JehovahsWitness wrote: ↑Tue May 10, 2022 3:07 pm
Diogenes wrote: ↑Wed May 04, 2022 8:55 pmChristianity (and religion in general) gets back to its political roots
Diogenes wrote: ↑Thu May 05, 2022 11:47 am
Jesus and Christianity have very little in common.
The "roots " of somethjng is generally understood to be its origins, its primary source. Since the first people to take on the name "Christians" were the followed of Jesus of Nazareth, how can the roots of Chrstianity not be Jesus and his original first century followers ?
Jesus was a Jew, not a Christian. He certainly was Paul's inspiration for starting Christianity. However, there is something more fundamental you may not realize, and that is the almost inescapable connection between religion and politics. Christianity arose in a Roman province, Roman Judea. But long before the Romans, Judaism and politics were inseparable. This was also true of Rome, where various Caesars claimed to be God, or like Julius Caesar, claimed a god (Venus) as his special patron.
Entire books have been devoted to the subject:
"... scholars looking to explain the emergence of Christianity long argued, these developments are a natural outgrowth of a society with a high degree of integration between politics and religion."
https://www.encyclopedia.com/environmen ... -religions
Despite Jesus' efforts to emphasize the spiritual and the Kingdom of Heaven, Christianity became political almost immediately. I suppose it was inevitable since Rome ruled Palestine and used Jewish priests to control the people; as well as those priests using Roman authority for their own purposes. Paul, the earliest NT writer gave advice on politics as well as marriage, famously writing in Romans 1 that Christians should follow political authority.
Sadly, things may be even worse today with 81% of white evangelicals voting for Trump. A recent article in the Atlantic focuses on this unholy alliance and how many evangelicals are leaving their churches for others more conservative politically:
Before I turn to the Word,” the preacher announces, “I’m gonna do another diatribe.”
“Go on!” one man yells. “Amen!” shouts a woman several pews in front of me.
Between 40 minutes of praise music and 40 minutes of preaching is the strangest ritual I’ve ever witnessed inside a house of worship. Pastor Bill Bolin calls it his “diatribe.”
....
“On the vaccines …” he begins.
For the next 15 minutes, Bolin does not mention the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, or the life everlasting. Instead, he spouts misinformation and conspiratorial nonsense, much of it related to the “radically dangerous” COVID-19 vaccines.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ar ... on/629631/