001

Atrocious Joe posted:

putting the Christ back in Christmas today by making the family watch Youtube videos about how the nativity story was probably invented because Bethlehem was theologically important and Nazareth was flyover country

It's my favorite point in favor of the historical existence of Jesus. The Gospels go to great lengths to explain why a guy from bumfuck nowhere was totally not born there even though everyone knew he grew up there and his whole family had been there since forever. If there wasn't a historical Jesus, the writers would have just had him grow up in Bethlehem because why not it'd be much easier.

# ¿ Dec 25, 2022 19:48

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > The Religion Thread