“Love thy neighbor, unless they’re gay, black, immigrant or they think different from you, then harass then and make false allegations and boycott every woke media” - somewhere in the Bible.
Christianity and capitalism aren’t compatible but no one is ready to have that conversation
This is an oversimplification. In the land of monarchies progressives were pushing for more liberal democratic reforms. Capitalism is the economic manifestation of democratic liberalism. There was a huge desire to keep religion out of politics at the time of the American Revolution l’est society return to the divine rule of kings and queens. This is why separation of church and state is enshrined in the constitution.
Over time power structures changed and the largely white protestants that established the wealth and dominant culture of the land developed a political ideology around preservation of the status quo. This is where the word ‘conservative’ comes from. So it’s not that capitalism co-opted religion, it’s that the religious and the wealthy are hugely overlapping segments in America.
If Christ and capitalism are at odds capitalism always wins.
Excellent statement. A good example of this happening is with usury/charging interest. The churches forbade it in most forms for a very long time,only permitting it on a wide scale in the 16th century. Coincidentally, just so happens to be when capitalism was rising. Totally a coincidence I’m sure.
Isn’t there a story in the Bible where Jesus kicks the merchants out of a church and punches them?
Jesus is irrelevant to ------ianity.
Leviticus & Romans, that’s all you need.
Jesus and the teachings of christianity in any of its forms are irrelevant to a functional modern society. Anyone who uses any parts of the bible beyond a few cherry-picked, out of context, touchy-feely bits as a foundation for their morality is almost certain to be a worse person for it.
Christianity is the perfect religion for capitalists. They can do all the harm they want while they’re alive and all they have to do is ask for forgiveness to go to heaven.
I’d argue against that. Your average North American christian church, on the other hand, has been molded to support this kind of attitude.
If any of the stories are true*, it’s the active, practicing red-letter Christians who will get into heaven. Everyone else (see: the majority of church goers) get to burn with the rest of us. Remind followers of the idol of the church of this often, at every opportunity.
*I personally don’t believe they are, but still find value in Christian thought that’s actually wrestled with (and the people that do so) rather than just parroting the agendas and corruptions of others.
Christians say they are all about helping people. Until faced with the proposal that we make helping people the baseline system of how things work.
Oh no. They want charity to be something they can pat themselves on the back for doing in tiny amounts when they choose. They want to feel superior to those they are helping - not just…. help them.
This is why, even though churches do a lot of charity work, they and their conservative members are a bunch of hypocritical assholes who are determined to keep the poor poor.
If we fix the system, structurally, so that everyone has clothes to wear, how are they going to make themselves feel superior and gracious by collecting ratty old clothes into grocery bags?
They can’t even just help people in another country. They have to shove Christianity as a big tip jar in their faces
And the real kicker is that they consider the religion to be the true “help” while food and medicine are just the hook. 😂
The corporations (Pinocchio) make everything appear anything other than the assassination of all life on Earth. Global warming, Microplastics, AI, any way it can happen as it is explicitly their objective and nothing less.
Personally I think the rich would get even more rich even faster if we had a healthy society where everyone was safe and educated. That might take more than one lifetime to show, though, so…
Everything about society has gone explicitly the opposite direction. The richer the rich get, the poorer everyone else gets. The less educated means easier to exploit labor.
The rich getting richer is literally synonymous for saying slavery.
They want you to go to church but not support policies that Jesus would support.
These churches sure do love some supply side Jesus.
Why care about the alien within your gates, especially if they got there illegally? Care only about yourself. God helps those who help themselves. That other weird Jesus who says to love everyone and give everything you have to the poor is an icky, nasty socialist groomer.
I’ve had this exact same epiphany after having arguments with my parents about politics… Like, “You made me this way!”
It’s very sad. I’m fortunate that it was the opposite for me. Born into a hyper-conservative Catholic family, then when 3 out of 4 of their children wound up LGBTQ, they realized that God might have been telling them something. They’re extremely and refreshingly Christ-like, and total allies. They treat my same-sex fiancé as their full-blown in-law.
I wouldn’t call that a contrast honestly. Sounds like a very similar attitude.
One would think the choice would be obvious: Either accept your children for who they are, or accept some right-wing bullcrap and only get to talk with the one kid you didn’t shun from your life.
