Pastor alarmed after Trump-loving congregants deride Jesus' teachings as 'weak'

I don’t see this sort of judgementalism in the JWs I meet.

 

Interesting.

There are lots of people who conveniently identify as Christian who aren’t. Just saying.

 

As someone who grew up in a very devout Southern Baptist community and has watched that religion with interest my entire life, I feel like this is the most predictable development ever, especially if you actually read the gospels. Matthew 7 is right on point.

 

True.

 

Wherein Matthew 7 is much misunderstood. Read further into the passage and Jesus is talking about proper judgement.

 

indeed he is. Even as a child I had some serious concerns about the judgment exercised by that community. And the lack of good and proper judgment has opened the door to and elevated the false prophets and their followers

 

I literally cannot even imagine a man more at odds with Christ than Donald Trump. It really underscores just how tribal this country has become that evangelicals have anointed him.

 

What is Christianity supposed to be?

Might be true of evangelicals. From my experience, though, it's in no way true for the any kind of majority of Christians.

 

Just bear in mind that as we center on Evangelicals, it’s the mainstream denominations that are hemorrhaging membership and which are aflame with ugliness and division.

 

They were lost before Trump.

 

Mathew 19:23-24 — Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”


I always wonder how wealthy free market capitalist “Christians” square this one in their heads.

 

It is supposed to be a commitment to the teachings of Christ. It is a faith that our existence on earth is part of a journey meant to challenge our soul and spirit. We are asked to love our neighbors as ourselves and love G*d above all else. Everything else is gross distortion and personal picking and choosing of select messages because living according to the entire message is really, really hard.

I have long considered myself a "bad Christian" because I understand how short I fall from following the teachings of Christ day in and day out. Heck, me even stating this belief is a form of failure as it is a judgement upon others.

My contention is that most of the people that I meet who call themselves a Christian falls into that category if they are being honest. However, many, a large many by my estimation, will happily stand up and trumpet their faith out of one side of their mouths in public, and then turn right around and spew some kind of hatred and bigotry out of the other. That behavior is most definitely not limited to the fringe of the Evangelical world.

 

pretty much true of all religions.

 

He’s a cult of personality.

Trump and Mitch brought down Roe. It’s not surprising to anyone that pro-life Christians are holding their collective nose.

Trump deriding Jesus should be a the final straw, but even the resident Trumpistas here will ignore this thread or simply pass it off as media lies.

There is no bottom.

 

This verse is almost always taken out of context when people want to berate the rich. We only have to look at the disciples response to what Jesus is saying:

Matthew 19:25 (HCSB): When the disciples heard this, they were utterly astonished and asked, “Then who can be saved?”

In that culture wealth was held in very high regard. The disciples attitude was that if a rich person can’t get to heaven, then we’re all hosed. Jesus did not say you have to be poor to go to heaven. Jesus responded to them:

Matthew 19:26 (HCSB): But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

We cannot earn our way to heaven, whether through the accumulation of wealth, which some take to be the sign of God’s blessing, or any other works that we may accumulate. We can only get to heaven through the grace of God available to all.

 

When Christianity teaches that human life is essentially sinful, that you really are never free from sin, do the sins you pick and choose not to follow (like not acting Christ like), really even matter when you can just repent at the end of the day?

Just believing seems to be the end all with many.

 

Right or Left, there are no atheists in political foxholes …

'God isn't finished with me yet': Cuomo speaks at Brooklyn church for first live appearance since resigning

 

Americans have always been incorrigibly OUTWARDLY religious. On the eve of the Persian Gulf War UK’s then PM John Major, a conservative, offered “Our thoughts are with you” while our ultra-liberal Barbara Boxer issued “Our prayers are with you.”

 

Cheap grace. I've heard people speak of believing with an insufficient faith like this.

Many churches post their doctrinal statements of belief on their websites. The lists can be ridiculously long, but perhaps lack an instruction that is truly the marker of a follower of the Christ. The original and truest sign of a Christian. In Luke 10 Jesus was asked what one must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus replied one must love God with all his or her heart, soul, mind, and strength. And love others as one loves self.

For years it has troubled me that Christian evangelism puts overlyweighted emphasis on teaching the only thing a Christian must do to go to heaven when death comes is to believe what is listed in the statement of belief endorsed, believed, and presented by the person evangelizing the new convert. The conversion is all about what the newly evangelized repentant Christian states he now believes, an acknowledgment his final eternal dwelling place is decided by what he attests to believe. The teaching of the necessity of faith to confirm the newly attested beliefs, and how it compares to belief is lacking.

I am reminded of the tight rope walker Charles Blondin who crossed the Niagara River on a 2 inch wide hemp rope many times using stunts like pushing a wheel barrow, setting a camp stove on the wire, lighting a fire and cooking something. Somersaulting across, back flipping across. Crazy stunts that really happened in 1859 and the 1860s. Apocryphal stories abound. One says he asked for a volunteer from an audience of watching people to cross in a wheel barrow with him. People watching with their own eyes Blondin's many successful crossings and believed he could do it, knew he could do it, refused. They had not the faith to commit to what they had seen with their own eyes and attested they believed.

The Daredevil of Niagara Falls | History| Smithsonian Magazine

"Blondin announced subsequent crossings, promising that each would be more daring than the last. On July 15, with President Millard Fillmore in attendance, Blondin walked backward to Canada and returned to the U.S. pushing a wheelbarrow. Two weeks later, he somersaulted and backflipped his way across, occasionally pausing to dangle from the cable by one hand. Shortly after that he made another crossing, and, after a brief rest, appeared on the Canadian end of the cable with Harry Colcord clinging to his back. Blondin gave his manager the following instructions: 'Look up, Harry.… you are no longer Colcord, you are Blondin. Until I clear this place be a part of me, mind, body, and soul. If I sway, sway with me. Do not attempt to do any balancing yourself. If you do we will both go to our death.'”

A few of the guy ropes snapped along the way, but they made it.




Insufficiency of faith is the situation of all too many who profess the Christian faith. Anyone can say anything. Self deception allows people to believe what they have professed they believe. They want to believe it. But it takes faith, commitment to act without reserve to follow and emulate the Christ who preached the only way people can save their lives is to give up that life to save the life of another. Those with faith in the truth of what Jesus taught will understand the teaching and give up everything they own to follow the principles Jesus taught. Those without sufficient faith will find scripture to excuse, justify, or condone their failures and selfishness; and twist or take out of context the scripture they believe condones or forgives their failures, cruelties, hatreds, acts of vengeance, and lack of charity.

Matthew 16:25 - For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

 

Define rich.