A lot of the last half of the New Testament (the books that are “A letter to [the churtch at] <place>” ) spends a decent amount of time on “don’t trust someone just because they say they are holy” and “please stop trying to police other people’s faith and behavior”.
Nothing will make you more frustrated with self-righteous Christians, especially Republican/right-wing christians, than reading the Bible.
Here’s the thing though. A lot of the first two books of the New Testament is about how awful the Jews are and how Jesus was a cult leader who got his followers to abandon their families for him and even got his followers to steal for him. Reading Matthew and Mark in the light of today’s politics, Jesus looks like a right-wing grifter. Seems like they’re reading it right to me.
Would a right-wing grifter tell you to give to the poor?
Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
(Matthew 19:21)
Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.
(Luke 12:33)
A right-wing grifter would twist these words to make it so he is the poor, but the OG doesn’t have to twist anything. If he wanted money, he could have asked for money. Instead he explicitly tells everyone to do good deeds, over and over. And it confused a great deal of people for thousands of years.
He had them steal a donkey for him, dude. And accepted the full cult leader treatment. Matthew 21:1-11
But we could play verse quoting all day. I encourage you to go back and actually read the first two books from start to end, as I did recently. They’re super fucked-up.
A lot of the last half of the New Testament (the books that are “A letter to [the churtch at] <place>” ) spends a decent amount of time on “don’t trust someone just because they say they are holy” and “please stop trying to police other people’s faith and behavior”.
Nothing will make you more frustrated with self-righteous Christians, especially Republican/right-wing christians, than reading the Bible.
Here’s the thing though. A lot of the first two books of the New Testament is about how awful the Jews are and how Jesus was a cult leader who got his followers to abandon their families for him and even got his followers to steal for him. Reading Matthew and Mark in the light of today’s politics, Jesus looks like a right-wing grifter. Seems like they’re reading it right to me.
Would a right-wing grifter tell you to give to the poor?
(Matthew 19:21)
(Luke 12:33)
A right-wing grifter would twist these words to make it so he is the poor, but the OG doesn’t have to twist anything. If he wanted money, he could have asked for money. Instead he explicitly tells everyone to do good deeds, over and over. And it confused a great deal of people for thousands of years.
He had them steal a donkey for him, dude. And accepted the full cult leader treatment. Matthew 21:1-11
But we could play verse quoting all day. I encourage you to go back and actually read the first two books from start to end, as I did recently. They’re super fucked-up.