The only Christianity that resembles is the Supply Side Jesus preached by modern “conservatives”. Christ himself preached to not only follow God’s rules, but Paul repeatedly stressed that the government is there only by the authority of God. Christianity is literally “Follow ALL the rules”.
That’s certainly true, especially given the number of instances where the straightforward reading of one Biblical verse directly contradicts the straightforward reading of another such verse. So you really do have to check your brain at the door in order to buy into literalism/inerrancy.
Actually, as someone who was raised in an Evangelical church I would say that the “harmless as doves” thing also needs some work. There’s a great deal of harm currently being done by those who consider themselves Evangelical.
But that’s a different thread.
Covid is a disease that targets old, obese people. Here is Africa’s population pyramid, and here is America’s. America also has much higher obesity rates, and much higher rates of vitamin D deficiency… Government response has very little to do with it.
- The right to have a business that expresses the values of its owner.
How would this work? Should we treat politicians as loved ones and vote for them no matter what they do because we love them? Do we continue to go to lousy restaurants, work at jobs that treat us poorly, buy inferior products, because we don’t want to treat them as things?
Any thought on my planned store REMOVED OFFENSIVE RACIAL INSULTS WE?
I believe advertising businesses is against board rules.
Weak.
Modnote: Too much, I get the point but too much. I’m also editing the offensive words.
Not a warning, but that was in bad taste just to make a point.
Can they be edited to “Blacks and Jews”?
Just give it a rest.
We’ve done plenty of impromptu experiments in this country. For instance, when the Sun Belt was getting clobbered this summer, Arizona instituted a mask mandate; Texas and Florida didn’t. Guess which state had its Covid death numbers drop while the virus still rampages in the other two?
Mask mandates matter. That’s what the epidemiologists have told us, and that’s what we’ve seen over and over again.
But they have to be mandated, pure and simple, because while my mask may provides some modest degree of protection to me, their principal function is to protect others from any virus the user may be carrying. My mask keeps you safe from my virus.
I shouldn’t have to repeat this, because this is Covid kindergarten stuff, but the point is that if someone chooses to go maskless, they may think that it’s their risk and their business (and that’s certainly the nonsense they spout), but it’s not. It’s everybody else that’s at risk, which is why it’s everybody else’s business.
So collective action is necessary and efficacious, and the state is our mechanism for mandating collective action when necessary.
Moreover, the whole idea that there’s nothing we can do about it, that the Lord will take who he will take and that’s that, is just absurd. What sort of pathetic helplessness is this that you’re advocating?
Do you treat people that way that you actually know well and interact meaningfully with?
So if I believe African-Americans aren’t really people, but actually highly-trained animals, and one of my values is: no animals in my restaurant other than service animals, then I get to exclude blacks from my restaurant because I have the right to have a business that expresses my values?
If not, why is it OK for your business to discriminate against gays, but it’s not OK for mine to discriminate against blacks?
And more significantly IMHO, ISTM that the ‘right’ to expression of Christian values that Christian business owners want is the ‘right’ to be an asshole to some potential customers they disapprove of. I can’t help but think that this is a bizarre way of interpreting Jesus’ second Great Commandment.
God didn’t tell you African-Americans aren’t really people so . . . it’s different.
Well, 19th century slave owners seemed to think God had told them that. People think God tells them all sorts of shit. A whole bunch of well-known (to evangelicals) preachers said God had told them Trump would win this election. Oopsie.
That is your right as an American to determine who you serve and don’t serve. It is a strawman, since even when the country was really racist governments had to pass Jim Crow laws to keep businesses from serving black people.
It is your right to interpret the second commandment how you want and other peoples to interpret how they want to. Just because my interpretation is different should not mean the government should allow mine and ban others.
Or we could, as a non-sectarian government, ignore commandments tied to mythology and rely on ethics and laws.
No one ever was in favor of segregation, everyone want to race mix and if it hadn’t been for the damned government imposing it things would have been so different.
So we shouldn’t talk about religion here because our government is a secular institution? I don’t see your point.