In theology, it’s a big deal. In practice, it’s a fairly subtle distinction. The Christians hold that Adam and Eve’s act somehow spiritually polluted all their unborn descendants, so that we now need to accept Jesus in order to cure the original-sin cooties. The Jews note that Genesis doesn’t actually say anything of the kind. For Jews, each soul is a clean slate, and it is at least theoretically possible for someone to go their entire life without sinning (some Jews might disagree with that, but they wouldn’t cite Genesis 3 to prove their point).
But in general, Jewish culture and religion, like Christian, holds that a person making their own decisions in life without benefit of religious teaching is practically certain to screw up horribly.
Yes, and so? Prepare yourself you know it’s a must Gotta have a friend in Jesus So you know that when you die He’s gonna recommend you To the spirit in the sky (spirit in the sky) … Never been a sinner, I never sinned I got a friend in Jesus So you know that when I die He’s gonna set me up with the spirit in the sky
The amusing part is how unChristian that statement is. As @Thing.Fish mentioned, original sin makes the statement blasphemous (as you are basically claiming yourself to be God, or if you are Catholic, either God or akin to Mary, the Mother of Jesus/God).
Because a Turn is a unit of angular measure. One Turn = 360 or 2 π radians. Google thinks you want to know what 1 Turn factorial multiplied out is. For some reason it’s doing it as (Turn!(Turn!))(Turn!) rather than Turn!^3
When my son was a kid, he discovered rap as a music genre. I introduced him to hip hop and reggae. Turns out he really liked hip hop.
One day he showed me five hip hop CDs a friend of his mom had given him. I’d never heard of the bands. Meanwhile, as I’m looking over the cd cases, my son started laughing. They were christian hip hop. And they sucked. My son, ever the entrepreneur, traded them with his less savvy classmates for “good music”.
Sure, but was he a Christian musician in the sense of marketing himself as such?
That’s my point- there are lots of bands who may be composed of Christians and have Christian themes in their music, but they’re not Christian bands in terms of how they market themselves.
In general, those bands who market themselves like that are usually not so talented and steer clear of things that would crack that sunshine and roses “Christian” attitude.
Old white guy here, tragically unhip. I’ve heard it explained that rap refers only to the vocal pattern/delivery, while hip-hop can be rap, but it’s more about the lifestyle as a whole.
Sounds a bit too close to the heresy of Pelagianism to me. It seems to me that the doctrine of Immaculate Conception was created because it was deemed unlikely Mary could live a life without sin (which Catholics teach) if she was tainted by Original Sin.
Granted, I guess an infant may never personally sin , but the singer is a bit older than that.
wiki Pelagianism is a heterodoxChristian theological position which holds that the original sin did not taint human nature and that humans have the free will to achieve human perfection without divine grace. Pelagius (c. 355 – c. 420 AD), a British ascetic and philosopher, taught that God could not command believers to do the impossible, and therefore it must be possible to satisfy all divine commandments. He also taught that it was unjust to punish one person for the sins of another; therefore, infants are born blameless. Pelagius accepted no excuse for sinful behavior and taught that all Christians, regardless of their station in life, should live unimpeachable, sinless lives.
To a large degree, “Pelagianism” was defined by its opponent Augustine and exact definitions remain elusive. Although Pelagianism had considerable support in the contemporary Christian world, especially among the Roman elite and monks, it was attacked by Augustine and his supporters who had opposing views on grace, predestination and free will. Augustine proved victorious in the Pelagian controversy; Pelagianism was decisively condemned at the 418 Council of Carthage and is still regarded as heretical by the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church.
Many Protestant churches hold to the Roman view. I know that in Lutheranism and Anglicanism/Episcopalianism Pelagianism is a heresy (it’s explicitly listed in the Thirty Nine Articles of the Church of England: Thirty-nine Articles - Wikipedia ). I believe that holds for Methodism (which offshoot from Anglicanism) as well. Baptists/Non-denominationals/Pentecosts all hold to Original Sin - the theory of atonement they prefer, penal substitution, demands it.
There are some Holiness churches who do believe in human perfection (and some Methodists). And the Eastern Orthodox have some views that may border on that (theosis), but the Eastern Orthodox are clear that any salvation is by God’s grace and not human free will.
My favorite Christian movie is a Troma (Toxic Avenger, Class Of Nukem High) film. For many reasons, I don’t see it playing at a Christian film festival. But, seriously, the message of the film is- Evil comes in many forms and only faith in Jesus can save you.
Martin Scorsese’s Silence is a very Christian film, a deep and thoughtful meditation on the nature of faith and the moral conflicts that arise in the collision of beliefs (and one of the greatest movies of a great filmmaker’s career). But most of what we think of as “the Christian audience” will never see it, because it’s outside their comfort zone for their preferred entertainment. In other words, it’s not the limitations of the artistic creators — I believe the audience is inherently self-limiting in its choices.
Exactly. They will never see Silence because it doesn’t reinforce what they already believe or reassure them for what they already know. It asks challenging questions about faith, knowing that only by wrestling with doubt can one’s faith be strengthened. Evangelicals are allergic to doubt.
Strongly agree. Which is why I look at stuff like Left Behind and the God’s Not Dead franchise as, literally, subsets of pornography. It may not be sexual pornography — but it’s certainly emotional and spiritual pornography.
That reminds me of Black Robe (1991) – a brilliant and intelligent movie about Jesuits in Canada in the 17th century.
It’s also very Christian, in that it shows the deep and sincere faith of the Jesuits.
It explores honestly the complexities and realities of that time and place. It doesn’t impose modern perspectives. The characters are three dimensional, and it’s never simplistic or one-sided.
This discussion reminds me of a course I took in college, called “Christianity in Literature.” We read and discussed a number of novels with Christian themes. I can’t recall the entire reading list, but off the top of my head, we read Camus’s The Plague, Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich, “The Grand Inquisitor” section of The Brothers Karamazov, Kazantzakis’s Last Temptation of Christ, Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory, and several of Flannery O’Connor’s stories. All works that thoughtfully explore various aspects of Christianity. None of them books that you’re likely to find in a typical Christian bookstore.
, but the singer is a bit older than that.
