Sorry to have seemingly hit a nerve this morning. But having literally come from a denomination that is pretty representative of this demographic, I can safely say I intimately understand what being a âborn-againâ Christian in the US is, the koolaid, sanctimoniousness, and bigotry that is involved, and how this subculture, especially as of late, is deeply in bed with certain political factions in the US.
Not a flattering picture I know, apologies.
You have every right to feel bitter towards those who seem to have hurt you. Iâve suffered as well by hypocrites in the Church. I have also heard cringe-worthy information from my parents, probably from a very similar denomination. I would just advise against painting with too broad of a brush.
The two-party system, by its very nature, seems to inevitably lead to divisiveness when it comes to faith and politics. That being said, the Founding Fathers, just as with their belief in the need for well regulated militia, would likely have assumed that all Americans would forever be God-fearing Christians. So, yeah, originalism definitely has its blind spots, but thatâs what amendments are for, right? They can be repealed (18).
Some comic relief:
Love Key and Peele, I hear what you are saying.
I do wonder how many of the founding fathers were religious, and how religious they actually were⌠thatâs probably a bit of a rabbit hole for me to go down lol. Have a good saturday man im out to get breakfast
Many of the founding fathers were Deists and saw God through nature and the acts of man rather than the church.
âAs the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religionâ - John Adams
âAnd I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.â - James Madison
âChristianity neither is, nor ever was, a part of the common lawâ - Thomas Jefferson
OT, but this was the Torah portion at my Bar Mitzvah. There are some other juicy bits in there like the rules for conjugal rights and when itâs ok to stone your slaves.
Not so sure about that⌠Iâm pretty sure at least some of them only care about the money and influence of the gun lobby and donât give a shit about guns and gun rights per se - hell, if youâve seen the leaked video of Wayne LaPierre âhunting,â you probably think that about him too.
Politicians on BOTH sides of the aisle only care about money and staying elected. Never want to live under their own laws, else they wouldnât enact some of the more shittier ones.
I donât think so. They knew of other religions and that immigrants could have different religions. They very deliberately built freedom of religion into the system.
Thereâs some true believers, but sure, thereâs a lot of that on both sides. Some industries cultivate that a lot more than others, and some with a lot more fuck the general good attitude than others.
The pendulum may swing back to hard-core gun-carrying initiatives. Iâm not here promoting either way, just noting that more open-carry laws could come about.
Can I borrow some 
?
Only in America would a shooting in a hospital which killed 4 people be âwasnât as bad as some fearedâ.
They clarified it. Yes, still only in America. Good article though.
4 people dead is not deadly?
I can only guess that you just looked at the single word âdeadlyâ and ignored the other words. Try reading it again.
No, Christians pick and choose what verses from the OT or the NT when it suits them.
Christians are anti LGBT because OT talks about how being homosexual is an abomination. Or parts of the NT saying xxx, xxx, xxx shall not inherit the kingdom (one of them being homosexual, but in the KJV translation it says effeminate).
Most refuse to actually grasp what the Bible is actually trying to say, but rather focus on the finer points of the law but not the weightier points of the law (a statement Jesus made by the way).
Like the pharisees, they would go after people for a speck in their eyes but not see the plank in theirs. Go after people for âworkingâ during the sabbath when the fact that someoneâs badly hurt matters far more than breaking the âworkâ during sabbath. Yes this was something Jesus was accused of as well by the teachers of the law (he healed a man on the sabbath).
If you listened of parables, statements, etc. Jesus makes you will realize that the Bible simply wants you to be a good human being. When a man is robbed of all of his possession on the side of the road, the Samaritan (who is considered evil by the law by the way) took care of him and made sure he was fine. Yet the holier people, the Levites and the priests, saw the hurt person and avoided him. This parable is actually what Jesus said âwhat the kingdom of heavenâ looks like.
What does this relate to 2A and mass shootings? Time and place. Jesus says to turn the other cheek because it is a much better thing to do than to provoke unnecessary conflict that will cost you life and limb. Yet on the other hand, he did also say âsell your cloak and buy a sword if you donât have oneâ. Again, itâs because that was right before Jesus went to the cross and he knew they were going to face severe persecution.
Originalism is simply blind adherence to the law. It takes away rational thinking.
How about todayâs shooting news? Guy carries an AR-15 into a grocery store. On way out of the store, another guy used a pistol to threaten the guy and steals the AR-15. The victim goes to his car to get another gun. A shootout between the two injures the thief and two women in their cars. The victim flees the scene. Then another guy shows up and also shoots the thief. [I can only guess that the victim has a felony record so cannot be carrying the AR-15]
Shootout ensues after man steals gun outside food market, police say (kmov.com)
During my 12 years in Catholic schools with hours and hours and hours of religious classes taught by nuns and chaplansâŚnot once did they talk bad about gays. But that was 40 years ago.
Yes, they did cover some bible verses which mentioned gays but that is only because they covered all the bible verses. I do wonder what those same schools are teaching nowadays.
When I was a practicing Catholic every sermon in mass tended to fall into the âhow to be a good personâ category. Boring but consistent. Not seems evangelicals are only into the âwe must condemn othersâ effort.
I concur.
12 years of Catholic schooling and never anything about gays or people will burn in hell for doing such and such. Same with the sermons. In fact, rarely do you hear a priest telling people to go to confession more often than some even do (if at all).
I tell my wife and a few others when they ask for my opinion (because I donât proactively offer it), that Catholics are very mellow in terms of being âevangelicalâ, if they are even like that at all. The young Catholics back in church in the U.S. go out in the city to feed the poor and talk to them, moreso to listen to them. Never hear of them trying to get converts. Just trying to help out where needed (food, clothing). If a streetperson comes to church, then that is their decision without any pushing. Anyway⌠off the pedestal.