cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/48166923
James Talarico has been found guilty of quoting Jesus. The sentence he uttered, according to right-wing media, was “demonic” and “blasphemous,” exposing him as a “fake Christian.” Talarico is running for the U.S. Senate in Texas on a platform The New Yorker recently described as basically the New Testament. One Newsmax host accused him of using fake Bible passages.
The passages in question are familiar ones, found in Matthew 22 and Matthew 25. Love God and love your neighbor. Feed the hungry, heal the sick, welcome the stranger. They are, in fact, in the Bible.
The right’s attacks on Talarico aren’t about him, or at least not entirely. They’re about a much older argument — one progressive Christianity has been losing in public for 50 years — about whose version of the faith gets to count as real. The answer to that question has consequences far beyond any Senate race. When Christianity becomes a tool of power rather than a challenge to it, it doesn’t just damage the church. It destabilizes democracy. We are watching that happen in real time.
anti-Christian right. There are no right-wing Christians. The whole concept is oxymoronic. It’s like meat-eating vegans or smart crypto bros.
It’s not though, Christianity does not equal Jesus teachings as much as you wish it did. Christianity has been against Christ’s message from day one. He literally says don’t worship me, and then a religion worshipping him is born almost immediately.
Following “Christ” means doing the very very minimum of what “Christ” said to do. Anyone who believes otherwise is an illogical nihilistic moron.
Of course there are lots and lots of right wing Christians. The credentials to calling yourself Christian is exactly that: “call yourself Christian”. There aren’t any authority on who can call themselves Christian. There are authorities on whether you can join specific nominations, but there are countless of them, and in the end you can just make your own if that is your thing.
So arguing that they aren’t Christians is using the “no true Scotsman” fallacy. If you call yourself Christian you are in the same group as these people, and it is a personal issue whether that is a problem for you or not.
This nihilistic attitude is exactly what people in power desperately want. The minimum requirement to any ostensible commitment to “Jesus” is abiding by “His” explicit commands.
That’s logically non-negotiable. Calling yourself Christian doesn’t make it so. And we are fools for failing to rub it in their anti-Christian faces.
Any true Scotsman though?
How did logic ever hurt you that you hate it so?