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Ross Douthat, Rod Dreher, etc. + Fear of Religious Extinction/Christian Inferiority

Uninformed
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Re: Ross Douthat, Rod Dreher, etc. + Fear of Religious Extinction/Christian Inferiority

#26

Post by Uninformed »

There have been many inquiries into child abuse both within churchs of many denominations and in secular organisations. To me, the difference between the two is that some of the clergy seem to have responded to incidents of abuse as if they were the human failings of otherwise good people and “protected” them from accountability for that reason (obviously there’s also the reputational damage angle). Abusing anyone is wrong and whether abusing minors was against the law or not would not make it any less heinous.
Possibly erroneously, I see the willingness to “understand” and tolerate various immoral or illegal behaviours by members of one’s own political party as much the same as part actions by the clergy.

(N.B. I also believe in “true repentance”, and am sometimes staggered by the lack of observance of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act in the UK)
If you can't lie to yourself, who can you lie to?
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p0rtia
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Re: Ross Douthat, Rod Dreher, etc. + Fear of Religious Extinction/Christian Inferiority

#27

Post by p0rtia »

It's about the power.

:oldlady:
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Re: Ross Douthat, Rod Dreher, etc. + Fear of Religious Extinction/Christian Inferiority

#28

Post by northland10 »

roadscholar wrote: Thu Apr 15, 2021 10:14 am So much bad theology about...

I was visiting my dying grandfather in the hospital and walked down the hall past a grieving couple who had just lost an infant child. As I passed I heard their Pastor tell them “You must have done something God is now punishing you for.”

It took all my strength not to slug him.
I am not sure I would have the strength for that, and I have never hit anybody in my life. I would be so tempted to wack him repeatedly upside the head with a very large bible. That would be more productive use than what he has had so far.

That pastor gleefully destroys others in the name of Christ, yet, it is not Christ working through him but instead, his own hatred and self-righteousness. His soul has rotted.
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Re: Ross Douthat, Rod Dreher, etc. + Fear of Religious Extinction/Christian Inferiority

#29

Post by fierceredpanda »

p0rtia wrote: Thu Apr 15, 2021 4:32 pm It's about the power.

:oldlady:
To quote the late Christopher Hitchens from a debate against Frank Turek at VCU:
The difference between the theist and the deist is as follows: The deist says, “It may not make sense without some kind of designer.” The theist says, “When I tell you what to do, Christopher, I have God on my side.” The [theist] says that he can tell what God wants of me, what length I should shave off the end of my penis, if I’m a boy or have a male child, or off the clitoris if it is a female child. He knows to the exactitude what the proportions of that should be, what the diet should be—what the dietary laws ought to be—who I should sleep with and in what position. And various other—and since God doesn’t ever directly appear and say, “Do it this way,” it’s done for him—and this is really convenient—by human representatives who claim to act in his name. So that’s why I think your standard of proof should be a great deal higher, because if you—the reason this point is important to you is that it would mean real power in the only world that actually exists, which is the material world, of you, over me. And you wonder why I’m not keen.
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sugar magnolia
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Re: Ross Douthat, Rod Dreher, etc. + Fear of Religious Extinction/Christian Inferiority

#30

Post by sugar magnolia »

northland10 wrote: Thu Apr 15, 2021 8:56 pm
That pastor gleefully destroys others in the name of Christ, yet, it is not Christ working through him but instead, his own hatred and self-righteousness. His soul has rotted.
How do they decide when it's Christ and when it's man, if Christ is supposed to control everything? For instance the pastor with the burning van. What if he and his wife were both Christian in their beliefs and their actions and never did anything in their whole life that went against the teaching of the Bible? They aren't being punished for anything they did, so how do they explain to themselves why God thought doing that to them was a good idea? I'm not trying to be contrary, I just never understood that.
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Re: Ross Douthat, Rod Dreher, etc. + Fear of Religious Extinction/Christian Inferiority

#31

Post by roadscholar »

That’s when they pull out the old “God works in mysterious ways” dodge. I don’t get it either. And “Everything happens for a reason.” Yeesh.

Instead of being angry at God for sending the rock, or letting those kids burn, or searching for meanings like punishment or fate, or blaming demons, wouldn’t the better reaction be to devote oneself to lobbying Congress to mandate more rock-resistant gas tanks?

Wouldn’t a Divine Force want you to do exactly that? Instead of wallowing in useless metaphysics, to honor the dead and salvage the outcome, and thereby maybe heal yourself a little, by working to keep another family from repeating that tragedy?
The bitterest truth is more wholesome than the sweetest lie.
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