The RFs* have been having an obsession with UFOs being demonic recently, but that was mostly in the MAGA evangelical crowd. Being ideologically close to that bunch of RFs is a very good reason to fire a catholic bishop from a post of responsability significance historical pedigree.
Just an example, if you google RFs and UFOs and demons you get lots of hits, some of them really interesting. Interesting from the perspective of psychopathology, I mean, or societal mass delusion:
It seems the bottom of the problem for them RFs is that if there is life on another planet, then why has Godott sent his son to die for us and not for them? The obvious answer for them not being that Godott did not send his son to die, he was just a person who was killed, but that we are the good ones and they are manifestations of evil. Demons, to be precise. Just another layer of racism, if you think of it. Right on caracter for them.
No, really, they seem to believe that shit seriously. It is called the Demonic UFO hypothesis.
Maybe in America, but not here in Germany. Granted, I sometimes, but rarely see a car with the fish symbol as a bumper sticker, but other than that I have no idea who’s a Christian and who is not. Nobody has ever told me they are to my face in my lifetime.
And you draw that conclusion because of the people who have told you that they’re Christian, 100% have told you that they’re Christian. How many Christians have you met who didn’t tell you? You have no idea, because they never told you.
In my experience the people who put the greatest effort into telling you what good Christians they are tend to be the worst Christians - they have to tell you because their actions usually demonstrate the opposite of what Jesus taught. These days, the Venn diagram of this group and the American right-wing is a circle (not including the odd Jew like Miller and the Kushners).
The people who go around doing what Jesus actually taught don’t feel the need to announce it to the world, particularly because Jesus told them not to.
The only reason I mention my Christianity on this board is to give context to my opinions on issues related to Christianity. Otherwise, it’s not something I make a big deal about. In-person, I almost never mention it to people. I believe that religion is a personal thing and that it’s none of my business what other people believe, and they don’t need to know what I believe. I don’t go around trying to convert people, and I think that it’s at best incredibly obnoxious when other people do so.
The most blatant way I advertise my religion is that every once in a rare while, I’ll wear a (pretty small) cross necklace outside of a T-shirt. Usually I’m not wearing it at all, or I wear it under a shirt.
As you say, I think most Christians are like that. Though it might depend on where you are. There may be some areas where people feel that they need to constantly proclaim it for whatever reason. Up here where I am (the greater Seattle area) it’s not that common.
And another thing… Even though I’m Christian, people who are really in-your-face about the religion make me extremely uncomfortable too. Like, good for you, I don’t care, and I think it’s tacky for you to have Jesus stuff plastered everywhere. Trust me, he doesn’t need more advertising; I’m pretty sure most people have heard of the guy at this point, and we aren’t impressed by your display.
There is that quote, supposedly attributed to Mohandas Gandhi, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” That seems to sum things up nicely.
At our natural history museum the volunteer who used to staff the Human Origins cart is an ardent Christian. She talked about ‘Lucy’ and Homo floresciensis, not Adam.
“Used to” because TPUSA assholes on the city council threatened to cut the budget to zero if it continued to “push heresy” and the museum management knuckled under. She has shifted to the North American megafauna cart.
OK, sorry, I just don’t understand this story. I don’t know what TPUSA refers to, I don’t know what was the heresy, and what the museum management knuckled under to. Are you saying that the Human Origins exhibit (I’m not sure what “cart” is in this context) now talks about Adam instead of genuine old bones? And what that has to do with a Christian moving to a different area of the museum? Was it because she objected to the change? I’m having trouble parsing your point.
TPUSA is Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk’s organization. The heresy would be teaching evolution, specifically human evolution, rather than biblical literalism. The knuckling under would be stopping teaching human evolution due to the TPUSA pressure. The point (I think) is that if you didn’t know better you would get the idea that Christians were assholes because of the loud TPUSA guys, even though the employee was also an ardent Christian. The cart thing is weird. Maybe the museum has literal carts?
Remember that TPUSA is also the group that thought putting together a group of losers headed by Kid Rock would be a great alternative to Bad Bunny in the Super Bowl halftime. In a show nobody watched. Because Bad Bunny is a wicked foreigner from Puerto Rico who needs to be deported back to his home country.
The heresy would be teaching evolution, specifically human evolution, rather than biblical literalism.
Correct. The volunteers can no longer bring up “evolution” first but careful parsing of the directive indicates if asked about evolution we can talk about it. Jesus riding a dinosaur we could talk about all day if we wanted to.
Another forbidden subject is “climate change.”
Maybe the museum has literal carts?
Correct again. Besides the permanent exhibits in the galleries there are a number of carts that a volunteer can be trained on to wheel out, put specimens on, and answer questions about. The museum is heavily dependent on volunteers, there being about twenty staff and 150 volunteers. During the weekends we have a lot of teen volunteers so there are a lot of carts out when the museum is busiest anyway. During the week we’re dependent on folks without a day job – mostly retired – so it’ll be only one or two carts if we’re lucky.
The Human Origins cart was a series of hominid skulls ranging from Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy) on the one end and Homo sapiens on the other with a modern chimpanzee skull included for comparison. Early last year the cart was withdrawn and the materials were being rewritten to reflect recent research. The lady I mentioned, a retired school teacher, was looking forward to presenting it.
Then a TPUSA-sponsored mayor was elected along with a couple council members on their own plus another member was recalled and replaced by yet another. The museum had been a point of pride and after a contemplating an expansion was facing criticism from a suddenly hostile city council. The debut of the revamped H.O. cart was indefinitely delayed and I’ve not heard anything about an expansion since then.
The volunteer in question shifted to the Megafauna cart not only for something to do but also a subject less likely to be interfered with. The fact, “So what happened to them?” often comes up is a bonus.
