They think, “Jesus was cool. I like him, and I’m gonna try to be like him.” Kind of like their guiding light is what would Jesus do? But there isn’t a focus on identification, recruiting others, judging others based on their religion, fear of God, fear of punishment for sinning, respect for clergy as an authority, rituals, worship, etc. Basically, just the example of Jesus’ life.
inb4: Christian lol!! got em!
Like uh… normal? Jesus, as described, seems like a pretty chill dude. It’s christianity that gets into the crazy shit.
I take it you haven’t read the book of John?
John is way sus.
Yeah. There’s some good stuff there, like 8:32*, but it’s full of so much crap** that… urgh.
*“And you’ll know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
**Give the whole chapter 5 a check, specially 5:14; crippling people is apparently their god’s punishment for sinning. Or 3:36, someone gets really pissy if you don’t believe him!
I was thinking John 6 is pretty nuts tbh. There are a lot of problems with Christ, like how quiet and accepting he seemed about slavery, or how fragile he is about his ego and being respected as God, the central message of Christ is about his divinity, not about moral teachings. He threatened anyone who disagreed with his divinity with eternal damnation and so on. Just not the kind of person you would think of as a “chill dude”, rather the description “crazy” comes to mind when I read the book of John especially.
His moral teachings are irrelevant. It’s like how when cops volunteer to do a charity car wash. Moral behaviour doesn’t get you everlasting life.
yeah, at least not according to him; but his moral teachings got a lot of people in the door and interested in following him, and the whole “faith without works is dead” thing (book of James is pretty lit tbh)
Nah, I was brought to church as a kid but I haven’t really read the Bible closely. Honestly, I’m just going off a general read of “dude who helps people in need and isn’t an ass”.
I recommend you read the book of John!
I wrote a longer response to Kolanaki if you want to read that as well, sorta summarizes what I think are some of the relevant bits as to why Christ isn’t such a great role model.
Well, he explicitly condoned slavery, so…